3 easy mindfulness techniques you can practice in times of extreme overload

Although I believe that in the majority of the cases people don’t really lack time to take care of themselves, exercise or meditate, they just chose the easier, but bad stress-coping techniques. Going out for drinks, watching TV or eating mindlessly is a way of escaping life instead of living it.

Certainly, there are periods and circumstances when you simply cannot dedicate any time for yourself and for your wellbeing. But don’t give up hope: you can still introduce some easy daily routines to practice self-care and find balance.

I have collected 3 easy mindfulness techniques that require no time in the periods of extreme overload. I call those „mini me-time” practices, that will help you take care of your body and mind in challenging times!

Mindfulness is not about stopping your thoughts, but rather focusing on the moment- naming how you feel, letting go the past traumas or future fears.

Practicing mindfulness regularly will not only help you with coping everyday stress better, but it is the best way to find real meaning in life through connecting to oneself.

SWAN meditation and journaling

SWAN is an acronym for: Strengths, Weaknesses, Ambitions and Needs and can help understand our own nature, to accept ourselves and achive goals that are meaningful to us.

How to Practice SWAN?

Grab 4 pieces of papers and write down the following (each value should be on a different paper):

Identify Strengths

Strengths are qualities, skills, talents and characteristics that support and help us to evolve. Strengths can be applied positively and constructively in life.

Identify Weaknesses

We all have those vulnerabilities or weaknesses in some aspect of ourselves — like being apathetic or having anger issues.
Weaknesses are attributes of our character that hinder our progress or growth.

Some of us are better at hiding them than others, but they’re there and it’s important to be brutally honest when it comes to our weaknesses. But be careful: overly focusing on weaknesses overshadows our strengths. When listing weaknesses, be sure they do not outnumber your strengths.

Identify Ambitions

Ambitions are leading our actions towards what we want to do and achieve in life.

Those are the “why-s”. Why we do things in life. Ambitions are very deeply rooted and sometimes it is even hard to find what really drives us.

When listing your ambitions (if there is more), make sure they don’t outnumber the Needs.

Identify Needs
Everyone has needs: physical (food, water, clothing and shelter), mental needs (ex: desire for being loved or desire for safety) and spiritual needs (ex: inner harmony and balance). Take time to identify your physical, mental, emotional, personal, social, and spiritual needs.

Some of the below questions will help you to identify your S-W-A-N:

STRENGTHS:

Which strengths helped me so far in my life?

Which strengths will help me master my ambitions?

Which strengths do I want to develop?

Are they really strengths or just a virtue I wish to have?

Which strengths will help me overpower my weaknesses?

WEAKNESSES

Which weaknesses cause burden in my life?

Which weaknesses can I turn into strengths?

How can I look at my weaknesses in a positive light and accept them as such?

AMBITIONS

Which ambitions are realistic and viable? Eliminate the unrealistic ones.

What are the roots of your ambitions? Are they yours? Your family’s? Society’s?

Which are my most passionate ambitions?

NEEDS

Which are actually needs and not desires?

Are they my needs or are they expectations from other people?

How can I provide for my needs?

What should you do after you wrote down all the above?

Every night, just before going to bed think about your strengths and weaknesses. Analyze your day’s actions and ask yourself: Did I follow through with my ambitions? Did I fulfil my needs? Did I use my strengths to benefit myself or others? Am I fully exploiting my strengths to grow and excel? Did my weaknesses hold me back from achieving my goals? How did I work on my weaknesses today?

The idea is to write down your answers, even if they seem silly or not important. You should repeat the practice daily for three months. The end of each month look back the previous responses from each day in order to track progress and what needs work — you may be surprised! Don’t forget that there are no shortcuts when doing something new, like keeping the SWAN journal.

SWAN is the perfect way to clear your mind and find time for yourself. But these are not its only benefits! With journaling, you will rediscover what really matters in life so that it doesn’t just pass by without realizing your dreams. It is really easy to get trapped in daily problems and forgetting how precious life is.

10 minutes of forward movement

This practice comes from Andrew D. Huberman — an amazing American neuroscientist and professor at the Stanford University. I highly recommend listening to his YT channel or Podcast.

Professor Huberman explains that forward movement (walk, jog or running) and moving your eyes side to side will suppress the fear /stress reflex. Based on brain imaging studies, the professor explains, it is shown that forward movement reduces the activity of the amygdala- the primary threat and danger detection part of the brain. The center of fear, you might call it.

Now this might sound strange and awkward at the first time. The explanation, however, is the evolution. In prehistoric times we have been confronted with threats coming from our surroundings, and the forward movement accompanied with lateral eye movement were means to make sure there was no danger.

The brain will always follow the visual system: your eyes send signal to the visual cortex in the back of the brain and the visual cortex “translates” the signal. If there is no danger, the amygdala will not be activated. And I guess usually no one is surrounded by wild creatures during a walk or jog around the neighborhood.

This is my favorite quick „cure” to stress and to becoming more aware and present. Not only your mind is cleared, but you also do some physical movement — oh the wonders of endorphin and serotonin released during physical activities!

And the best thing is- you don’t need to walk or run for hours. 10–20 minutes of forward movement with some lateral eye movements will do.

The 5–4–3–2–1 exercise

The last mindfulness practice I brought is perhaps the easiest and fastest exercise to reduce the activity of the amygdala and put you in a state of pure awareness.

I like to recommend it only in situations when you really don’t have time/opportunity to escape for 10–30 minutes of any type of movement (like a walk, walking meditation or yoga). E.g.: when you are sitting in an office, you can’t just get up and move.

This practice will really your mind quick and will help to maintain awareness and correct judgement (hey, no panic!) by observing few things objectively.

Easy and quick, just name:

5 things you can see;

4 things you can hear;

3 things you can touch;

2 things you can smell.

1 thing you can taste.

Of course, no need to say out loud. Just name these things and observe. Important: make sure you eliminate any subjective context while naming the objects. So, don’t say” I can hear this cool song”, instead say “I can hear music”.

This exercise will activate the prefrontal cortex (the” thinking brain”), so instead of quick (stress or anger) reactions you will be able to judge situations better and make better decisions. Plus, as mentioned above, the fear center of the brain will be suppressed.

It’s easy to get overwhelmed with the constant demands on our time and attention. We all need a break from this sometimes, but it can be hard to find that “me-time” in an already busy schedule. I hope you found the 3 techniques I shared helpful, and that they will help you find a more quality life.

All these techniques are relatively easy; however, you should be very consistent with your practice.

The advantages of practicing mindfulness are several: less stress, healthier body and mind.

But the most important advantage of practicing mindfulness is finding real meaning in life through constant, non-judgemental self-observation. Rediscovering ourselves and our deeper motivations to have a joyful life, even in challenging times.