As the world begins to re-open and people start heading back to work and resuming everyday activities, the stress is real and may feel heavier than ever. Working from home or surviving on unemployment may not have been ideal for everyone, but there were some luxuries we’ve gotten used to, like enjoying our morning coffee in our PJs, staying in bed until the last minute, not rushing into commuter traffic or bumping into people on the busy subway platforms… and as we return to our busy schedules and a sense of “normalcy”, we still have the pandemic on our minds.
This is why the world needs meditation now more than ever. Psychologists have found that mindfulness meditation changes our brain and biology in positive ways, improving both mental and physical health. Studies have found that meditation may be helpful for a variety of conditions, such as high blood pressure, certain psychological disorders, and pain.
Here are a few simple mindfulness practices you can try anywhere — at work, while driving, on a bus, at a restaurant, you name it — to help reduce stress and attain the benefits of meditation.
- The Five Senses Exercise
The goal of this exercise is to calm your mind by bringing awareness to your five senses to help you focus on your environment instead of your thoughts.
First, notice 5 things that you can see. Look around you and become aware of your environment. Try to pick out something that you don’t usually notice.
Second, notice 4 things you can feel. Bring attention to the things that you’re currently feeling, such as the texture of your clothing or the smooth surface of the table you’re resting your hands on.
Third, notice 3 things that you can hear. Listen for and notice things in the background that you don’t normally notice. It could be the birds chirping outside or an appliance humming in the next room.
Fourth, notice 2 things you can smell. Bring attention to scents that you usually filter out, either pleasant or unpleasant. Catch a whiff of the pine trees outside or food cooking in the kitchen.
Lastly, notice 1 thing you can taste. Take a sip of a drink, chew gum, or notice the current taste in your mouth.
By drawing your attention to your senses at this moment, you allow yourself to become fully present in the here and now, rather than in whatever thought might have been troubling you. - Mindful Eating
To put it simply, mindful eating is slowing down and enjoying your food without overeating. Mindful eating is used to treat many conditions, including eating disorders, depression, anxiety, and various food-related behaviors. The purpose is not to lose weight, although often those who regularly practice mindful eating do tend to lose weight. The intention is to savor the moment and the food, and to encourage being fully present for the eating experience.
Here are few mindful eating rituals to practice:
Remove Distractions. If you can, sit down somewhere quiet and remove any distractions like the TV, phone or computer. If you have no other choice but eat while driving, turn the radio off. This allows you to bring full attention to your meal.
Pause. Take five deep breaths before you start eating — inhaling through the nose, pausing, exhaling through the nose. This will quiet the mind and help you relax so you can focus on your food.
Bless your food. Before any meal, no matter where you are eating – even if you are at your desk – start with a prayer or blessing to create a practice of mindful eating, have gratitude for the meal and to increase the vibrational frequency of your food.
The Sakara Blessing
“Bless this food and let it nourish me. Gratitude to all the hands that have touched this food before it was on my plate. Gratitude to the Earth for providing everything I need to be healthy, happy and free.”
Notice all your senses. Notice the different colors and how your food looks. If you’re able to arrange it to look nicely on your plate, brownie points (no pun intended)! Notice the way it smells, inhaling the aromas of different spices and ingredients used. Notice the taste, the various flavors and how they come together. Notice how it feels on your tongue, the temperature, the textures of each bite. Hear yourself chewing, slowly with each bite.
Slow down. Take small bites and chew slowly, noticing each bite. Ayurveda considers slow and thorough chewing essential for strong digestive health. Some say Ayurveda calls for chewing each bite of food a minimum of 30 times, or until it’s liquefied, in order to help you distill more nutrients from your food and keep your digestive process running smoothly. If this sounds a little excessive, just notice how many bites you take before swallowing and then slowly try to increase that number. Another tip if you find yourself eating very quickly is to use chopsticks instead of a fork.
