Do you ever find it difficult to focus or feel overwhelmed by your to-do list? What if in 5 minutes you could feel more relaxed, regain focus and sleep better at night? I will share with you how a 5-minute meditation can start that process. When you combine it with essential oils or some healing touch the results are amplified several times over! Meditation is great to calm the mind and body and reconnect with your soul. There are many forms of meditation and you don’t have to sit still for 30 plus minutes or even sit at all in order to reap the benefits. Just 5 minutes of you breathing and being in the present moment will break the stress cycle of fight, flight or freeze and initiate the relaxation response.
Our modern world bombards you with multiple stressors on a daily basis which keeps you in the stress response (aka “survival mode”). It adversely affects your ability to reason, your digestive and immune systems, quality of sleep and ability to have compassion for yourself and others.
Benefits of being in the relaxation mode:
- think clearly and improved focused
- digestive system works better
- stronger immune system
- improved sleep
- calmer mind
- easily access emotions of empathy and compassion
By inhaling relaxing essential oils such as ylang-ylang, orange, roman chamomile, or lavender to name a few you will enhance the relaxation effect.
You don’t even have to sit still in order to meditate. You just need to be in the present moment and not thinking about the past or the future. You can do a walking meditation. Whether your outside, inside a building or out in nature enjoy and observe what is happening in the moment. Don’t think about your to-do list, what happened last night with a family member or what you should wear to that presentation. We can all learn a lesson from our pets, they live in the present (see photo). Here is a healing touch technique called mind-clearing that can be an active meditation – my gift to you!
Now the mind is tricky and thoughts will come in while you are meditating but just gently release them and come back to the moment. You see you don’t have to be perfect when you meditate! Just not dwelling on those thoughts and coming back to the present still elicits the relaxation response. So don’t give up just because you can’t keep a clear head.
My second gift to you is a 5-minute breath meditation download that you can do anywhere. I love doing this when I am out in nature to really feel the energy of the environment. It is super calming for me.
Some great times to meditate are:
- When you first wake up in the morning
- on your way to or from work (if you take public transit or carpool)
- break or lunchtime
- after arriving home
- just before bed to relax and clear your mind.
- whenever you choose to take time for yourself it is a good time.
With repetition, your body recognizes the 3 signal breaths and that alone can start to put you into a state of relaxation.
You can’t go wrong trying this! I would love to hear how you feel after completing this meditation.