Approaching meditation as a goal to be completed according to some measurable standard is orthogonal to many traditions of meditation.
There are techniques, such as observing your breath, thoughts, emotions, and/or somatic sensations.
Depending on a multitude of factors, our capacity to maintain this level of observation and awareness will vary. Another part of the technique is, when you notice that you've strayed from your point of observation, is to meta-notice that noticing, and gently return to the foci of observation. If you never do that, you still haven't failed. There is no failure, and there is no success -- the path is the goal.
Other techniques simply invite you to sit or lay in a comfortable position (e.g. be careful of attempting to fit your body into one of the classical meditation poses, it's more important to find something that you are truly comfortable being in for 15 - 60 minutes at a time), and "do nothing" at all, to simply Be. This is perhaps one of the most somatically oriented forms. No technique is the highest form of technique.
After all, when you haven't had any thoughts for some period of time, can you remember that specific period? How would you actually know? Other than perhaps remembering when it vaguely began, and when that period ended by the re-emergence of mental content?
There are techniques, such as observing your breath, thoughts, emotions, and/or somatic sensations.
Depending on a multitude of factors, our capacity to maintain this level of observation and awareness will vary. Another part of the technique is, when you notice that you've strayed from your point of observation, is to meta-notice that noticing, and gently return to the foci of observation. If you never do that, you still haven't failed. There is no failure, and there is no success -- the path is the goal.
Other techniques simply invite you to sit or lay in a comfortable position (e.g. be careful of attempting to fit your body into one of the classical meditation poses, it's more important to find something that you are truly comfortable being in for 15 - 60 minutes at a time), and "do nothing" at all, to simply Be. This is perhaps one of the most somatically oriented forms. No technique is the highest form of technique.
After all, when you haven't had any thoughts for some period of time, can you remember that specific period? How would you actually know? Other than perhaps remembering when it vaguely began, and when that period ended by the re-emergence of mental content?