How to reduce your stress levels in just 10 minutes per day
Weekly wisdom: 03
I recently returned from a holiday in Tenerife. Usually, when I go on holiday and switch off from work, I notice a significant shift in how I feel. It makes me realise that I was actually quite stressed before I came away.
This time was different. I didn't notice anything particularly significant about how I felt, except I was a little bit warmer. Being the introspective and slightly neurotic person I am, started to analyse why this was. I realised that not only had I been much more picky about the clients I was taking on and consciously doing more of the work I really enjoyed, but I had also been meditating for just 10 minutes on a regualr basis. I had read lots about the benefits of meditation and had experienced brief periods of reduced stress, but hadn’t ever assessed how I felt over the long term.
Just over a year ago, I started using an app called Headspace which has some great guided meditations that can even be done when you are walking. I recommend the app to a few people, but none reported any significant positive impact. When I asked them how often they were using the app, it was clear that consistency was the biggest obstacle to them achieving significant results and in hindsight, why I had only just started noticing the effects myself.
The mind is like the body, in the sense that if you want to create sustainable change, you must repeat the right exercises consistently. In my experience, this is one of the most undervalued aspects of mental health and well being. Trying to reduce your levels of stress or improve your mood by meditating every now and again is the same as expecting a six pack from eating a salad and going to the gym once a week, it’s just not going to happen.
The mistake I have made in the past, when trying to adopt a new habit such as meditation, is setting large goals that require a significant behavioural change. This behavioural change isn’t sustainable because we naturally want to fight it*. Instead, we need to set very small goals that don’t disrupt our existing patterns of behaviour and that can be easily adopted. Once we have adopted these new habits, we can then add to them in increments.
An example of this in the context of meditation would be to download the Headspace app and use one of the starter packs for ten minutes a day three days a week. Once you create a habit of doing this without thinking too much, change the habit to five days a week.
The best thing about Headspace is that you can add accountability partners which will encourage you to stick to your goals. Who do you know that struggles with stress and could really benefit from getting some headspace?
With just 10 minutes of meditation a day, your stress levels and mental wellbeing can be significantly improved*.
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