5 min meditation for stress & anxiety

In our busy schedules it is tough to commit more than a few minutes to ourselves. It is not that we don't want to, it's just that we are not trained to do so. Aumhum provides hundreds of different guided meditations, therapies, talk and yogic practices to help you train to sit. Just sit. When you can sit away from your stress and anxiety, a lot can happen. Here I am compiling my four favorite 5-minute meditations to help you deal with stress and anxiety.

1. Kristian's 5 min body scan

In this 5 min guided session to relieve anxiety, you take a break to check with your body how it feels, by staying in a moment to do a quick body scan. Here you observe not just the body sensations but also what's the world around you. You choose one thing to observe and without judgement observe the same, with a body scan.

I have always been intrigued by this body scan technique and the sheer simplicity of it. A body scan technique is where you observe different parts of your own body. It is said to have been made popular my mystics of India and the world cannot get enough of this one technique. Schools such as Isha Yoga Center and Heartfulness teach deeper forms of body scan for relaxation in yoga and before a yogic transmission.

My feeling with this technique and this guided session has been that a simple awareness of presence of your own body parts is so powerful. You forget your stress and it is a relief from anxiety.

2. Breathe to calm anxiety

A one minute quick guidance to help you breathe to calm down in those anxious moments. Almost all the meditative cultures and traditions treat breath as the connect between outside world and the one on the inside. As the breathing pattern is known to change on the basis of our emotions, breathing techniques do the reverse. By changing our breathing pattern, our emotional and mental wellbeing is targeted.

This short practice can be done on the own. Heartfulness institute and Aumhum have brought out this practice to ensure anybody has access to an easy method which doesn't require one to really meditate. A lot more breathing practices are available here.

3. Abdominal Breathing Practice

This abdominal breathing meditation is designed by the yoga master Prashant Kumar from Goa in India. It is a deep breathing technique that brings a sense of calm and deep relaxation. This meditation can be done to get a deep sleep and also a deep sense of calm and relaxation. Although the one time guidance for this is around 25 mins, yet the actual practice is around 5 mins and it can be done every time one feel anxious.

This meditation can be practiced on your own on a daily basis. A sadhana timer is automatically added for you once you finish your meditation. It is strongly recommended that you do this meditation for a period of consecutive 40 days.

My experience with this technique has been a kind of a spiritual relaxation. It is more of a daily sanity routine than a one time thing that I would use on demand. I found it superbly useful when other routines and techniques all failed. Prashant has used his grounding energies in creating this wonderful piece of meditation curated for your satisfaction.

4. The state of deep relaxation

If taking out time to do meditation is a challenge, then this one is for you. This meditation immersion can be done at home, office, car, on the plane, train anywhere and is extremely calming, relaxing and rejuvenating for stressed out mind-body & senses. Don't try this one while driving, as that can be dangerous.

This meditation is designed by Reenu Sahore, the popular meditation coach from Dubai. Reenu became a yoga and meditation practitioner under Sri M.

My experience with this meditation has been that it brings out a range of feelings and emotions, and finally settles you down. Its a deep settlement. How you connect with a meditation such as this depends on a lot of factors. But if you do connect, it is deep.

5. Framing and reframing meditation

A short meditative exercise that helps you that is simple yet important to help you frame and reframe your daily experiences. In a world where everything is demanding our attention, it is hard to see things the way they are. Somethings look more important than they actually are and some important things hardly get our attention. This causes anxiety and a build up of stress with time. This reframing meditation technique helps you see things the way they are. It takes a detached mind to see the reality, and that is what this meditation does to you. This meditation is designed by Barbara from Santiago, who is a mental health expert and a yoga practitioner.

These five routines have helped me get beat stress and anxiety in a matter of minutes. All it takes is five minutes. So why wait?