Mindfulness is often recommended as a stress relief tool. It can help you pause and reset when things feel overwhelming. But getting started can be the hardest part. If you already have a full to-do list, how do you find the time?
The good news is you don’t need to set aside hours out of your day to be able to practice mindfulness. In fact, just a few minutes of mindfulness can still be an enormous benefit for your daily stress levels.
In this blog post, we’ve pulled together four short mindfulness practices – just 30 seconds to one minute long each – to help you work a few moments of calm into your day. All in all, these four practices add up to about two minutes out of your day.
Fitting mindfulness into a busy schedule
If you find you’re always on the go, one way to fit in mindfulness is to do it while you’re carrying out other tasks or chores, such as brushing your teeth, commuting to work, eating lunch or folding laundry.
Mindfulness is also very adaptable to daily tasks, for example, you could practice mindfulness of food and eating while having breakfast or try mindfully setting intentions before you drift off to sleep at night.
Four bitesize mindfulness practices you can try in just two minutes
Here are four bitesize recordings that you can use to fit a few moments of mindfulness into your day.
1. Starry Sky
Visualise a blanket of stars above you in this short Starry Sky mindfulness practice.
Visualisation is a type of meditation practice where you imagine an image or setting in your mind. It can help unlink you from the everyday stresses of your life for a few moments, allowing you some time to ground yourself, engage all your senses, and reconnect with your body.
2. Mindfulness of Food and Eating
When we’re stressed and busy, meals can become an afterthought, and many of us have skipped a meal if we feel we don’t have time to stop.
This Mindfulness of Food and Eating practice invites you to slow down, ground yourself, and connect with the act of eating, appreciating the nature, energy and people behind the food that nourishes your body and mind.
3. Setting Intentions for Tomorrow
This mindfulness practice is perfect for settling into bed after a long day. It encourages you to connect with how your body feels as you get into bed, focus on your breathing, and to release any lingering tension.
Once your body is calm, allow your mind to drift towards tomorrow. What are your intentions for the new day? Patience? Love? Growth? Allow them to come to you freely and settle within your heart as you drift off to sleep.
4. Back to Sleep
Interrupted sleep is common when we feel stressed, and it can be frustrating when fatigue follows you into the next day.
If you find yourself waking up in the night, mindfulness can help you resettle your mind. This Back to Sleep practice invites you to focus on your breathing to help you relax and enter a restful state.
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Free mindfulness practices for people in North Somerset
These bitesize mindfulness practices were created by our North Somerset Wellbeing College to support your wellbeing. We also offer a full library of mindfulness practices, ranging from five to 20 minutes, free for adults living in North Somerset.
If you live in North Somerset, and you enjoyed these four bitesize mindfulness practices, visit our online mindfulness webpage to find out how you can access the full recordings.
