If your ‘To Do’ list is looking over-committed and your idea of a break is scrolling through your feed for five minutes, this article is for you! We spoke to Luke McCleod for some quick calming tips to reset your system… you may remember him from such TV shows as The Bachelor and Love Island. Though he’d rather you didn’t.
Luke is the founder of Soul Society – a three-week meditation retreat in Sydney aimed at helping others make better decisions in their everyday lives (umm… yes, please). He also holds weekly meditation and yoga classes, and has been practising meditation and mindfulness for over a decade.
1. Take your shoes off and get your toes in that mud. Yep, grounding, or earthing, refers to connecting electrically with the Earth. Research has come out that just 10 mins of grounding can improve your blood circulation and can reduce your stress levels!
2. Breathe deeply. A simple way to reset the system is to concentrate on your breath. Take just a couple of minutes to really feel and notice the air entering through your nose a travelling down into your lungs and then follow it as you breath out. With each breath try to make it a little longer and deeper. Concentrating on the flow of the air entering and then leaving the body.
3. Listen to some nature sounds. Take a break from House music and search for a nature sounds playlist. Just one three-minute track of a gentle running stream with birds chirping can put you in a nice relaxed state. If you have noise canceling headphones this will be even more effective.
4. Repeat an Affirmation. A simple ‘I am completely here and now’ affirmation repeated for just a couple of minutes can leave you feeling refreshed, happy and focused. Your mind works better when you focus on one thing at a time so repeating a phrase like this forces you to take notice of what you are saying.
5. Quick Stretch/Yoga Flow. A couple of quick yoga stretches or flow sequence can have you feeling recharged and calm in minutes. Moving from the Cat to Cow yoga poses a few times will do this. Or from the Downward Dog pose to Plank to Cobra pose is also a good one.
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