High on stress but pressed for time? Same here. Even meditation teachers trained in the art of self-soothing dont always have bandwidth to unwind for an hour. Thats why its so important to keep a handful of five-minute meditations in your back pocket.

For meditation teacher Josephine Atluri, centering herself in these troubling times requires just minutes of out of each day. My Letting Go meditation is a quick five-minute practice that helps me move from the sympathetic nervous system response of fight or flight into the parasympathetic nervous system response of rest and digest' says Atluri. This activation in the nervous system is triggered by slow and deep breathing. Not only does the concentrated breathing move me from stress to relaxation, but it also helps me tune into the present moment.

This really matters when the present moment has you dwelling in a fear of the unknown.

A lot of our anxiety can come from dwelling on the past and worrying about the what-ifs of the future, Atluri says. When you ground yourself into the present moment via a breathing technique and meditation, you eliminate a lot of unnecessary stress.

Intrigued? Excellent. Get yourself comfortable, because well unpack just how to let go with this practice (plus three additional five-minute meditations you can work into your schedule).

For this meditation, lie down and stretch your arms out to the side of your body in a T formation and slightly lift up your chin to the sky. This position opens up my chest and neck where I hold a lot of tension and stress, says Atluri. When I feel anxious, it can feel hard to breathe, so opening up the chest counteracts that stress symptom.

Now, were beginning to settling into the present moment. Do this by taking several deep breaths, and witness how the breath is moving in and out of your body.

Melt away tensions you might be holding, and focus on the now.

Transition your breath into a deep inhale through your nose and as you exhale through your nose make the exhale twice as long as your inhale, says Atluri.

Once youve established a good pace for this breathing technique, pair it with the mantra, Let it go, says Atluri. Softly say these words in the back of your mind to help you release any stress and tension that may be weighing you down.

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Return back to the present moment by wiggling your fingers and toes and then gently opening your eyes, says Atluri.

Exactly what it sounds like, abody scan meditationis about recognizing points of tension on your person and releasing them. Our bodies are talking to us all the time, but our awareness is typically elsewhere, and we havent taken the time to learn our bodys language,Jenna Monaco, a certified meditation teacher and stress coach previously told Well+Good. You might find that one area of your body is really tight and needs stretching, or that youre holding tension in your belly, and youre more stressed than you realize.

A compassion meditation like LovingKindness allows us to provide self-gentleness when we feel isolated or overwhelmed. Our unprecedented times are pretty much structured for both of those thing to coincide, so its important to practice that TLC. And by the way, neuroscientists loveit for honing in on thefeel-good prosocial spheres of the brain.

Theres a reason why people tell you to just breathe when youre feeling panicked. When we can get out of our mind and get into our body, and the breath can break down all of the stuck emotions in our system, we leave the breathwork session feeling clear, more powerful, more aligned, and just more awake,Samantha Skelly, founder ofPause Breathwork, previously told Well+Good. Weaving abreathwork meditationinto your hectic day can be a very literal sigh of relief.

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Im a Meditation Teacher, and This Is How I Use 5 Minutes To Let Go of Something Each Day - Well+Good