60 Second Meditation
Meditation can be extremely useful for your mental health. However, it can be difficult to fit an hour or half an hour of meditation into your schedule. But meditation does not have to be like that, sometimes all you really need is 60 seconds to ground yourself. You can implement meditation as a part of your study break, morning/night routine, or simply whenever you feel like you need it. What ever your reason may be, I hope you find these 60 second meditations helpful and I encourage you to find a way to incorporate at least one of these methods into your routine.
Mindfulness: People rush through a lot of things in life, which can lead them feeling like they are not truly a part of their lives. A way to remedy this is to slow down while doing a task you usually do not slow down for, for example a chore, or another part of your routine. Really try and notice things about the task you usually overlook and feel what it feels like to do that task. Take your time with it, try to truly appreciate the task. Find the things you like about it and engage your senses. Think about parts of it you do not enjoy and think about how you can deal with that and possibly improve it.
Counting: Many do not consider counting to be a form of meditation, but can be. It allows you to focus on something other than what is stressing you out and it can also help you think more about your breathing. Closing your eyes or focusing on a specific object while counting out loud or in your head can be extremely grounding. It helps you slow down, so when you finish counting your mind is in a better place and you can continue on with your day with a new center and new focus.
Breathing: How many times have you heard someone say “just take a deep breath”? Taking a deep breath is an age old adage for a reason. Breathing deeply and slowly can help slow down your heart rate, as well as allowing you to focus on something other than what is stressing you out, recentering you and calming your mind. Deep breathing is also great because you can do deep breathing anywhere. If you’re having trouble slowing down, following a gif can help you breathe. I have embedded one here from mindful.org.
Repeating a mantra: A mantra is basically like an affirmation. It’s something you say to yourself to help calm down and focus on a specific idea or goal. Many athletes and performers use a mantra, but it can be beneficial for anybody. Find a statement that means something to you, it can be a popular quote, a prayer, or something you make up on your own. You can use it whenever you feel like you need it, or make a schedule out of it, saying it before bed or in the morning before school.
Background noise: If you are anything like me, you may find it easier to do certain things with noise in the background, rather than pure silence. There are many different ways to obtain background noise. Some people use sound machines, personally, I like to either use my fan or the background noise feature in the control center of Iphone. I would like to highlight two websites you can use on your computer. These can be helpful for meditation, a study break, a study enhancement, or whatever else you may seem to need it for. Rainy Mood is a website where you can utilize, as the name suggests, rain sounds. A Soft Murmur is a website which allows you to generate and mix different sounds to create your own custom soundscape. Rainy Mood: https://rainymood.com/ A Soft Murmur: https://asoftmurmur.com/
Guided: Sometimes it is hard to initiate meditations on your own. If it’s easier for you to do a guided meditation, Pixel Thoughts and Quiet Kit are really good resources for that. YouTube also is a resource featuring guided meditation videos and videos on the practice of meditation in general. On the website Pixel Thoughts, you can type whatever is stressing you out into a bubble and watch it disappear alongside calming words. On the website Quiet Kit, you can access guided meditations of different lengths along with other mediation resources and breathing gifs. Pixel Thoughts: https://www.pixelthoughts.co Quiet Kit: https://quietkit.com/
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