Recognize when you feel full and stop eating. It takes your brain about 20 minutes to recognize that your stomach is full, which is why it so important to eat slowly. If you burp, that should be a telltale sign that you are done eating (not making room for more)!
Practice gratitude. To yourself, to your body for working hard to turn your food into energy. To those who created this meal from the farmers who grew the produce, to the chefs who cooked it (or yourself!). And to the earth for giving us nutrient-rich and healing foods.
These mindful eating habits allow us to bring our full attention to our experiences, cravings, and physical cues while eating. - One Minute Breathing
Take just one minute out of your day to breathe deeply and mindfully. Sit up nice and tall, and just breathe.
If you struggle with distractions, you can find a short 1-minute video to help you focus visually: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_N98E5-7jo
Or you can close your eyes and simply count the length of each breath.
Gaiam shares this one-minute breathing exercises to boost energy and productivity based on a slow inhalation and an incremental increase in the length of exhalations:
- Inhale to the count of two
- Exhale to the count of two
- Inhale to the count of two
- Exhale to the count of three
- Inhale to the count of two
- Exhale to the count of four
- Inhale to the count of two
- Exhale to the count of five
Maybe you slowly increase from one minute to two, and eventually five. But even just taking sixty seconds out of your day to breathe can help you reduce stress and improve your circulation.
There are many other breathing exercises, or pranayama, to try as well and see what resonates with you. I’d be happy to dive deeper into this in a separate post as there are so many out there!
4. Practice Gratitude
Think of five things about your day, or about your life, that you are grateful for.
You can do this when you first wake up in the morning, or before you go to bed at night. Or really at any point in your day. Do it on the bus during your commute home, at work, at the gym.
If you have access to a pen and paper, or even the notes app on your phone, write these things down. Maybe in time, this becomes a gratitude journal that develops into a daily or weekly mindfulness practice.
Just take a moment to think of five things, people, places, opportunities, events, whatever it is, and be grateful. Say thank you to those five things, in your head or out loud. Maybe you even take it a step further and give them a quick call or text and say “thanks”. Spread the love!
5. Affirmations – “I am”
Affirmations are positive statements to achieve goals and to challenge or change negative thoughts. When you repeat these statements often over time, and believe in them, you can start to make positive changes.
Think of things you want or need in your life. And jot them down as “I am” statements. I am am successful. I am financially dependent. I am happy. I am confident. I am beautiful. I am talented. I am XYZ – whatever it is you want to be!
Say it in the present tense. Keep saying it until you are convinced. And then make it happen!
Write these statements on paper. Put them on post-its sprawled around your office or home. Put reminders in your phone.
If you struggle with negative thoughts, reverse them. If you tell yourself you’re not talented enough to succeed, change that to “I am a skilled professional.” Or if you think you are never going to find a job, say it like you already have one: “I am working my dream job.” Instead of believing you are never going to find the love of your life, say “I am love!” or instead of complaining “Why is my boss making me do this” say “I am going to slay this project!” or “I am grateful my boss recognizes my hard work.”
Keep saying it until you believe it and you will push yourself to make it happen. Say it with feeling over and over until you get really excited about it. Some call it “wishful thinking” but others call it “Manifesting”. It is whatever you believe it is. So believe it!
Add gratitude to your statement. “I am happy and grateful that I am…XYZ”
And maybe on your toughest days, you just say “I am.” Period. And allow yourself to just exist here in this moment.
I am me. I am here. I am alive. I am breathing. I am present. I am safe. I am grateful.
I am.
In order to become physically healthy, we need to repeat exercises over time, right? Think of this the same way to become mentally healthy and happy. Practice these exercises over time and allow them to incrementally become a part of your every day life.
If you are new to mindful meditation, or simply struggle to find ways to incorporate mindfulness into your hectic everyday life, try starting here. There are no tools needed other than yourself and an open mind. At a time when stress levels are high and schedules are busier than we’ve gotten used to, these go-to practices offer mental and physical health benefits in only a matter of minutes, anytime, any place.