Too Busy to Meditate? Think Again!
First find a place where you can walk that has minimal distractions such as a park, beside a body of water, a bike path or an indoor track, your living room floor, or even in an empty stairwell at the office. Be sure to wear comfortable walking shoes and to remain silent throughout your walk, which should last about ten minutes.
As you begin, focus on your breath, mentally saying “in” on the inhale and “out” on the exhale. In a few minutes, refocus your awareness on your body. Feel how you make contact with the ground and if you are holding tension anywhere in your body. Then shift your awareness back to your breathing feeling oxygen that is always available to you coming into your lungs, being pumped through your heart and bloodstream, and reaching all the cells in your body. Feel the activity in your body at a cellular level, as each cell drinks in oxygen and your blood rushes to carry it to every cell in your brain, fingertips, chest, groin, thighs, calves, and toes. Feel your muscles relaxed and strengthened by this oxygen. Feel your heart pumping steadily and reliably as your life force is pushed through your veins and arteries being mindful of the shifting sensations you feel as you propel yourself forward.
3. Five Minute Meditation to Improve a Relationship
This “wise speech” meditation is helpful if you and a partner, co-worker or friends are having communication problems in your relationship. It can also be adapted for a manager to address any inter-departmental conflicts. The key to this exercise is mindful listening, which means you are aware of not only the words but also the body language and actions of the other person. First person A is the speaker who starts by talking about what is on his/her mind. Person B is the listener who listens in a mindful way and only after Person A is finished sincerely responds with, “I heard everything that you said and I will be mindfully aware of all your thoughts, feelings and perceptions from this moment forward.” Then reverse the roles with Person A being the listener. I would recommend that you put a time limit on how long each person can speak and practice this once a week, three times a week or every other day.
Through these simple mindfulness meditations, we can light up and build up the left-prefrontal cortex in our brain, associated with optimism, self-observation, and compassion, allowing ourselves to cease being dominated by the right-prefrontal cortex, which is associated with fear,
depression, anxiety, and pessimism. As a result, our self-awareness and mood stability increase as our harsh judgments of others and ourselves decrease. Even if you can only devote five minutes a day to mindful meditation, doing it while waiting in line at the bank, sitting in traffic, or waiting on hold for computer technical support, you can receive these benefits.
