Vet Meditation: The Mindful Minute

Welcome back to Vet Meditation,

A meditation series created with veterinary professionals in mind.

For today's practice,

I'd love to introduce the mindful minute,

A practice that takes place over just 60 seconds and becomes a tool that you can use wherever you are,

Whenever you are,

Throughout your day.

This practice is especially helpful for down-regulating the stress response and giving yourself a brain break.

For 60 seconds,

I'll invite you to focus on taking long,

Deep,

Full inhales and exhales.

And with each inhale and exhale,

That's one repetition of the breath.

You'll continue counting each inhale and exhale.

That's one.

Inhale,

Exhale.

That's two.

All the way through the 60 seconds so that by the end of the minute,

You will know how many deep breaths to take in the same way.

And you can give yourself a mindful minute wherever you are.

Go ahead and find a comfortable position for yourself and find a nice tall spine.

Maybe shrug the shoulders up,

Then roll them back and down.

Just bring your attention to your breathing and its natural rhythm.

As you find your next inhale,

Begin counting your deep breaths.

Go ahead and find your next exhale and stop your counting because now we've taken one minute of mindfulness.

If you lost count at any point in time,

That's okay.

You can always just stop and take three to five deep breaths wherever you are,

And it can have a similar effect.

Thank you so much for joining me for this practice,

And I hope that this becomes a tool that can help support you in your well-being as a veterinary professional.

Until next time,

Take care,

Stay healthy,

And be well.