10-Minute Meditations for Every Day of the Week

While your busy life seems to rule every waking moment, it can be difficult to remember that meditation can actually create a more organized, tranquil, and less chaotic life. Yet, one of the biggest complaints you hear about meditation is “I don’t have time.”

Think about all the time you waste on inefficiency such as looking for your keys or phone, redoing a project that was done in haste, or looking at cat tricks on social media. By taking just 10 minutes a day to unplug from distractions and plug into universal energy, you can make your life easier and more efficient.

Try these seven meditation for seven days. Each meditation will take, at most, 10 minutes and can be repeated throughout your day. Experience the difference it makes. You’ll be more calm, centered, and ready to face life head on.

Day One: So Hum Breathing Meditation

The So Hum breathing meditation uses the mantra of the breath. It is a universal mantra, which mimics the sound of your breathing, designed to soothe and calm your mind. When you become tense, frustrated, and anxious it’s probably because you’re forgetting to breathe. The So Hum mantra will remind you to inhale and exhale fully.

Here’s how to do it:

1. With your eyes closed, bring your awareness to your body and to your breath.
2. Scan your body from head to toe, recognizing where you might be finding signs of stress or discomfort. Set the intention to let that go.
3. Place your awareness (and even a hand) on your lower abdomen, and feel the rise and fall of your belly as you inhale and exhale.
4. Gently and easily think the mantra SO on the inhalation and HUM on the exhalation. If you’re tense, prolong each inhalation and exhalation by extending the mantra sound SO and HUM.
5. Once you feel calmer, you can continue to think the mantra as you allow your breathing to follow a more normal pattern. Try not to manipulate or control the breath. Allow it to naturally go where it will.
6. When you are done with your meditation, simply stop repeating the So Hum mantra and sit quietly for a moment or two, and then gently open your eyes.

Day Two: Chakra Clearing Meditation

Chakras are wheels of energy within the body. There are seven main chakras from the base of the spine to the crown of your head. Using sounds and visualizing colors, you can open and align your chakras.

For this meditation you want to sit in a quiet space where you won’t be disturbed. If you want to vocalize the sounds out loud, make sure you find a space where you feel comfortable doing that.

Follow these steps:

1. Sit with your spine tall, and take a couple of deep belly breaths in and out.
2. Place your awareness at the base of your spine, the root chakra, muladhara. Imagine, think, or feel the color red as a swirling, whirling wheel surrounding the base of the spine, circulating from back to front. Say or think the mantra sound LAM.
3. Next, move your awareness to the second chakra, svadisthana, the creativity and sexual center below the navel but above the pubic bone. Imagine the color orange and use the mantra sound VAM.
4. Move your awareness up to the area of the solar plexus, the third chakra, manipura. Imagine the color yellow like the sun and repeat the sound RAM.
5. Place your awareness on your heart, the fourth chakra, anahata. Imagine the color emerald green and repeat the sound YUM.
6. Move your awareness up to the place in between your eyebrows, the third eye and center of intuition. This is the sixth chakra, ajna. Visualize the color indigo and repeat the sound SHAM.
7. Now, place your awareness at the crown of your head, the seventh chakra, sahaswara, the “thousand petal lotus” and your source of enlightenment. Imagine the color violet or white and repeat the mantra OM.
8. As you finish with your meditation, remain with your eyes closed for a couple of minutes before returning to activity.

Day Three: Satnam Movement Meditation

Another simple mantra meditation, the Satnam meditation uses sounds and movement. You will use the syllables SA-TA-NA-MA and the corresponding movements.

Here’s how to put it into practice:

1. Sitting with your spine tall, take a couple of deep breaths.
2. Begin by saying the sounds out loud, then whispering them, and then saying them in your head without moving your tongue or lips.
3. Start with the sound SA and touch your index finger to your thumb.
4. Continue to TA, touching the middle finger to your thumb.
5. Then, say NA and touch the ring finger to the thumb.
6. Finish with MA, touching the pinky finger to the thumb.
7. Repeat the pattern throughout your meditation.
8. When you are finished, stop repeating the mantra and slowly open your eyes.

Day Four: A Visual Meditation

Visual meditations use an object of focus for the entire meditation. There are symbols with geometric shapes called yantras, or visual mantras, that can be very helpful. For this meditation, use a lit candle.

Follow these steps:

1. In a dark and quiet room, sit comfortably on the floor.
2. Light a candle, and make sure it’s not too far below eye level.
3. Focus on the candle flame as you breath easily and effortlessly. If your mind wanders to other thoughts or sensations in the body, gently bring your awareness back to the candle flame.
4. Watch the candle as it flickers or changes shape. Allow yourself to become immersed in the candle flame.
5. When you are finished with your meditation, blow out the candle and rub your palms together quickly until you feel heat.
6. Then, place your heated palms over your closed eyes to soothe and relax them.

Day Five: Daydreaming Meditation

Daydreaming can help expand your imagination and bring creative solutions to problems. It can also give you a visual to creating the life of your dreams. Try this meditation to awake your inner-creativity:

1. In a quiet room, put on some soothing meditation music and find a comfortable place to sit.
2. Close your eyes and allow your mind to move to a beautiful place you’ve been before—a “safe place.”
3. From this place, observe all the scenery around you, take it in, and remember how good you feel.
4. Then, with this feeling, think about all the things you’d like to create in your life. Let yourself visualize and imagine how your life can be. Don’t hold back, and allow your thoughts to be free.
5. At the end of the meditation, remember that all things are possible and that you are a field of infinite potential.

Day Six: Gratitude Meditation

It’s common to get into a mode of complaining and wonder why you’re not getting what you think you need or deserve. A gratitude meditation can cure this mindset and allow you to focus on everything you do have.

Try this:

1. Sit in a quiet room with your eyes closed.
2. Begin by expressing thankfulness and gratitude for yourself—your intelligence, talents, health, and other traits.
3. Then, move your gratitude toward the people you love and the things in your life that keep you going.
4. Extend your thoughts of gratitude toward other things in the world that you have a tendency to take for granted. Whatever pops into your mind at this time, be grateful for it.
5. When you come out of this meditation, keep a heart of gratitude throughout your day.

Day Seven: A Release Meditation

Holding onto things you no longer need invites toxic memories and harmful impressions on your body. In this meditation, concentrate on letting go of things that are no longer serving you. This is especially helpful if you’ve been experiencing aches and pains in your body. They are usually connected to a negative emotion that you’ve stored up.

Follow these steps:

1. Sit quietly and close your eyes.
2. Set the intention to let go of that which is no longer serving you. Ask the universe to send you thoughts of things to release.
3. As things come up, mentally place flowers around those thoughts and send them off to be released. You can visualize placing them in a river and watching them float away or burying them and putting flowers on top to express love for the lessons they taught you.
4. When you’ve finished your meditation, celebrate as you feel the weight lifted off your shoulders.

Using these seven meditations on a daily basis can help you stay centered and connected to your Self. Make them a regular part of your routine by repeating them from week to week.