If you want to conquer the anxiety of life, live in the moment, live in the breath.
– Amit Ray, Meditation & Yoga Author & Teacher
The Mindful Minute is a simple yet effective evidence-based technique that can help you instantly shift your mood and state.
It’s a mindfulness exercise you can do anytime you need to tap into the present moment and increase well-being.
This is one of those simple exercises you can perform virtually anywhere to transform negative thought patterns and prevent further downward spirals of negativity.
You don’t need props, just your attention and your breath.
Think of this exercise as a 60-second mindfulness practice, meditation practice, and mindful breathing practice all at once.
The result is a richer present experience, a better connection to your body, and more loving-kindness in your heart.
The goal of these exercises is to help you practice mindfulness in every moment of your life so you can create habits that last.
I am functioning but I am not present.
So many of us are functioning but we’re not present with our lives.
We tend to be busy and overwhelmed so we don’t pay attention to our bodies, our emotions, our thoughts…
We just let them run the show.
This mindfulness meditation will help you pay attention more.
It will help you overcome patterns that are holding you back if you really put it to practice.
This means it needs to become a part of your daily life.
You’ll need to create a habit out of using this exercise if you want to reap all of the benefits it offers.
So let’s get started…
How To Tap Into The Mindful Minute:
Mindfulness means paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment, and non-judgmentally.
This kind of attention nurtures greater awareness, clarity, and acceptance of the present-moment reality.
It wakes you up to the fact that our lives unfold only in moments.
If we are not fully present for many of those moments, we may not only miss what is most valuable in our lives but also fail to realize the richness and the depth of our possibilities for growth and transformation.
– Jon Kabat-Zinn, author and creator of MBSR (Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Technique)
This exercise consists of three parts:
1.) Tune In
2.) Balancing Breath Technique
3.) Tune Out
1 – Tune In
We tune in to hit the recalibrate ourselves – our mind, emotions, energy, and body.
The act of intentionally, consciously ‘tuning in’ to the space in the moment helps to create a demarcation point that draws a line between whatever has been previously (the past), and whatever will emerge from the now.
Energetically, tuning in functions much like hitting the reset button.
Mantras are a powerful tool for tuning in.
In the yogic tradition, a mantra is a word, series of words or sounds repeated to aid in cultivating focus, presence, and concentration.
We’ll use the Adi Mantra to tune in here.
We’ll chant it either silently or aloud a minimum of three times:
Ong namo gurudev namo
(I bow to the infinite intelligence and creative wisdom of the Universe. I bow to the wise teacher within me.)
2- Balancing Breath Technique
This super simple yet proven breathing technique involves taking slow, deliberate, mindful and intentional deep breaths while paying attention to the in breath and out breath.
Follow along with a step-by-step guided session whenever you need it.
3- Tune out
The real gift of gratitude is that the more grateful you are, the more present you become.
– Dr. Robert Holden, Psychologist & Author
In this final stage, we tune out by practicing heartfelt gratitude and saying ‘thank you.’
If tuning in opens up sacred space, tuning out closes the portal of that sacred space; it seals it.
We do this by generating an authentic sense of gratitude and appreciation.
You can invoke gratitude for something or someone specific, or you can simply feel the energy of “thank you” for the experience of the Mindful Minute itself.
You can thank your body for its intelligence and wisdom.
You can thank your breath.
You can thank your awareness.
You can thank yourself for actually doing this exercise.
There are so many opportunities to find gratitude in our present circumstances.
The more we express genuine gratitude, the more things we find to be grateful for.
Gratitude is a habit to be cultivated, and a muscle to be developed.
Did you know that a regular gratitude and appreciation practice rewires your brain and literally activates your heart’s intelligence and intuition?
Recap:
You can increase your mental, emotional, and physical well-being and health by practicing the Mindful Minute multiple times a day.
You can use this exercise whenever you need a pause or need to hit the reset button.
The more you do this the more it becomes a part of you.
Seriously, investing 60 seconds of your day to this practice can change the way you feel about yourself, others, and your life so why not invest in yourself a little moment of self-care right?
The three steps are:
1 – TUNE IN – Ong namo guru dev namo x3 (invoking your higher wisdom and intelligence)
2 – BALANCING BREATH – (To reset your nervous system and activate you body’s own innate calming and healing circuits.)
3- TUNE OUT – Thank you, thank you, thank you. (To close out the space with the highest frequency and most powerful emotion there is – gratitude and love.)
