Article by Make The Days Count Contributor Stefanie Johnson

 

For many, the term “meditation” probably conjures up images of monks, sitting for hours, forsaking physical comfort while searching deep within their souls to attain peace.  Actually, you don’t have to be a monk - or have hours - or be uncomfortable - to enjoy the benefits of meditation.

 

All you really need is five minutes. Five minutes to lower stress, put things in perspective, and maybe even get a little healthier in the process.  

 

There are ways to make meditating easier and more effective.  For example, it’s important to have a comfortable place to do it.  Also, props enhance the experience - a fragrant candle, a small bubbling desktop water fountain, or soft music - but none of these are musts.  If you can’t meditate at home or in the office, consider sitting out in your car during lunch, or on a park bench.  It may take some creativity, but you can create a situation that will work for you.

 

When you’ve found your place, get into a comfy position (sitting or lying down, just try not to fall asleep!), close your eyes, and breathe deeply and slowly through your nose. 

Focus on the area between your brows. That’s your third eye, known as the “seat of psychic energy,” and the pituitary gland.

 

Clear your mind. That’s a lot more difficult than it sounds, isn’t it?!  Sometimes, the harder you try, the harder the concerns of the day seem to bounce around between your ears.  So if it’s impossible to focus on nothing for 5 minutes, consider trying one of the guided meditations below:

                       

Fire Meditation

This meditation is excellent if you’re feeling tired and run down, and need some quick energy. 

 

Imagine there’s a white candle in front of you, so bright and pure it glows.  See the candle catch fire, and the fire is white.  Let the fire surround you, and wash over you.  Feel the warmth of it.  This is not a fire of destruction, but of healing and renewal.  Imagine the white flames burning away the darkness in you, the doubt, the fear, the stress.  Feel the fire dancing along your muscles and veins, inside your organs, filling you with new energy and vitality.   Let the fire fill you for 5 minutes, and open your eyes, recharged and ready to face the rest of the day.  

           

Water Meditation

Try this one if you’re angry, frustrated, and overstressed.

 

Imagine looking down into a vivid, clear blue sea. Take all your fears and worries and compress them into a small black stone that you hold in your hand.  Drop that stone into the sea and watch as it dissolves away slowly, and the ripples it makes slowly spread, out and out, farther and farther, to infinity.  Feel your worries and cares spread out on those silvery ripples, moving farther and farther away, growing smaller and smaller.   Drop as many stones as you need in 5 minutes to keep your worries out at sea.    

           

Earth Meditation

If you’re feeling listless, rootless, lost, the earth meditation can help to center you.  

 

Imagine that you are a large, leafy tree growing on the side of a giant mountain.  Experience the warmth of the sun on your leaves, the fresh wind, and a sprinkle of quenching rain.  Feel the cool darkness of earth and rock on your roots.  Be sheltered in the cradle of the giant, eternal mountain. Know this as a safe place.  The mountain protects you from everything, and all you need to worry about is drinking the rain, soaking in the sun, and growing as big and healthy as you can.  Slowly, open your eyes again, as you are ready.   

           

Air Meditation

If circumstances have left you feeling trapped, and you yearn for a breath of fresh air, this meditation will help you feel free and renewed, and remind you of the endless possibilities life contains.

 

See yourself as a bird with wide wings, flying high through the clouds on a windy day.  The air beneath your feathers feels wonderful, and your feathers slice through the soft clouds.  You are free.

           

You can fly wherever you want to, and earth is a nothing but a patchwork beneath you, the warm sun on your back.  See all the landscapes of your life, all your problems, as nothing but dots on the horizon as you gracefully glide away from them.  You are not earthbound.  Don’t let them weigh you down.  As you open your eyes again, know in your soul that you are free, and there is nothing that can clip your wings.     

           

Muscle by Muscle

If you’ve had a long day and have tight, aching muscles, this meditation will help you unclench and unwind.

 

There is nothing else in the world but you, and your body.  Focus on your body, on how it feels, on what it needs, and be kind to it. Be kind to yourself.  Start at your feet.  Imagine a warm golden glow at the tips of your toes, through skin and muscle, down to the tiniest cells of you, and make that glow travel upward, a millimeter at a time. 

 

As the golden glow climbs, it leaves in its wake a feeling of healing, of perfect relaxation.  It unclenches each tight muscle. It strokes the skin and soothes the joints.  It journeys up your legs, warming your knees, and up your spine, filling all your vertebrae, all your organs, with awareness, with healing, with love.  Feel it in your fingertips.  Have it travel up your neck, into your face, your head, everywhere.  Every piece of you is wrapped in this wonderful golden cocoon that pulses with life energy.  As you open your eyes, know that you are working with your body, not against it. Know it as your house, not your enemy.    

 

If you can find just 5 minutes a day for meditation … you can feel better about yourself, your life, and the world around you.  You have nothing to lose, and a whole lot of happiness to gain!

 

“This art of resting the mind and the power of dismissing from it all are and worry is probably one of the secrets of energy in our great men.”

-Captain J. A. Hadfield

 

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