Breathing, focus, and small mental resets that fit inside a busy, demanding workday.
Start reading3 chapters, in order. Each stands on its own, but they build.
MindfulnessCyclic sighing: a normal inhale through the nose, a second short sip of air on top, then a long slow exhale through the mouth. Repeat for two minutes. In a Stanford randomised trial, five minutes a day of this improved mood and lowered breathing rate more than mindfulness meditation did.
MindfulnessName the feeling in one word, write for three minutes without editing, then do something physical for five. Labelling an emotion reduces activity in the brain region driving it, writing gives the loop somewhere to go, and movement changes the state the replay is running in. Together they take under ten minutes.
MindfulnessBoth. The evidence for modest improvements in anxiety, depression and stress is reasonable; the evidence for many of the bolder claims is thin, and a group of leading meditation researchers said so in print in 2018. For attention specifically the case is better than average, and it needs about twelve minutes a day.