Take Five

Feeling stressed or overwhelmed? Take five and get back to playing to your strengths. Welcome to The Deloitte Meditation Series - a range of quick and easy mindfulness practices created by Emily Toner in collaboration with Deloitte Australia, to help you live your life with more presence, wellbeing and ease. The series comprises nine guided mindfulness meditations ranging from 3 - 20 minutes in length, designed to be weaved effortlessly into a busy working day. Try it out with your teams, try it out for yourself, and please get in touch with any feedback or stories you have in using the series. We would love to hear them.

Transcript

Start by noticing how you're sitting in your chair.

Tune into your posture.

Allow your feet to connect to the ground,

To be stable,

Supported.

Allow your hands to rest in your lap in a comfortable way.

Allow your back to be upright but relaxed,

And your head to be balanced on your neck and shoulders.

If you feel comfortable,

Gently close down the eyes.

Sometimes when we're feeling overwhelmed,

The last thing we want to do is stop.

But sometimes it's the best use of our time.

So let's take a moment now just to bring ourselves back into a state of balance and bring clarity to the mind.

Tune into your face.

Often we hold tension in our face without even realizing.

Notice your forehead and brow.

And tune into any tension you might be holding here.

Become aware of your eyes and all the muscles around the eyes.

Can you hold a soft gaze even though your eyes are closed?

Feel into your jaw.

Is it clenched or loose?

Scan down the rest of your body now and notice any other sensations.

Are you holding a soft gaze?

Or are you holding a soft gaze?

Scan down the rest of your body now and notice any other sensations.

Are you holding any tension elsewhere?

Shoulders,

Your back,

Hands.

Take a moment to scan your body all the way down.

Scan the legs all the way to the feet.

Now bring your attention to your breath.

Never underestimate the power of your breath.

Every time you breathe out,

You switch on your relaxation response.

So let's experiment with this now by maybe just allowing your out-breath to be a little longer than your in-breath.

And then maybe lengthening both the in-breath and the out-breath even more.

How long can you breathe out for and hold before the next breath enters?

And now just allow yourself to breathe naturally.

Notice how you're feeling as we come to the end of this practice.

Remember,

Connecting to your body and your breath is the quickest way to bring yourself into a calm,

Alert rest mode.

And when the body is relaxed,

The mind tends to follow.

Congratulations for taking out five minutes to reset and recharge.

Reviews

Thanks Emily - a lovely circuit breaker from the hyperarousal 🙏🙏
🙏🙏

That was cool. Great calming effect ☺️. Loved the gentle voice and slow pace. Kudos and thanks for creating this ❤️

I truly enjoyed this meditation and the results of grounding myself and returning to calm. Thanks for sharing your gift with me. Cheryl J 💫

A nice & simple meditation that helps with the reset. Thank you.

Love this and its simplicity. It’s a perfect reset when I’m feeling overwhelmed. Thank you!

Thank you

Amazing practice while working from home and hitting a wall. Helped slow me down, and refresh.

Aaaaaaamazing!!!! Best 5 minutes of my day. Exactly what I needed.

Nice break between clients

Namaste❤this really helped me slow down in my busy day🙌🏻

Excellent 👍

Was feeling anxious and stressed from work before but definitely felt better after! Love the breathing exercises and the body scan. Thank you 💖

This worked for me. Very easy to stay focused on your words.
Thanks 🙏🏻

Brilliant focus on the most vital bits to relax (face and out breath).

A great recharge during a conference. Thank you.✨🙏🏾

A calming physical practice I will do again, internally, when our in the busy world. Thank you & keep it coming! 🙏🏽

Very nice! Fell right into the body scan, and breath attention. Also, a very pleasant, calming voice. Perfect for a brief timeout from work. Much thanks!

I dearly love all of your meditations Emily 🙏🏼🌿🌷

Loved the simplicity of it and the way it was spoken

One of my favorite meditations to do on coffee breaks at work. Thank you!