5 Minutes a Day Could Change Your Life

Life is pretty hectic. You begrudgingly wake up out of your oh-so-comfy bed, hastily cook breakfast, run to work/school, get out tired, hang out with friends, and by 11:00 you decide to go to sleep. The next day the process repeats. In fact, it repeats for 5 consecutive days a week. Then on the weekend you decide to make yourself busy by watching TV or writing or reading. You're constantly bombarding yourself with stimuli to keep you entertained. You may sit and reflect on a long car ride home or the occasional sunset that you see with your friends, but otherwise you don't leave space for yourself to breath a bit. However, all it takes is 5 minutes to drastically change the course of your day.

Time Management

First think about when you have at least 5 minutes to do basically anything you want. I deliberately picked this duration so that you can't excuse yourself by saying, "I'm too busy", or "I don't have the time", or "I can't fit it in to my schedule". How about before you go to work/school? Your lunch break? After your daily grind? I'm sure if you think hard enough you can come up with an appropriate time to set aside. Now that you've picked the time, let's go through what I want you to do.

Technique Matters

First, find a comfy chair to sit in and sit in it correctly, like so:

http://www.ergocanada.com/

Basically what you're doing is sitting upright so that your back is straight (although there is a natural curve in your spine) and that you have your feet and butt firmly planted on the chair. If you don't usually sit like this it may feel weird the first time. But don't worry, it's only 5 minutes.

Now find something to devote your entire attention to. I literally mean entire, you cannot think about anything else for the 5 minutes while you sit down. Focus your entire attention on it, but do not pain yourself in to thinking about it. Basically what you're doing is clearing out your head of distractions. The object of focus has to be something consistent, like your heartbeat, your breathing, or an anxiety (although is not recommended). Just about anything that lingers and doesn't go away is fine. Now set a timer for five minutes, close your eyes, and just sit with the object that you chose. Don't judge it (if it is an anxiety), and just understand what the physical sensation feels like. Then, after the time is up, open your eyes.

What the hell is this?

This probably sounds pretty weird that I'm just recommending you to sit down and practically do nothing for five minutes. Given that a lot of us prefer to be productive, or to relax how we choose, this is perfectly reasonable. But our leisure time still isn't doing "nothing", you're still doing something. Have you ever gotten a song stuck in your head? Think of how annoying that is. Now think about that you have other things stuck in your head as frequently, friends, family, items you want to purchase, how much the world sucks, how awesome it is. You still have no breathing room to readjust yourself. This is what these 5 minutes do.

This also may sound like new-age hippy bullshit. It's not. People who aren't even said in the same breath as eastern loving people have exposed the value of the practice of meditation. So, just doing this for five minutes a day will make you more productive, happier, and sharper.

"Meditation is the dissolution of thoughts in Eternal awareness or Pure consciousness without objectification, knowing without thinking, merging finitude in infinity." - Voltaire