3 Mindfulness Practices for Busy People | How to lower feelings of stress in under 5 minutes
2021 is slowly but steadily coming to an end, with the last month of the year approaching loaded with additional responsibilities to prepare for the festive season, projects to finish, new goals to set, and maybe plans for visiting family during Christmas. Although this is an exciting time of year full of delicious food and the opportunity to connect with your loved ones, it can come with increased stress levels, and you may feel like you are struggling to maintain balance in your life.
One way to tackle your stress is to engage in mindfulness practices. As discussed in our previous post on mindfulness and conscious practices, you need to strive to get out of “autopilot” mode and start actively seeking to be present in this moment. Like Frank Zappa, a great musician, once said, ‘the mind is like a parachute. It doesn’t work if it isn’t open’. To apply this quote to your life, open your mind to experiencing things more fully and set aside just five minutes a day to practise mindfulness. If you are new to mindfulness, here are three simple ways to incorporate it into your life today.
Top 3 Mindfulness Practices to Help You Have a More Balanced Day in Times of Stress
1. Focus on Your Breathing
When you’re feeling overwhelmed, spend a few moments bringing your attention back to your breath to reduce feelings of stress. Wherever you happen to be, remind yourself to relax your shoulders and take a few deep nourishing breaths. Aim to breathe through your nose and bring awareness to your breathing rhythm and observe yourself without judgment. Notice how your body moves as you breathe. Feel the breath on your upper lip and don’t force anything, just follow along with your natural rhythm. You may even wish to place one hand on your stomach and feel the movement when inhaling and exhaling or close your eyes to block out extra visual stimulus.
Try to build a habit of practising your breathing exercises daily. Consider taking a few mindful breaths first thing in the morning when you wake up, when waiting in line at the shops or when waiting for the timer on the microwave. Or start right now! Take a deep breath in for 5 seconds, and then let all the air escape your lungs as slowly as possible.
When you are feeling stressed, breathing exercises can slow your heart rate and your mind. Thereby allowing you to think more clearly and reduce your stress. In addition, this simple mindfulness exercise can also have considerable benefits to your overall health, as breathing exercises have been linked to reduced anxiety, high blood pressure, and pain.
2. Express Gratitude
Gratitude helps ground you and can change your perspective of life by giving you an optimistic way of approaching things. From appreciating having clean water, warm clothes, and a bed to sleep at night to noticing that your bus arrived on time or that a stranger smiled at you, gratitude is a game-changer.
Not only does it improve your mental health, but it also strengthens your relationships with others. By practising gratitude, you create an overall positive image of your life and learn to expect kindness from people and the good happenings in your surroundings. Gratitude can benefit your health by improving your mood and sleep and lowering stress. Gratitude can also help give you a balanced perspective of life and experience more joy and pleasure in everyday things.
Like all things, expressing gratitude requires practice. According to studies, around 80% of our daily thoughts are negative. Therefore, it can take a whole lot of rewiring your brain to start looking on the bright side of life.
However, here are a few ways you can slowly incorporate gratitude into your daily habits:
Focus on your senses. What can you see, touch, taste, hear, or smell? Be aware of the incredible things your body can do and feel blessed that you are living. Focussing on our senses is the fastest way to gain an appreciation of life.
Keep a gratitude journal. Devote up to 5 minutes of your time each day to write down 5-10 things you’re grateful for. It could be a stranger opening a door for you or closing a deal with a client, or a good night’s sleep. Include all the big and small wins of your day, and try to mix up what you are grateful for each day so you can keep recognising new things you are thankful for.
Alter your language. Language is so powerful it can directly affect your mindset. For example, people that feel grateful tend to use specific words in their language such as “thank you”, “I’m grateful”, “gift”, “blessing”, “abundance”. This mindfulness practice helps you immediately recognise the things you are grateful for in that moment.
3. Start Journaling
Last but not least, my third recommendation for reducing stress is journaling! Journaling is effective, easy to implement, and requires no more than five minutes, a notebook and a pen. There are no boundaries on the type of journal you could choose, whether you use your writing time for gratitude, self-compassion, expression or reflection. You could also include your daily thoughts, perspectives, feelings, or even sketches. There are no limits! The goal of journaling is to put your thoughts onto paper and allow you to sit in the present moment as you write. Seeing your thoughts in writing can help you separate them and reduce feelings of overwhelm.
Your journal is a safe space to honestly reflect on your thoughts. Mistakes don’t exist, and nobody will judge you for what you choose to share with your notebook. I suggest starting slowly by writing down three thoughts that made you smile, three things that challenged you, and three new things you learned since the last time you sat down to journal. You may choose to do this every day or just as and when you see the journal. Then, when you feel confident with answering these questions, add in your own and expand your list of prompts.