The 5 Minute Meditation
A 5 Minute Daily Meditation Practice to Build Clarity and a Quiet Mind
Find a quiet place to sit for 5 minutes – your office, a corner of your bedroom where there is not a lot of traffic, the back porch. Make sure you will not be interrupted.
Find a comfortable seat - a straight back chair is fine - that will allow your back to remain straight. You may place your hands in your lap, or on your knees - whatever feels natural.
Now that you are positioned, let's prepare ourselves for our meditation. Take a deep breath through the belly and hold it for a few seconds.
After holding, breathe out strongly as if it is being pushed out through your navel. This helps to force your body to relax.
Give yourself permission to step outside your normal awareness and everyday routine. The constant chatter in your mind, the thoughts, the lists, the strategies.
For a period of 3-5 minutes you will focus on your third eye chakra, preferably with some quiet instrumental or new age music playing in the background to buffer you from external sound and a billion people on the planet. Some explanations:
- The third eye chakra can be found between the eyebrows and a half inch above. It is an energy center that is accessed by focusing on the physical area just described. Focus with your eyes closed.
- You may focus on a point on the wall or a small pebble if that is easier at first.
- Focus means to concentrate to the exclusion of all else on the area or object in question. Be very, very careful not to focus on people during this period of meditation.
When you notice that you are no longer focusing on your third eye chakra, simply bring your mind back to the point of focus. If you are meditating to music, you can alternate your focus between the music and the chakra/pebble/spot.
This should be repeated, without judgment, for the period of meditation. Practicing to music is very helpful because not only does it block out sound, but it also allows you to shift your mind to focusing on the music, alternating between the music and the chakra when thoughts intrude. When you meditate to music, you focus on the music to the exclusion of all else, just like the chakra. Listen to the notes, the bass, the melody and hear only that.
This practice strengthens our mind; like a muscle it gets stronger with each period of concentration. When our mind learns concentration, we can apply that concentration to absolutely anything in our lives.
