Very often someone who is struggling with depression or anxiety doesn’t have the language to explain their struggle. They can feel overwhelmed by their own internal messages of guilt, shame, and failure. Changing one’s language from self-alienation to self-compassion can feel daunting. A 5-minute mindfulness practice can help.
A 5-Minute Practice is All It Takes
In my counseling practice I encourage all of my clients to have a mindfulness practice, even if it’s “only” 5 minutes. Sure, it may be even more beneficial to do 30 minutes of mindfulness, but the problem is that it’s so much less likely to happen than a 5-minute practice.
If you’re noticing that it’s hard for you to commit to a mindfulness practice (with all of its proven benefits whether it’s 5- or 30-minute daily practice) then OR doing a little bit every day (or most days), choose little and often over a lot (and not at all).
And what is a mindfulness practice? You sit. Then practice awareness of your thoughts. Try not to attach to any of them. Just notice them, like clouds in the sky, and then let them go. You sit for 5 minutes. That’s it.
If you find that’s too difficult there are literally dozens of apps you can download with guided meditations.
Proven Benefits
I’m assuming here, given that you’re reading this blog, that you’re interested in greater inner peace and overall well-being. This is where a mindfulness practice comes in because it’s absolutely proven to help you cultivate your capacity for attention, awareness, compassion, courage, perseverance, commitment, flexibility, and self-kindness.
So if your inner task-master has been giving you a hard time about doing a little of any wellness practice (“Just six sun salutes? Really? That’s all you are going to do?” or “You only sit for five minutes, that’s hardly worth doing.”), here are some responses you might want to try:
- A little every day is doing me more good than none at all; and (most importantly)
- It’s what I decided would be enough, and it is enough. I am satisfied (even if the relentless task-master in my head isn’t).
Little and Often
Little and often. It’s my mantra, and you know what? It works. How does it work?
Well, for starters, the autonomic nervous system is divided into two sections: the sympathetic and the parasympathetic nervous systems (actually, recent research has described a third subsystem, but I haven’t had time to learn enough about that yet to pass it onto you).
The sympathetic nervous system acts to mobilize the body’s fight or flight response.
Decreasing Stress and Anxiety
Understanding this, and learning mindfulness practices to regulate the sympathetic nervous system, is incredibly important to our efforts to work more effectively with stress and anxiety.
The sympathetic nervous system also operates all the time to regulate homeostasis in the body, and plays a role in “priming the body for action” – including in the morning on waking.
The parasympathetic nervous system is often nicknamed the “rest and digest” system. It is responsible for a range of functions that are not controlled by the conscious mind and which take place when the body is at rest, including digestion, salivation, urination and defecation.
All those functions are effectively “put on hold” when the sympathetic nervous system is activated in the fight or flight response.
Fight or Flight vs. Rest and Digest
It doesn’t take a degree in neuroscience to see that prolonged stimulation of the sympathetic nervous system, without the balancing effect of the parasympathetic nervous system, causes problems in the body’s functioning.
So now I want to share another practice to help balance the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system.
The 2-Minute Stress Buster
So here it is – Alternate Nostril Breathing.
- Close the right nostril with your right thumb and inhale through the left nostril. Do this to the count of four seconds.
- Immediately close the left nostril with your right ring finger and little finger, and at the same time remove your thumb from the right nostril, and exhale through this nostril. Do this to the count of eight seconds. This completes a half round.
- Inhale through the right nostril to the count of four seconds. Close the right nostril with your right thumb and exhale through the left nostril to the count of eight seconds. This completes one full round.
If you don’t have 5 minutes, this will only take 2 minutes. And come on, who doesn’t have 2 minutes?
If you want to learn more quick and simple (but not easy – because I get that it’s easier to do nothing) practices to calm your nervous system and enjoy more positive benefits (see list above), we should work together.