Feeling Down? 3 Ways to Change Your Mood in 60 Seconds
Easy meditations for when your spirits could use a boost, from the author of Unplug: A Simple Guide to Meditation for Busy Skeptics and Modern Soul Seekers.
Photo: CSA Images/iStock
These mini meditations are the ideal way to get in little hits of focus, calm and joy throughout your day. We made all of these short, sweet and doable in under five minutes, to make it easy for you to work them into your day.
Mood Lifter Meditation
Time it takes: 1 minute
Ideal for: Shifting out of a bad mood
Try this when: You're feeling sad, toxic or annoyed
Gratitude is the instant antidote for a bad mood. You literally cannot feel grumpy and grateful at the same time. Here's how to go from feeling icky to inspired in under 60 seconds.
1. Close your eyes.
2. Think of three people or things you are grateful for. Don't phone this in! You want to choose three things you genuinely feel grateful for. It might be someone special in your life, someone who gave up their seat for you on a crowded subway, your kids' health, that it's not raining today...it doesn't matter whether it's big or small—it all counts. Coffee is sometimes on my list, for instance.
3. Open your eyes.
Done! It's that easy.
The Obsession Obliterator Meditation
Time it takes: 1 to 3 minutes
Ideal for: Breaking free from mental spirals
Use this when: Something is bugging you and you just CAN'T LET IT GO
We all have stuff we obsess over. Mistakes we've made, feeling fat, worrying about something at work...it can be hard to let these things go, but you're now trained to do exactly that! You've worked that muscle of redirect, and this mini guided-imagery meditation will help you move that along even faster.
Here's what to do next time you can't seem to stop ruminating on something:
1. Close your eyes and think about what you're obsessing over (not hard, right?).
2. Picture a computer screen, with your hand on a mouse or track pad. Direct the arrow to the topic in your imagination and click on it.
3. Imagine dragging that item to your Trash folder. Literally see it get sucked into the digital trash bin.
4. Now hit Empty Trash.
5. Imagine a blank, clean, clear page appearing on the screen, and breathe.
6. If a pop-up of the topic reappears, simply view, drag to Trash and repeat.
The Traffic Meditation
Time it takes: 1 to 3 minutes (can be repeated as many times as needed)
Ideal for: Dissolving frustration, stress and road rage
Use this when: You're in traffic hell
Here's our remedy for those times when you see an endless stream of stopped cars ahead of you and start to feel your blood boil. It's literally as easy as A, B, C:
1. A = Attention to the road. Focus on the situation and register complete awareness of the situation, with as much detail as you can. For example: I am in bumper-to-bumper traffic; I am not moving; I am stuck; I am going to be late and I hate being late; I am miserable.
2. B = Body scan. Starting with your feet, scan your entire body to ground yourself. Feel your feet on the pedals, your rear in the seat, your hands on the wheel and your eyes' gaze on the road.
3. C = Connect with your breath. First, breath in and out deeply and slowly, in through your nose and out through your mouth. Then, place your attention on your rib cage and inhale to a count of four, feeling it swell. Hold for a count of four, then exhale to a count of four, feeling your rib cage deflate. Count to four and repeat the process a few more times, until you feel yourself relax.
After your ABCs, repeat the mantra It is what it is three times, either silently or out loud. The traffic may not disappear but your agitation will.
Reprinted from Unplug: A Simple Guide to Meditation for Busy Skeptics and Modern Soul Seekers. Copyright 2017 by Suze Yalof Schwartz. Published by Harmony Books, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC.
Want more stories like this delivered to your inbox? Sign up for the Oprah.com Healthy Body Newsletter!
Mood Lifter Meditation
Time it takes: 1 minute
Ideal for: Shifting out of a bad mood
Try this when: You're feeling sad, toxic or annoyed
Gratitude is the instant antidote for a bad mood. You literally cannot feel grumpy and grateful at the same time. Here's how to go from feeling icky to inspired in under 60 seconds.
1. Close your eyes.
2. Think of three people or things you are grateful for. Don't phone this in! You want to choose three things you genuinely feel grateful for. It might be someone special in your life, someone who gave up their seat for you on a crowded subway, your kids' health, that it's not raining today...it doesn't matter whether it's big or small—it all counts. Coffee is sometimes on my list, for instance.
3. Open your eyes.
Done! It's that easy.
The Obsession Obliterator Meditation
Time it takes: 1 to 3 minutes
Ideal for: Breaking free from mental spirals
Use this when: Something is bugging you and you just CAN'T LET IT GO
We all have stuff we obsess over. Mistakes we've made, feeling fat, worrying about something at work...it can be hard to let these things go, but you're now trained to do exactly that! You've worked that muscle of redirect, and this mini guided-imagery meditation will help you move that along even faster.
Here's what to do next time you can't seem to stop ruminating on something:
1. Close your eyes and think about what you're obsessing over (not hard, right?).
2. Picture a computer screen, with your hand on a mouse or track pad. Direct the arrow to the topic in your imagination and click on it.
3. Imagine dragging that item to your Trash folder. Literally see it get sucked into the digital trash bin.
4. Now hit Empty Trash.
5. Imagine a blank, clean, clear page appearing on the screen, and breathe.
6. If a pop-up of the topic reappears, simply view, drag to Trash and repeat.
The Traffic Meditation
Time it takes: 1 to 3 minutes (can be repeated as many times as needed)
Ideal for: Dissolving frustration, stress and road rage
Use this when: You're in traffic hell
Here's our remedy for those times when you see an endless stream of stopped cars ahead of you and start to feel your blood boil. It's literally as easy as A, B, C:
1. A = Attention to the road. Focus on the situation and register complete awareness of the situation, with as much detail as you can. For example: I am in bumper-to-bumper traffic; I am not moving; I am stuck; I am going to be late and I hate being late; I am miserable.
2. B = Body scan. Starting with your feet, scan your entire body to ground yourself. Feel your feet on the pedals, your rear in the seat, your hands on the wheel and your eyes' gaze on the road.
3. C = Connect with your breath. First, breath in and out deeply and slowly, in through your nose and out through your mouth. Then, place your attention on your rib cage and inhale to a count of four, feeling it swell. Hold for a count of four, then exhale to a count of four, feeling your rib cage deflate. Count to four and repeat the process a few more times, until you feel yourself relax.
After your ABCs, repeat the mantra It is what it is three times, either silently or out loud. The traffic may not disappear but your agitation will.
Reprinted from Unplug: A Simple Guide to Meditation for Busy Skeptics and Modern Soul Seekers. Copyright 2017 by Suze Yalof Schwartz. Published by Harmony Books, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC.
Want more stories like this delivered to your inbox? Sign up for the Oprah.com Healthy Body Newsletter!
NEXT STORY
