Five Good Minutes
"How do you usually begin your day?" asks Jeffrey Brantley, M.D., author of
Five Good Minutes: 100 morning practices to help you stay calm & focused all
day long. "Do the same thoughts, feelings, and worries fill your head, even
as your eyes open in the morning? Do you handle them in the same ways? Does
one day begin to feel too much like the previous one?"
Brantley offers an antidote to the daily grind: 100 five-minute exercises to
get your day off to a positive, healthy start. Here are two of them . . .
Dream Roll: Dreams can be a window into your subconscious and a source for
understanding your deeper self. Follow these simple steps for dream
introspection:
- Get a dream journal, or a notebook, and keep it just for your morning memories.
- The next time you wake up, roll over in bed and write down what you were
dreaming. Don't get up, or you might lose it. Even if you don't normally remember your dreams in the morning, take the time to leave a pen and paper
by your bed and simply write down your first thoughts.
- Don’t be concerned with punctuation, grammar, or clarity.
- Think back on your dream throughout the day.
- See if you start to remember your dreams the more you write them down.
- See if remembering your dreams adds a sense of renewal and meaning in
your life.
Often our morning thoughts are like a cloud bank hazing our vision. Give
yourself this time to let the fog settle on the horizon and for your mind to
come to a clear and rested awareness.
Nature's Gift to You: Nature is bountiful and plentiful, and yet we often
forget to take notice of nature's simple gifts of joy and serenity. Take
five minutes and (like the old saying goes):
- Stop and smell the flowers
- Notice the flight of a bumblebee
- Listen to the rustle of the wind through the trees
- Take in the majestic beauty of a mountain range
- Smell the salty scent of the sea air
Keep a mindful awareness and appreciation of all the beauty that surrounds
each moment. When you take this time to open your senses to the pleasures of
what is just outside your door, you open your mind and body to nature's
restorative power to soothe and heal you.
Reprinted with permission by New Harbinger Publications, Inc.
Jeffrey
Brantley, M.D., Five Good Minutes: 100 morning practices to help you stay
calm & focused all day long (2005). www.newharbinger.com
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