When Five Minutes is All You Have… A Guided Meditation

​There’s a myth out there that meditation takes time…not true.  Here’s a guided meditation for when five minutes is all you have. 

(That’s five minutes in the car pool line, waiting for your pasta to cook, or taking a quick break).

1. Start with hands clasped in your lap to feel the weight of whatever is holding you down or making you feel tense. [Take three breaths in and out of your nose. Notice sensations/thoughts/feelings.]2. Open your hands (palms downward) to release the pain. [Notice what you feel as you breathe—the temperature of your hands, the sensation of your hands hovering above or in your lap…Take a breath.]

3. Rotate your palms upward to receive the gifts of the moment—your presence here, the sounds of this room, an intention you might have for the next few minutes or rest of the day.

4. Last, take your hands, one on top of the other, and hold them to your heart to bring that goodness—those gifts—close. Breathe it in. Relax your shoulders, forehead, the weight of your legs. [Notice what comes up for you and take a breath or two.]

May you be filled with loving kindness.
May you be well.
May you be peaceful and at ease.
May you be happy.
-ancient Tibetan Buddhist blessing