A 5 Minute Beginner-friendly Meditation

Let’s talk meditation. It’s the newest buzz word in all things health and wellness. It gets thrown around and added to every class, event and podcast. You might be tired of hearing about it but it gets all that buzz for a reason; it can change your life.

Big statement, I know. But learning to sit with ourselves in this busy world is an accomplishment.

So, if you’d like to jump on this meditation bandwagon (it’s a good one to jump on) here’s a great, beginner-friendly humming meditation to get your feet wet; so to speak.

Setting an alarm on your phone for 5 minutes, let’s begin. Starting in a comfortable position, relaxing your hands to your lap, knees or by your sides. Close your eyes or soften your gaze toward the floor. Gently straighten your spine, relax your shoulders and your jaw.

Taking a deep breath in, visualizing the air entering your nose, throat, into your lungs as they expand. As you exhale, humming until you are out of breath. Continue breathing in visualizing your breath path and out humming. In and out. If thoughts come to you, that’s okay! Acknowledge them and let them go. If they keep coming, still okay my friends. Just keep coming back to your breath, it’s not going anywhere. Breath here until your alarm goes off, and there you have it, you’ve meditated. Well done!

Take a moment after your mediatation and write down how your feel. You can write one sentence or a whole page, you do you. Acknowledge that what you have just done is hard. Welcome to meditation! Come back to this meditation daily, weekly or whenever you need it.

Now, why are we humming? There is a reason, I promise! The vibrations from humming move through our body, calming the body and providing stress relief . How exactly? Humming helps us not only focus on our breath but slows our exhales. The vibrations from humming combine with longer exhales stimulate our vagus nerve (the longest and most complex of our cranial nerves, spreading throughout the body) and our parasympathetic nervous system (which is what helps our body relax among other things). Amazing what a humming meditation can do, right?