5 Minute Meditation Script from Mindfulness Exercises

What can you do in 5 minutes? How long does it take to feel a wave of sadness or have a belly laugh?

They can happen in a second, and one skill you can learn through mindfulness is how quickly you can intentionally shift a difficult state or mood to increase your sense of well-being.

You don’t need to sit in meditation for a half hour or more to reduce anxiety or refresh your mind. Longer, regular periods of meditation can have profound effects on you mentally, emotionally and physically, but you can see clear benefits from a 5-10 minute meditation, even in the midst of the most stressful day.

At Mindfulness Exercises, we think of mindfulness as non-judgmental awareness of your present moment experience. It’s a simple definition, but it has everything you need to practice being mindful.

Is your attention drifting into the past or the future? Bring it gently back to what is happening right now. Do you notice an internal dialogue that is critical of yourself or others? Just notice it with kindness and curiosity. No matter what you feel or think or experience do not judge it or yourself. Spacing out altogether? That’s ok, it happens! Notice, let go of judging and begin again. 

Not only can this kind of mindfulness practice help you understand yourself just a little more, and leave a little more room to think before you act, but it is a tool you can use any time you have a few minutes–on a bus or in a waiting room. 

You can do many mindfulness meditations in 5 minutes, like a short body scan or breath meditation. The meditation we’ll show you here is a variation on breath practice that guides you to an always-present quiet place inside you–a mini-oasis of refuge and renewal.

We’ll describe the meditation in some detail for you, but once you’ve done the practice a couple of times, you’ll be able to do it without the script. Simple, but not easy!

Use this free 5-minute meditation script any time to ease your mind and focus on the present moment. If you find it helpful, you can of course enjoy it for as long as you like.

Here we go.

This 5-minute practice of attending to your breath and attending to space is a practice for everyday living.

Our days are filled with all kinds of experiences from thoughts and emotions, to relationships and situations, and there is also space around them. For many of us, much of the time, our attention is caught by these experiences, flowing from one to the other, without much time to pause and rest.

In the same way that you can choose where to put your attention in this practice, you can choose in your daily life. Instead of focusing on a troubling thought or an upsetting emotion, for example, you can choose to rest your attention in a space of quiet, thought-less awareness for a few moments of peace and healing. You can come back grounded and refreshed, perhaps with a new insight or perspective on what was challenging you.

This practice does not mean that you favor inactivity or rest over activity, either in meditation or in daily life. It is meant only as a tool to help you reconnect with a natural place of deep rest, and regain some balance and energy.

We hope you find this 5 minute guided script helpful. If you’d like to try more practices, see our free Mindfulness Exercises worksheets that cover a range of mindfulness topics and exercises here.