I know what you’re thinking.
Five minutes?
My stress has been carefully cultivated over several decades. You think we’re going to knock this thing out before the microwave finishes defrosting the chicken?
For so many reasons, we’ve settled into a constant baseline of stress where it feels completely normal to be overworked, overwhelmed and just OVER IT.
“Hey, friend! How are you?”
“Stressed.”
“Obviously, Miranda. But other than that, how are you??”
We’ve even started wearing stress like a little badge of honor. Being stressed means we’re busy conquering it all. We’re bringing home the bacon while also cooking the bacon, getting the little bacon-eaters to soccer practice and then cleaning up the bacon-making mess.
Look at us.
Slay, my queens.
Except all of that slaying is costing us.
Our stress response is incredibly useful when we actually need it. But chronic stress means those systems are being activated again and again, and over time that can contribute to inflammation and affect things like sleep, mood, digestion, blood pressure and our overall health. Down the road that ongoing inflammation can lead to more serious concerns like cardiovascular disease, Alzheimer’s, and cancer to name just a few.
In other words, there’s a big difference between occasionally feeling stressed and setting up permanent residence there. And eventually, all that slaying starts feeling a whole lot more like slogging.
Slogging through life is no way to live.
Now that I’ve beaten you over the head with a yoga mat, let’s turn this thing around.
First, let’s recognize that you might not be in a position to simply reduce the load. The kids still need rides. Work still needs work-ing. Dinner apparently needs to happen every single night.
And even when we can remove something from our plates, sometimes our brains simply use that newly available space to stress about everything that’s still there.
So I’m not going to tell you to eliminate stress from your life.
Instead, let’s talk about six ways you can take just five minutes to interrupt it.
Not cure it. Not solve all of your problems. Just pause, reset and give your mind and body a chance to change direction.
1. Five Minutes of Meditation
Meditation isn’t about magically emptying your brain for five minutes.
Thank goodness, because mine would make it approximately nine seconds before remembering an email I forgot to send in 2019.
The practice is noticing when your brain wanders and gently bringing your attention back. You’re practicing where you place your attention rather than letting every thought that wanders through your head grab the steering wheel.
And our brains are remarkably resilient and adaptable.
With regular practice, research suggests mindfulness meditation can strengthen skills related to attention and emotional regulation and change how brain regions involved in those processes function and communicate. Think of it less as shutting down your brain and more as giving the frantic parts a little less authority.
My suggestion? Find the type of meditation that works for you, because the best meditation is the one you’ll actually do.
Try guided meditation. Prayer. Visualization. A body scan. Sound meditation. Simply following your breath.
Set a timer for five minutes and see what happens.
2. Five Minutes of Intentional Breathing
You’ve been breathing successfully your entire life, you strong, independent woman.
But now it’s time to put that breath to work.
Slow, intentional breathing can influence the autonomic nervous system—the systems involved in our body’s stress and relaxation responses. Instead of trying to convince yourself to “CALM DOWN!” (which has worked approximately zero times in human history), you’re giving your body a physical cue that it can ease off the accelerator.
During one of the most stressful periods of my life, I worked with a counselor on anxiety management. She guided me through a breathwork practice, and I remember actually feeling the tension in my chest loosen. I walked away feeling peaceful.
We used box breathing, and I’ve gone back to it many times since—before interviews and events, or when I wake up in the middle of the night and my brain decides 2:13 a.m. is the ideal time to revisit the time I combined Hello and Hey and said “Hell-ey” to a complete stranger this summer.
It’s easy to remember:
Breathe in through your nose for four seconds.
Hold for four.
Breathe out through your mouth for four.
Hold for four.
Repeat.
You can even add visualization and picture yourself tracing the four sides of a box as you breathe.
Five minutes. That’s it.
3. Five Minutes Outside
I absolutely love that we’ve somehow turned good wellness advice into an insult.
The next time someone tells you to:
“GO TOUCH GRASS, YOU SOGGY CROUTON!”
Thank them for their thoughtful restorative advice…
…and go touch some grass.
