20 Seconds To Feel Better? I'm In.
I’ve started this post so many times.
So. Many. Times.
And they were all ranting or whining or just full of frustration. And you all don’t need that from me, right?
I mean, it leaked through onto my Facebook account pretty obviously. And I was not alone. :)
So, I regrouped and thought again and looked for something quick and easy that might help me and this is what I found.
It’s basically the fastest mindfulness exercise ever.
WHAT IT IS
There was a study in Behavior Research and Therapy by Eli Susman that basically says that you can calm yourself down in 20 seconds, which, he and his colleagues posit, also improves your mental health. It’s quick. It seems harmless.
And did I say it’s quick?
"We wash our hands for 20 seconds. We brush our teeth for two minutes. Why not take 20 seconds to do this?” Susman is reported as saying.
Susman and his colleagues assigned 135 young adults a task. Some had to do a “self-compassionate touch” or an exercise related to dexterity. They made them do it for 20 seconds every day for the month.
“Self-compassionate touch involved placing a hand over your heart and the opposite hand over your belly—though people were told they could try other self-soothing touch. The dexterity exercise involved touching various fingers to your thumb in a particular pattern. Participants were also encouraged to pick a ‘cue’ to help support their practice—something they did every day that might prompt them to do it,” according to the Greater Good.
Where did he come up with this 20-second idea?
Deborah Netburn in The Los Angeles Times, wrote about how Susman attended a Buddhist monastery retreat in France about 8 years ago.
Only a half hour a day was a meditation. He was sad about this. He expected hours and hours of mindful meditation and looked forward to it, proving that Susman and I are not the same person (if you had any doubts).
Netburn writes,
Midway through the retreat, he decided to extend one of his sessions, sitting beneath a tree for three hours. Later, he ran into a monk named Brother Treasure and told him about his practice. The monk's response was not what he expected.
"Three hours?" Susman remembers Brother Treasure telling him with a smile. "How about three breaths? That's all it takes to step into the present moment."
The words stuck with Susman. It led him to wonder whether an abbreviated practice that takes no more than a few breaths can make a difference in someone's life.
Researchers found some things.
“Among people who practiced at least 28 days of the month, those in the self-compassionate touch group had greater self-compassion, and they experienced less stress, anxiety, and depression, in comparison to the tapping group,” Greater Good writes.
“Daily micro-practices have the potential for augmenting single-session interventions and for offering help when more time-intensive approaches may be less accessible,” the researchers wrote.
So, you don’t need to spend an hour or hours or even minutes to make a difference. That’s pretty amazing to me. How amazing? So amazing that I might give it a try. After the weekend I had, I definitely need it. :)
How about you?