Try this 5 Minutes Guided Meditation and an Original Panoramic View to Be Calmer

Two simple ways you can use to reduce stress and be a calmer person.

1 - Try this amazing daily 5 minutes guided meditation

Guided meditations can be a great resource to help you create the habit of practicing daily meditation. When you feel it’s harder to relax or you have more difficulty in meditating regularly, it is a good tool to use.

I will share with you my favorite short guided meditation, maybe it can help you to meditate more regularly.

What to look for in a guided meditation

To me, a guided meditation of 5 minutes is perfect because it’s easy to find time for it. In the morning — I feel it works better at that time — or, when that is not possible, sometime during the day (before a meeting, before lunch, or during any small break).

These are the main characteristics that I look for in a guided meditation and that work best with me:

• a tone of voice that I like to hear (that calms me down);
• a good diction;
• someone who speaks slowly.

I also feel it is very important that the meditation script mention some essential aspects, such as:

• the breath;
• the importance of feeling the body;
• a comforting message about how we feel;
• a positive message for the day;
• some positive intentions.

My favorite 5 minutes guided meditation

Of the many short guided meditations I have experienced, I will share my favorite one with you. I listen to it most of the days because it’s easy to do it in any short 5 minutes break during the day.

Everyone is different, so it may or may not be the best for you. The important thing is — if it has a positive effect on you — that you use it when it works best for you and that you try to make into a daily habit.

Seat in a comfortable position, start the video, close your eyes, and relax.

If it helps you to be calmer, remember to use it often. For example, you can create the routine of visiting this page as a reminder to gain the habit of doing a daily meditation.

If you experience benefits from using this guided meditation practice remember it is one more tool that is always available to help you calm down.

Try using it daily for a week, see how it impacts you, and share the benefits it brings you.

2 - Try an original relaxing panoramic view

This is a simple exercise you can use to create short breaks — brief moments of relaxation — during the day.

How to do a Panoramic View

The way to perform this exercise is as follows.

Sit comfortably.

Close your eyes for 1 or 2 minutes.

Take a few breaths, very slow.

Focus your attention on your breath.

Concentrate on how the breath feels in our body: feel how your chest expands when you inhale and contract when you exhale; or in the way your belly rises and falls while breathing, driven by the movement of the diaphragm that is a precious aid in this essential task.

After a while, you can open your eyes, very slowly.

Look ahead, just contemplating what’s in front of you. Without categorizing or classifying. Without thinking about the names and characteristics of the objects or landscapes that your gaze reaches.

Just looking.

Very slowly, turn your head to the left, until it is aligned with your shoulder.

Always enjoying everything you see.

Without using labels or names for what you observe.

Just watching and enjoying it.

Then, slowly, start moving your head to the right until you reach the other shoulder.

Always enjoying everything you see.

Then, turn your head, very slowly, to the left until you reach the central point where you started this panoramic view.

At this point, take a deeper breath and then you can resume your tasks.

When to do a Panoramic View

This exercise can be used in two different ways:

• In an isolated way, doing the exercise the way a few times during the day, the number of times that works best for you. Used in this way, it can act as a way to avoid the accumulation of stress, as a quick stop to restore energy and return to a state of greater calm;
• Or it can be used as a form of transition, as a way of ending a more formal meditation period, of making the transition to the usual state.

Personally, I really enjoy using it in this second way. After completing a meditation, instead of simply opening my eyes and resuming the normal activities, I like to use this Panoramic View exercise to make the transition.

I feel that it allows me a calmer passage, a better transition to the activity that I will carry out next.

Try it

If it works for you, it can be one more simple resource you can use at any time to create more moments of calm during your day.

In my case, it helps me a lot to calm down, to interrupt more intense moments. As this exercise was a personal creation, I would very much like to know if it can help other people creating more calm moments in their daily lives.