In our hectic daily lives, there’s often little time to pause and unwind. Yet, it’s precisely such a small break in everyday life that can work wonders. They help us clear our minds, reduce stress, and recharge our energy. In this blog post, you can learn how to incorporate simple and effective small breaks into your day – and why they’re so important.
Why is a Small Break in Everyday Life So Important?
Our daily routines are often filled with appointments, to-do lists, and constant availability. Without intentional pauses, we risk overwhelming ourselves. Small breaks not only help reduce stress but also improve our focus and productivity. They act as a quick reset for both body and mind.
A Small Break in Everyday Life: A few Exercises
Object Meditation
Choose an object for this meditation exercise – it should be easy to handle and hold with one or two hands. Focus your full attention on this object for a few minutes.
- What does the object look like?
- What color, shape, or patterns does it have?
- What details do you notice?
- What is the surface texture like?
- How does the object feel?
- How does it smell, or can it produce a sound?
- If the object is edible (e.g., an apple), you can finish the exercise by mindfully tasting it.
Walking Meditation
Whether you’re heading to the copier or asking a colleague a question, use these short distances for a walking meditation.
Walk mindfully and focus your attention on your feet. Accompany each step consciously – shift your weight to one foot, lift the other, move it forward, and let it rest on the ground. Feel how the weight shifts to the standing foot as the other foot prepares for the next step. With each step, notice the contact of your foot with the ground and roll it consciously.
Relieve Stress Through Mental Activation
A small break in everyday life can also be mentally engaging. When you challenge your mind with a puzzle, you can forget your worries and daily stress – there’s simply no room for them in your awareness.
Classic exercises include Sudoku or crossword puzzles. Here are a few exercises you can do without any materials:
Backwards: Choose a word and spell it backwards, then pick a new word. Don’t overthink it – just take the first word that comes to mind. As a variation, you can write the words down or try the exercise with your eyes open or closed.
Writing Exercise: Sit in a comfortable position. Your index fingers act as pens, and your thighs as your writing surface. Now, simultaneously write the numbers one to nine on your thighs with both hands. As a variation, you can write letters. For an added challenge, have your dominant hand write normally while your non-dominant hand writes in reverse, and vice versa.
Don’t Forget a Digital Break
Constant availability can be very stressful. Give yourself a deliberate digital break: put your phone aside, close your laptop, and enjoy a few minutes of offline time. You might use this opportunity to read a few pages of a book or simply enjoy the silence.
Exercises from the Teamfit App
Browse through the Meditation category – from short mindfulness exercises and guided imagery to progressive muscle relaxation, there’s something for everyone.
Integrating Small a Break into Everyday Life Long-Term
For small breaks to have a lasting effect, it’s important to incorporate them regularly into your daily routine. For example, you could start each morning with a short breathing exercise or plan a walk during your lunch break. The key is to consciously take these pauses and not see them as wasted time. They are a gift to yourself.
A small break in everyday life doesn’t have to take much time or effort but can make a big difference. Whether it’s meditation, mental activation, or simply enjoying a mindful cup of tea – these moments of calm help you reduce stress and recharge your energy. Try it out and discover which method works best for you. You’ll see: even small pauses can have a big impact.
Relaxed muscles – relaxed brain: Progressive muscle relaxation
Jacobsen’s progressive muscle relaxation is an established as well as proven self-relaxation technique. The effect of this method, as well as the health benefits, have been proven in numerous studies. Learn here how progressive muscle relaxation works and how you can benefit from it.
Bodyscan & visualization techniques for your relaxation
Nobody is spread from stress, worries or overload. However, there are different methods to deal with such difficult situations and get relaxed again. In this article we present 2 relaxation techniques to you which help you to calm down: Bodyscan & visualization techniques.
Mindfulness – Living here and now
Everyday often is hectic and determined by deadlines and to-dos. Relaxing and really calming down becomes more and more difficult for many people. And if we have time for ourselves, we are ruminating about the past or the future. We unlearn to live right here and now and fully in the present moment. Mindfulness and mindfulness-training helps to increase that ability and also leads to many benefits for our health.