Even a short walk gets your body moving, changes your scenery and pulls your attention away from the screen, inbox or pile of laundry currently threatening your sanity.
And there’s growing research suggesting that exercising in green spaces may offer additional benefits for well-being and mood. You don’t need to trek into the wilderness to benefit from being outside:
- Walk around your office building
- Find a tree-lined street.
- Take the dog around the block.
- Wander through your backyard. (Bonus points if you yank a few weeds as you pass.)
Keep it simple: Go outside. Find a tree. Move your legs.
4. Five Minutes of Connection
As a people person, I can practically feel life come back into me when I interact with another human.
A stranger. A friend. A fellow dog person. Another runner on the trail. The woman standing next to me in the grocery aisle who’s also wondering where the heck they moved the pickles.
Stress has a way of pulling our attention inward. Sometimes one of the simplest ways to interrupt that loop is to connect with somebody else. And you can do a surprising amount of connecting in five minutes:
- Call someone instead of scrolling.
- Walk over to a coworker’s desk.
- Send that friend you’ve been meaning to contact a voice message.
- Hug your partner.
- Pet the dog.
You don’t need to organize a girls’ weekend in Nashville. Just remind yourself that you’re not operating on this planet entirely by yourself.
5. Five Minutes Fixing One Piece of Chaos
For years, I didn’t realize what I was doing when I “rage cleaned.”
Headphones in. Head down. Family members hiding from a tornado of Windex and true crime podcasts.
Counters. Tabletops. Bedroom. Dishes. Whatever happened to be offending me at the moment. I just knew that when my surroundings felt chaotic, I felt chaotic. And cleaning gave me something concrete I could control.
There’s satisfaction in completing a small task, and reducing visual clutter can remove one more thing competing for your attention. This has a big effect on little learners, as well. Removing the sensory overload for your family allows space for concentration on homework and surviving the drama of middle school.
So set a timer and choose one area.
The kitchen counter. The room your family spends the most time in. Your bedroom sanctuary. That pile of laundry that’s been living on the chair so long you’re considering charging it rent.
Five minutes isn’t going to Cinderella-clean your entire house. That’s not the point. You’re creating one small pocket of order—and maybe a little more mental breathing room to go with it.
6. Five Minutes With Jesus
I mentioned earlier that meditation can include prayer, but for me, this deserves its own five minutes.
There’s so much peace to be found in spending even a small amount of time in prayer, reading Scripture or simply deepening your faith.
I grew up knowing Jesus and finding comfort in His promise to be a light to my path. One verse I return to again and again speaks directly to the runner in me:
Hebrews 12:1–2: “…let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.”
Of course I love a Bible verse that tells me to run. But what I love most is the reminder of where to put my focus. When everything around me feels overwhelming, I don’t have to solve the entire race in that moment. I can look toward hope, pray, remember what I believe and take the next step.
Research on hope, meaning, spirituality and health is complex, and faith isn’t a biological “hack” for lowering stress hormones.
That’s not why I pray.
I pray because my faith reminds me that whatever I’m carrying isn’t the whole story—and that I don’t have to carry it alone. For me, that builds resilience. And building resilience happens to be one of my favorite hobbies.
Five quiet minutes can be a good place to start.
You’re Not Trying to Cure Stress. You’re Interrupting It.
That’s really the point of all of this. Five minutes isn’t going to cure chronic stress.
It’s supposed to interrupt it.
A pause can give you enough distance to assess what’s happening, reconsider your reaction and decide what you want to do next instead of allowing stress to make that decision for you.
And taking five minutes for yourself isn’t stealing five minutes from your to-do list. You’re investing those minutes in the person who has to tackle that list.
If you aren’t at your best, it’s awfully hard to give your best.
I work with busy women who need help finding simple, realistic ways to move out of survival mode. We work on managing stress, improving sleep and nutrition, and finding movement that actually fits into real life.
If you’re ready to take that first step toward feeling like yourself again, sign up for a free call with me HERE.
We’ll figure out where you are, where you want to go and one simple place to begin.
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