5 Minute Stress-Management Meditation

The paradox about stress and stress-management is: The more you feel under pressure the less likely that you feel like taking out an hour of your day for self-care (even though you know you should).

Not only are we endangering our mental and physical health and put ourselves at the risk of burnout – our productivity is decreasing drastically when we are stressed out.

Just think about it: How much can you achieve in one hour of work at “full speed” and how often do you work long hours under pressure and don’t produce impressive results. I get it. When you have to meet deadlines or juggle a ton of responsibilities, you might not be open to learning/practicing mindfulness or meditation.

Did you know that you can reduce your stress level in just five minutes?

Meditation is one of the most effective tools for managing stress. Many of us believe that meditation comes with a lot of rules.

The right form of meditation, the right place, the right length, that candle…Buddhism refers to “dukkha” (pain, suffering, unsatisfactoriness) as stress and identifies attachment (“acquisition”) as the source of all suffering. Forget everything you have ever heard about “rules” in meditation.

For some people, their idea of meditation creates more stress, and that is not the intended use of this brain-changing self-care “tool”. Meditation should be without attachment.

Yes, you can achieve more for yourself if you take out 20 minutes or an hour of your day. But you don’t have to. If I had to define a single rule it would be: Do as much as you can of what is good for you.

Taking a minor break for a 5-minute meditation will do you good too.

Guided Breath Meditation