Zero to Zen in 5
Have you ever had one of those days where nothing seems to come together? That despite your best efforts, everything to do seemed to either take ten times longer or is ten times harder than necessary? Those are the days I look for 5 minutes of zen. The best part is all of them can be done at your desk - without disturbing your co-workers.
Zero to Zen 1: Mini Coloring Pages
Reminiscing of childhood always makes me think of carefree days spent coloring and creating. I loved a fresh box of crayons and a clean coloring book. Now, obviously, there are a million fantastic adult coloring books but who has time to break one of those bad boys out at work? Not me. With this in mind, I created these mini coloring pages - a 5 minute meditative coloring session is just what the overactive imagination needs to slow down and focus. You will love how quickly your productivity gets back on track.
Zero to Zen 2: Breathing
I know, it seems like a typical yoga answer (it is a yoga blog, you know), but interval breathing is hugely helpful in reducing anxiety and bringing focus back to your day. My favorite technique is called Sama Vritti or same breath. It's super easy and as long as you can count to 4 - you can totally do it!
- Close you eyes and bring your attention to your breathing. Notice where you are breathing - into your belly? Your chest? Your upper back?
- On your inhale, start a slow count to 4. I like to count my heartbeats but I'm not not always ready to breath quite so slowly in the beginning - so be mindful of how your breath changes as you count.
- At the top of your inhale, with lungs full, hold the breath for a count of 2.
- Then slowly begin to exhale, again to a count of 4. When you are empty of breath, hold empty for a count of 2.
- Pro tip - Once you get the hang of the 4 part breath in, the hold, the 4 part breath our and the empty hold, you can bring a mantra into things. "I am calm" on the inhale, "I am peace" on the exhale is a great place to start. I would love to hear what other mantras you like!
Zero to Zen 3: Journaling
When I first started journaling, I wrote like I thought it was going to be published - proper grammer, punctuation - the whole nine. At some point I realized that is anyone ever did publish my inner most neuroses and complaints, I would be mortified about the content and not so much about whether I used "who" or "whom". So I abandoned the English-essay style and started getting real. Sometimes I just make lists of all the words bouncing in my head. I don't worry about sentence structure or proper grammar but rather I focus on dumping out whatever garbage - and whoever's voice - out of my head. It's a great quick option to get your zen and you might even be able to immidiately shred it when you are finished. Here are some possible prompts if the word list isn't for you.
- Whose voice to you hear? What are the saying? Why are they there? Do you agree? Why or why not?
- What have you already gotten done today? What is left to come? Rank your tasks and make a timeline for the remainder of your day, taking care of the most important tasks first.
- List positive influences in your life.
- What are you grateful for?
- If you could leave right now, where would you go? Who would go with you? What would you do?
- What is standing in your way of living your best day? What can you do to eliminate or overcome that obstacle?
Zero to Zen 4: Music
This will totally make me sound like something from another dimension but music is not really my thing. In fact, if you ask my husband, I would prefer to listen to talk radio or sit in complete silence while driving to having music playing (cue outrage in the comments). That being said, I've found when I am feeling particularly stuck or frustrated - listening to music helps me to re-center myself. When I'm stuck with work stuff, I like to listen to binaural music (also great for before bed relaxation). I find this kind of music to be so engaging that after, I am able to organize all those flying thoughts into something usable. You can check out the link below to see what I'm talking about.
I hope these zen tips help your overcrowded mind find some ease and balance. If not, check out the blog on office chair yoga - a couple of those postures are sure to shake your best ideas loose.