The 10 minute practice that will reduce stress, improve your mood, and help you focus.

Imagine you had a simple way of letting go of stress, getting happier, and improving your focus and productivity. Imagine something you could take everywhere with you – no expensive pills or programs and no equipment required, all you need is to carve 10 minutes out of your day.

Let me introduce mindfulness meditation – chances are you’ve heard about it by now, but are you practicing regularly? If not, you might want to start!

Mindfulness meditation is an extremely powerful tool that helps you feel great and be your best self. And we’re not just saying that – study after study has found that mindfulness meditation has myriad benefits for our mental wellbeing and cognitive performance. Here’s just a few:

  • After completing a mindfulness meditation, stress hormones in the bloodstream decrease by 36%1
  • Regular meditators experience 25% less worry and rumination, compared to non-meditators2
  • Mindfulness is an effective preventative for mental health issues – the rate of depression is halved in regular meditators compared to the general population3
  • A mindfulness meditation improves our ability to focus on tasks with meditators able to stay vigilant on visual and audio tasks for up to 30% longer than non-meditators 4

Ready to start meditating yet? Why not get started now with this quick mindfulness exercise:

Set a timer for 10 minutes and settle into a comfortable, relaxed position and shut your eyes. Bring your focus to your breath, inhaling slowing and exhaling slowly. Think about completely filling your lungs as you inhale and completely emptying your lungs as you exhale. To help keep your focus on your breath, start counting each inhalation and exhalation – inhale 1, exhale 2, inhale 3, exhale 4, and so on. See how high you can count and when your mind wanders and you lose count, start again at one.

When the timer goes off, your mindfulness practice is done for the day, easy as that!

Choose a time and practice this mindfulness meditation for the next 14 days and notice the benefits of mindfulness in your own life.

Learn more about mindfulness, access guided mindfulness meditation and discover more ways to look after your brain and mental health in the Vital Mind Program.

 

Written by Amelia Harvey

Reference:

  1. Lane, James D; Seskevich, Jon E; Pieper, Carl F. Brief Meditation Training Can Improve Perceived Stress and Negative Mood, Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine; (Jan/Feb 2007): 38-44.
  2. Querstret, D., Cropley, M., & Fife-Schaw, C. (2016). Internet-based instructor-led mindfulness for work–related rumination, fatigue, and sleep: assessing facets of mindfulness as mechanisms of change. A randomised waitlist control trial. J. Occup. Health Psychol.3.
  3. Crane, C., Crane, R. S., Eames, C., Fennell, M. J., Silverton, S., Williams, J. M. G., & Barnhofer, T. (2014). The effects of amount of home meditation practice in Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy on hazard of relapse to depression in the Staying Well after Depression Trial. Behaviour research and therapy, 63, 17-24.
  4. J. Good, C. J. Lyddy, T. M. Glomb, J. E. Bono, K. W. Brown, M. K. Duffy, R. A. Baer, J. A. Brewer, S. W. Lazar. Contemplating Mindfulness at Work: An Integrative Review. Journal of Management, 2015; 42 (1): 114 DOI: 10.1177/0149206315617003