5 Mini Mindfulness Methods To Do Anywhere

1. A Five-Minute Meditation
For beginning meditators, try a basic five-minute practice.

Sit down, close your eyes, and focus on something like your breath, an image, or a word—“one” is a popular choice—and simply allow your mind to drift, returning to your focus when you need to.

Knoles compares this exercise to brushing your teeth, an essential habit that should be done at least once a day to clean (and clear) your brain. But unlike brushing your teeth, you can try this anywhere, anytime. Try it on the el!



2. B-r-e-a-t-h-e
It’s easier said than done, but there’s a reason that slowing your breath calms you down. When people are stressed, they tend to take sharp, short breaths. Our nervous systems are wired so that inhalation is linked to the stress response and exhalation to the relaxation response. Taking a short inhale and emphasizing a long exhale helps prevent classic stress responses (like the "fight or flight" response, adrenalin rushes, insomnia) from kicking into gear.

3. Harness the Hand-Mind Connection
Stress exists for a reason: it notifies your body that you're in a dangerous situation.  It brings physical symptoms—your heart races, and it also pulls the blood out of your toes and fingers and sends it to your internal organs.

So as a calming practice, try immersing your hands in warm water (rubbing them briskly together also works in a pinch) to open up the blood vessels and trick your brain out of its stressful state.

4. Un-tunnel Your Vision
Usually when you’ve done something stupid, it’s because you’ve been in a heightened state of stress; the physiological response to stress gives you a single point of focus and you can’t see any other option. Playing with your peripheral vision helps your mind expand, so it can think of other possibilities. Here's how: Extend your arms to your side in a T-formation and wiggle your fingers. Then slowly bring your arms forward until the fingers are in sight, and then extend them out again.  Repeat. 

Another approach is, when stressed: "take 5" - stop what you are doing - for 5 seconds or 5 minutes. Find a private space (even a toilet stall will do!). Visualize yourself as the stressed person. Then inhale the stress from your body and exhale comfort, ease and loving kindness. Breathe this way for as long as you need to feel the healing transition.


5. Tune In and Tune Out
Studies that show that listening to music can change repetitive thought patterns. It doesn’t have to be classical music, just something you like. Loud sounds, however, can trigger stress responses, so aim to decrease your exposure to noisy environments. If that’s not possible as you roam the city, wear earbuds—nobody will know they aren’t plugged into your iPod!