01

Slow breathing before I pick up my phone

This one sounds so small it almost feels embarrassing to include. Before I reach for my phone in the morning, I take three slow breaths. That is it. No apps, no timers, no technique. Just three breaths where I notice I am awake before the world starts asking things of me. It took about two weeks to become automatic and now the days
I skip it feel different in a way I cannot fully explain.

Verdict: stayed. Still doing it.

02

The body scan

You lie down, close your eyes, and slowly move your attention from your feet to the top of your head, noticing any tension, heaviness, or sensation without trying to fix it. I tried this at bedtime and the first few times I fell asleep before I got past my knees. Which, honestly, told me something about how exhausted I was. On the nights I stayed awake through it, I noticed I was holding tension in places I did not even know about. My jaw. My shoulders. The space between my eyes.

Verdict: stayed for evenings. Not a morning technique for me.

03

One mindful cup of something warm

Instead of drinking my tea or coffee while scrolling or working, I tried sitting with just the drink. Holding the mug. Noticing the warmth. Tasting it properly. It felt almost uncomfortably slow at first. Like I was wasting time. But there is something about giving your full attention to something as simple and ordinary as a warm drink that brings you back to your body very quickly. I started doing this most mornings and it became one of the small rituals I actually look forward to.

Verdict: stayed. One of my favourites.

04

The 5-4-3-2-1 grounding method

Name five things you can see, four you can feel, three you can hear, two you can smell, one you can taste. This one I reach for specifically when my mind is spiralling. It is almost impossible to stay in an anxious thought loop when you are actively counting what you can hear in the room. It pulls your attention into the present moment in a very physical, immediate way. It feels a little clinical when you first try it. After a while it becomes second nature.

Verdict: stayed. Especially useful mid-spiral.

05

Walking without a destination or a podcast

I used to walk everywhere with something in my ears. Music, a podcast, an audiobook. Silence felt wasteful. Then I tried walking without anything playing and just noticing what was around me. The sound of my own footsteps. The temperature of the air. The way the light was sitting on a particular building. It felt uncomfortable for the first ten minutes. After that it felt like the most rested my mind had been all week. I did not realise how rarely I let my thoughts just exist without competing with something else.

06

Putting on something comfortable as a conscious act

This one did not come from a mindfulness book. It came from noticing that the days I changed into something soft when I got home felt meaningfully different from the days I stayed in whatever I had been wearing. There is something about the deliberate act of choosing comfort, of saying to your body "the performing part of the day is over now," that functions as a kind of ritual. It signals a shift. And your nervous system, I have found, responds to signals more than it responds to intentions.

Verdict: stayed. Every single day.

07

Writing one sentence about how I actually feel

Not journaling in the traditional sense. Not pages of reflection. Just one sentence. Sometimes it was "I am more tired than I realised." Sometimes it was "I am quietly proud of myself today." Sometimes it was "I do not know how I feel and that is okay." The act of naming something, even briefly, has a way of making it feel less overwhelming. Like you acknowledged it and it did not have to keep knocking.

Verdict: stayed. Low effort, high return.

08

Guided meditation apps

I tried several. I found that listening to someone else's voice telling me to relax made me think about whether I was relaxing correctly rather than actually relaxing. I also found the music choices distracting. This is entirely personal. Many people find guided meditation incredibly helpful. For me, the internal commentary it triggered was louder than the quiet it was trying to create.

Verdict: did not stay. Not for me, but might be for you.

09

Sitting in complete silence for 10 minutes

In theory, I loved this idea. In practice, my brain treated the silence as an invitation to replay every conversation I had ever had. I could not get past about two minutes before I was mentally rewriting something I said in 2019. This one might work with more practice but I found it more agitating than calming in my current season of life.

Verdict: did not stay. Not yet, anyway.

10

Visualisation exercises

Imagining a calm place, a safe space, a version of yourself at peace. I could never quite stay in the visualisation. My mind kept wandering to practical things, whether I had replied to that message, what was for dinner. I do not think this is a flaw in the technique. I think my brain needs something more grounded and physical to hold onto rather than something imagined. The 5-4-3-2-1 method works far better for me for exactly that reason.

Verdict: did not stay. But I understand why it works for others.