If you are a regular meditator, you already know the great benefits meditation provides for improving overall health, lowering stress, and increasing your capacity for mindfulness. Some people meditate 20 minutes once a day, others perhaps even longer and more frequently. I generally achieve one 30-45 minute session a day and this usually works well for me. However, I came to realize that on some days, that one session was not enough. In my case, I found that even though I had meditated in the morning, I could end up in a non-ideal state later in the morning or afternoon based on a number of different scenarios:
- An urgent interruption disturbs my work flow and causes me to lose the focus I had achieved. This is a problem as psychologists long ago found that on average it takes a person up to 25 minutes to regain the concentration they had achieved prior to the interruption.
- Some annoying or distressing piece of information reaches me that tugs at the edges of my consciousness. In this case the Amygdala (the reptilian part of the brain is activated – where stress and fear are centered) and what we need is to calm that down so that the Neocortex(the driver of spatial reasoning and conscious thought) can take back control.
- Perhaps a solution to a creative problem is not coming to me as easily as I would like. Meditation, even of brief duration helps to enhance creativity and problem solving.
In these scenarios (and a few others…), I have found that taking a 5-minute mini-meditation is all I need to bring my mind back to a tranquil state and regain my focus quicker after an interruption. And in cases of finding answers to problems, the power of meditation allows me to calm the mind and more easily tap into universal consciousness for the answers during or shortly after the meditation break.
The beauty of the mini-meditation is that it can be done anywhere – you don’t need to go to your “special meditation place”. You can do it right at your desk if you are at work, in your car while waiting to pick up your children from school or sports, or anywhere really where you can just gently close your eyes, and focus on your breathing for 5 minutes.
I have found several things help to amplify the effects of the 5-Minute Mini-Meditation:
- Don’t worry about proper posture. With limited time, the key thing is to get into a comfortable and relaxed position quickly.
- With limited time, go deeper into your breathing than perhaps you normally do in your normal meditation practice. Breathe deeply and let your diaphragm and belly expand as much as possible.
- Don’t stress over the duration of your mini meditation session. It doesn’t matter if you meditate for 2, 5 or 10 minutes. Let your body and mind be your guide. You’ll know when you’ve gotten what you need.
- Gently come out of the meditative state – no need to negate the effort by immediately checking your email and text messages. Sit for 30 more seconds and just let the calm and relaxation sink in.
Repeat the process throughout the day as needed. I find a mid morning and mid afternoon meditation tune-up works well for me. Just as we are now finding that our bodies need to intermittently move all day for optimum health and longevity, so too does the mind need to be periodically brought back to its more natural, calm state. Give the 5-Minute Mini-Meditation a try. I think you’ll find that things in small doses sometimes are just what the doctor ordered.
~Jay Kshatri
www.ThinkSmarterWorld.com
