These findings suggest that brief interventions may be especially useful in our most stressful periods, when our minds are racing and we struggle to find a moment of peace. Just a few minutes of mindfulness or contemplation can make a significant difference in our mental well-being and overall health.
So, how can you incorporate micropractices into your daily routine? Here are a few simple strategies to bring a little calm to your day:
1. Short Breathing Exercises
Take a few moments to focus on your breath. Inhale deeply through your nose, hold for a few seconds, and then exhale slowly through your mouth. Repeat this for a few breaths, tuning in to the present moment and letting go of any distractions.
2. Gratitude Journaling
At the end of each day, write down three things you are grateful for. This simple practice can help shift your focus from negative thoughts to positive ones, increasing feelings of happiness and contentment.
3. Mindful Walking
Next time you go for a walk, pay attention to each step you take. Notice the sensations in your body, the sounds around you, and the sights you see. Walking mindfully can help you feel more grounded and present.
4. Self-Compassion Exercises
Take a moment to offer yourself kindness and understanding. Acknowledge any difficult emotions you may be feeling and offer yourself words of comfort and support. Practicing self-compassion can help reduce stress and increase resilience.
By incorporating these micropractices into your daily routine, you can experience the benefits of mindfulness and contemplation in just a few minutes a day. Remember, itâs not about the quantity of time spent in practice, but the quality of presence and intention you bring to each moment. So, take a moment for yourself today and see how even a few breaths can make a world of difference.
One participant told the researchers they had always thought that you need lots of time to dedicate to mindfulness, and it therefore seemed too challenging to even start, but the experiment showed that just 5 minutes can help. The individual reported feeling more relaxed at the end of the session and carried that with them throughout the rest of their day.
Brief interventions may be especially useful in our most stressful periods, as health psychologist Andreas Schwerdtfeger and his colleagues at the University of Graz in Austria demonstrated earlier this year.
The team first hooked up participants to portable monitors recording their heart rate variability (HRV), a measure of the momentary fluctuations between heartbeats, which can indicate our physiological stress levels. In general, high HRV demonstrates greater relaxation, as the heart responds moment by moment to the bodyâs demands, while low HRV suggests the body is preparing to face a threat with a fight, flight or freeze response. Over the following few days, the participants received various alerts reminding them to focus on their breathing for 1 minute at a time.
Despite their short duration, pauses proved to be surprisingly effective at calming the mind and the body, as shown in self-reported questionnaires taken immediately after the mindful minute, as well as in the HRV recordings. Crucially, this was most evident when the participants were already feeling overwhelmed. âIt decreased stress and increased feelings of safety,â says Schwerdtfeger. He calls it a âjust-in-time adaptive interventionâ â you roll it out when you most need it.
Self-compassion solution
Susman could have chosen to continue this focus on mindfulness while designing his own micropractice, were it not for a question posed by his PhD advisor: what does the world need most right now? He settled on self-compassion, an important aspect of Buddhist thinking that has been gaining huge interest in psychology circles over the past two decades. It involves three main components: acting with kindness rather than criticism towards our flaws or mistakes; recognising that suffering is a part of the human condition and so connects us to other people; and mindfully observing our negative feelings without judgement.
Various experiments have shown that we can cultivate this gentler way of thinking about ourselves through meditations that focus on self-compassionâs core elements. Like the mindfulness interventions, however, these programmes often require serious commitment.
Inspired by his experience at the Plum Village Monastery, Susman wondered whether it might be possible to change our thinking in the space of a few short breaths. To do so, he and his colleagues recruited 135 participants and showed them a 20-second video that told viewers to think of a recent event that had upset them, such as a mistake or failure. âSend kindness and warmth to yourself by bringing one hand to your belly and the other to your chest with the energy of giving yourself a hug,â the video stated. âAnd youâre invited to ask yourself: âHow can I be a friend to myself in this?ââ
Half the participants were instructed to practice this just once a day for a month, while those in a control group were instead encouraged to practice a sequence of finger-tapping exercises for 20 seconds a day. As often happens in month-long interventions, some participants dropped out and didnât see any benefits. But for those who committed to it regularly, the micropractice resulted in significantly less stress, compared with those doing the finger-tapping.
It shouldnât be a surprise that daily repetition was necessary for the micropractice to take, says Susman. He points to a recent analysis of data from the popular app Headspace, which found that the frequency of practice was far more important than the length of sessions when it came to reducing stress. âConsistency beats duration when it comes to predicting better outcomes,â he says.
Susman compares it to tending to a plant: âGiving it a little bit of water each day is going to be a lot more effective than just dousing it in water once a month.â That makes it all the more important to choose activities that you enjoy. âThe best practice is going to be the one you actually do,â he says.
The Big Joy Project
If mindfulness and self-compassion donât appeal, there are plenty of other options. The Greater Good Science Center at the University of California, Berkeley, offers a host of online resources detailing interventions that can improve our well-being, many of which take only a few minutes to complete.
A few years ago, Emiliana Simon-Thomas and her colleagues at the Greater Good Science Center created the âBig Joy Projectâ, gathering the most accessible interventions requiring the least time commitment, which they called âmicroactsâ. These included a short exercise in perspective-taking, in which participants had to think of an upsetting event and three positive things that came out of it; writing a list of things that made them feel grateful; watching a short awe-inspiring nature video; and spending a few moments reflecting on their values.
âWe branded them as âmicroactsâ so that people wouldnât feel like it was a big burden or obligation, but that they could do it in their busy day,â says Simon-Thomas.
The website initiated a project where visitors were encouraged to practice one microact daily over the course of a week. Participants were asked to complete questionnaires measuring their well-being at the beginning and end of the seven-day period.
The project was promoted in conjunction with the screening and promotion of the film âMission: JOYâ, which depicts the friendship between the 14th Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu. From 2022 to 2024, a total of 17,598 individuals participated in the project, providing a substantial dataset for analysis by Simon-Thomas and her team. The results, which were recently published, revealed the significant impact of these microacts. Participants reported lower levels of stress and increased overall well-being compared to their initial baseline. They also indicated a greater sense of fulfillment and satisfaction with their lives.
Despite the perception that microacts may only benefit those in privileged circumstances, the study found that individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds, such as those experiencing financial hardship, experienced the most significant improvements in well-being.
While micropractices can be powerful tools for enhancing mental health, researchers caution against viewing them as a substitute for professional therapy or medication. These practices are intended to complement, rather than replace, more intensive therapeutic interventions.
It is important to note that longer contemplative practices, such as meditation sessions lasting 20 to 40 minutes, may be more effective in producing lasting changes in the brain associated with emotional regulation. However, micropractices serve as accessible tools for promoting moments of peace and joy in daily life, particularly during times of heightened stress or negative thoughts.
In conclusion, the goal of incorporating microacts into daily routines is to provide individuals with simple yet effective strategies for improving their well-being. By incorporating these small practices into daily life, individuals can cultivate a greater sense of peace and happiness, even in the midst of lifeâs challenges.
David Robson, author of âThe Laws of Connection: 13 social strategies that will transform your lifeâ, emphasizes the importance of integrating these micropractices into daily life for long-term mental well-being.
