Jeffrey Brantley - Five Good Minutes of Mindfulness: Reduce Stress, Reset, and Find Peace Right Now

Candid, impactful, and nuancedwhile also realistic and inspirational. If you want to reduce stress, feel grounded in the midst of turmoil, and stop letting the unimportant and inconsequential drive your life, these practices are for you. Stemming from the authors decades-long practice and experience, they invite you to rest in the richness of the present moment and let its wisdom guide you along.

Riitta H. Rutanen Whaley, MS, MSPH, RYT , mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) and yoga instructor at Duke Health and Well-Being, and author of Pausing Mindfully

Jeffrey Brantley and Wendy Millstine brilliantly bring the practice of mindfulness into practical, easily digestible, yet deeply meaningful five-minute sessions. These brief sessions teach us how to be with ourselves in a completely different waywith a sense of friendliness toward self. Brantleys wisdom, warmth of heart, and genuine kindness shine through each of these simple yet powerful practices, and show us how being in the moment with nonjudgmental awareness can transform our lives.

Lisa Wickham , registered nurse, certified mindfulness instructor, certified hypnotherapist, certified compassion fatigue practitioner, and owner of Fully Mindful

This book is a must! In this fast-paced world, Five Good Minutes of Mindfulness offers short meditation practices to create some calm and space in our daily lives. Brantley and Millstine have put together a practical and easy approach for creating a habit of self-care, awareness, and wellness.

Betsy Dessauer, MFA, CYT, CWMF , founder and CEO of Mindful Anytime

What a delight to see another Five Good Minutes book from Brantley and Millstine! In todays busy world, these mini practices make mindfulness accessible to all. Readers will discover one hundred creative ways to access their own resourcefulness, bringing the best version of themselves to meet the challenges of work and life.

Julie Kosey, MS, PCC, NBC-HWC, CMT-P, RYT , director of human performance coaching at Adventist Health, MBSR instructor at Duke Integrative Medicine, and faculty for UCLAs Training in Mindfulness Facilitation

What a deal! Five minutes of reflection and practice for a day of greater clarity, focus, peace, and fulfillment. Brantley and Millstine have written a book made for these times. The practices in this book increase awareness and commitment to personal intention while providing a guidepost for staying true to them. This book is a sure medium for staying grounded and empowered, regardless of whether or not the world cooperates.

Paul Nagy, LCMHC, LCAS , assistant professor in the department of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Duke University School of Medicine

We all have the natural ability to be mindful. And, we all have five minutes! In their latest book filled with easy, accessible self-help practices, Jeff Brantley and Wendy Millstine skillfully guide us in slowing, relaxing, appreciating, and connecting through mindfulness. For anyone looking to boost their inner resilience during these difficult times, Five Good Minutes of Mindfulness is a gem.

Jeff Greeson, PhD , assistant professor of psychology, and director of the Mindfulness, Stress and Health Lab at Rowan University

Publishers Note

This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the subject matter covered. It is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering psychological, financial, legal, or other professional services. If expert assistance or counseling is needed, the services of a competent professional should be sought.

Copyright 2022 by Jeffrey Brantley and Wendy Millstine New Harbinger Publications, Inc. 5674 Shattuck Avenue Oakland, CA 94609 www.newharbinger.com

Cover design by Sara Christian

Interior design by Amy Shoup and Michele Waters-Kermes

Five Good Minutes is a registered trademark of New Harbinger Publications, Inc.

All Rights Reserved.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Brantley, Jeffrey, author. | Millstine, Wendy, 1966- author.

Title: Five good minutes of mindfulness : reduce stress, reset, and find peace right now / Jeffrey Brantley, MD, and Wendy Millstine, NC.

Other titles: 5 good minutes of mindfulness

Description: Oakland, CA : New Harbinger Publications, Inc., [2022]

Identifiers: LCCN 2021031368 | ISBN 9781684038664 (trade paperback)

Subjects: LCSH: Mindfulness (Psychology) | Self-actualization (Psychology) | Contentment.

Classification: LCC BF637.M56 B74 2022 | DDC 158.1/3--dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021031368

I wish to dedicate this book to the frontline workers and first responders who have given so much that we could all make it through the time of the COVID-19 pandemic. May these practices support you and be a reminder of the boundless wisdom and goodness that are always there for you within.

Jeffrey Brantley

In loving memory and in honor of my Uncle Donald David Stone (19422021).

Wendy Millstine

Contents

Preface

The world has changed a great deal since the first Five Good Minutes book was published in 2005. Unfortunately, those changes have been for the worse in many cases. Present-day challenges and threats from environmental warming, persistent global violence, the politicization and weaponization of personal values, widespread abuses by emboldened authoritarian governments, and deeply embedded racist ideologies and institutions are now relentlessly pressing into our collective consciousness on a daily basis. These times most certainly call for responses that are well informed and courageous, if we wish to survive and to save and promote life on our planet.

Choosing wise, prosocial, and effective action is difficult in any circumstance, but the challenges of these times, especially, can hit home in very personal ways for each of us and interfere with our responses to situations in our day-to-day lives. For instance, nationwide studies reveal increased anxiety, fear, and grief in large numbers among those surveyed. Stress in daily life is greater for many reasons, including loss of income, isolation, and mandates to work from home and to home-school as well as restrictions on movement, recreation, and contact with distant loved ones as a result of crises like the COVID-19 pandemic.

The good news, however, is that something very valuable, powerful, and positive has NOT changed since 2005. That is the possibility and ability each of us has to tap into enormous inner resources that include mindfulness, kindness, joy, compassion, and wise understanding.

Mindfulness is simply the dimension in each of us that knows what is happening while it is happening. It is the part that knows what is happening nowas when awareness recognizes that the mind is busy thinking, or when the touch of a breeze feels cool to the skin, or when the upset of anxiety and fear is a felt presence in mind and body. Mindfulness is the part of us that simply knows and is aware of the experience present for us in this moment. And we each already have all the mindfulness we need. We dont have to do anything special to create it or change ourselves in any way to get more or enough mindfulness. We only need to recognize, trust, and make our home more steadily in this dimension of knowing that is always present within us, within our wholeness as human beings.

The practices in this book offer easy-to-follow methods to establish mindfulness and to inhabit each moment or activity you do mindfully. They encourage you to explore and rest in that dimension of noticing and knowing, which also means relaxing and resting in present-moment awareness and simply letting things be the way they areand then learning and acting wisely from what you notice.