In Her Campus’s series The College Try, our writers test out viral wellness, dating, fashion, productivity, and pop culture trends firsthand. This month, Ailani Aguilar gives micro-meditating the ol’ college try.
There are approximately 37 tabs open in my brain at any given moment, and at least one of them is playing music that I can’t figure out how to turn off. Between being a full-time student at the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT), working as a marketing intern in the beauty industry, keeping up with assignments, and trying to maintain a social life, my mind rarely gets a moment to itself.
Recently, I’ve started getting into yoga, which has made me more interested in finding ways to slow down. When I came across the concept of micro-meditation, I was intrigued. The idea is simple: take a few minutes throughout the day to focus on your breathing, be present, and give your mind a break from the constant noise — no elaborate morning routine, expensive equipment, or hour-long commitment required.
Five minutes sounded manageable enough, so I decided to give micro-meditation the ol’ college try for five days. I’d spend around five minutes per session, fitting the practice into my existing schedule and experimenting with different moments to pause throughout the day.
Would a few minutes of breathing actually help me feel less overwhelmed, or would I spend the entire time mentally reorganizing my to-do list? There was only one way to find out.
What exactly is micro-meditation?
Micro-meditation is a short mindfulness practice that allows you to pause and focus on the present moment without committing to a lengthy meditation session. This can be as simple as paying attention to your breathing, noticing the sensations in your body, or sitting quietly and observing your thoughts without immediately reacting to them.
Research from the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health suggests that meditation and mindfulness practices may ease stress and certain symptoms of anxiety and depression. Of course, that doesn’t mean five minutes of breathing will magically erase every deadline on your calendar.
For me, the appeal was that micro-meditation didn’t require me to completely rearrange my life. I could try it before class, between internship tasks, or whenever I felt myself getting overwhelmed. I also wasn’t an experienced meditator: I’d tried it once or twice before, but I didn’t have a consistent practice.
I planned to spend around five minutes per session, a few times throughout the day when possible, and pay attention to how I felt afterward. I wanted to see whether I could actually fit meditation into my routine and whether it made any difference in how I approached my responsibilities. Spoiler alert: my brain had a lot to say about it.
Day 1
My first day of micro-meditation started with approximately zero peace of mind. I woke up to three new tasks from my boss, a meeting to attend, and homework to complete. I barely had time to wipe the crust out of my eyes before my brain started racing through everything I needed to do.
Naturally, my first instinct was to get straight to work. I tackled the most important tasks before finally giving myself permission to take a break. I showered, put on a face mask, lit some incense, and settled in to do some breathing exercises and sit with my thoughts. If I was going to try meditation for the first time in a while, I might as well make an event out of it.
The most surprising part wasn’t how difficult it was to meditate: it was how sleepy I felt once I finally relaxed. My immediate reaction to feeling calm was wanting to knock out completely. Unfortunately, my to-do list had not miraculously disappeared, and neither had my responsibilities.
Still, when I got back to work, I noticed that I felt less stressed and could move through my tasks more quickly with a clearer head. I couldn’t say whether meditation alone was responsible for the difference, but I appreciated having a moment to reset before diving back into everything.
My first takeaway? Maybe I didn’t need to push through every stressful moment without stopping. And maybe a little incense didn’t hurt, either.
Five minutes doesn’t sound like a long time until you’re sitting there trying not to think about the 15 things you could be doing instead.
Day 2
On Day 2, I decided to make things more realistic. Yesterday’s face mask, incense, and entire spa-day setup were lovely, but I couldn’t exactly turn every five-minute break into a wellness retreat. Instead, I squeezed a five-minute session between my internship tasks and schoolwork. Just me, my thoughts, and a few minutes of quiet.
I quickly realized that sitting still with absolutely nothing to do was harder than I expected. My brain kept bringing up random things I needed to remember, from unfinished assignments to emails I still had to send. It was basically an unorganized to-do list with absolutely no respect for office hours.
I kept thinking that I should be doing something productive instead. Five minutes doesn’t sound like a long time until you’re sitting there trying not to think about the 15 things you could be doing instead.
I wasn’t magically stress-free when I finished, and I still had plenty of work ahead of me. But I did feel a little less scattered. Even if my thoughts hadn’t disappeared, I’d at least given myself a chance to pause instead of immediately reacting to every single one. It wasn’t the instant serenity I might have imagined, but it was a start.
Day 3
By Day 3, I wanted to experiment with breaking meditation into smaller moments throughout my day. I did one five-minute session in the morning before getting into my responsibilities and another when I felt myself becoming overwhelmed later on. Rather than waiting until I was already stressed out, I wanted to see whether pausing could help me catch that feeling before it completely took over.
This was when I started noticing how often I mentally jumped between responsibilities. Even when I was working on one task, I was already thinking about the next three.
The second session felt different from the first day’s mini spa treatment. I wasn’t trying to create a perfect, peaceful atmosphere or force myself into some enlightened state of mind. I just wanted to stop for a moment. Of course, I still had things to do when I finished. Meditation wasn’t going to complete my assignments, answer my emails, or magically give me an extra six hours in the day.
Day 4
By Day 4, I tried to make meditation a reset between tasks rather than a separate activity that needed its own carefully planned time slot. I took five minutes after finishing one responsibility and before moving on to the next. I also tried to pay attention to when I was getting stressed instead of automatically pushing through it.
The biggest challenge? Remembering to actually meditate. Ironically, something designed to help me slow down became another thing I had to remember to check off my list. Apparently, even my attempts at relaxing could turn into a productivity assignment.
Sometimes, the hardest part was convincing myself that I was allowed to use those five minutes for nothing in particular.
I also started questioning what I was supposed to feel. Was I supposed to be completely calm? Was my mind supposed to go blank? Was I doing it wrong if I was still thinking about work?
Eventually, I had to remind myself that I wasn’t auditioning to become a meditation instructor. I was just trying to give myself five minutes. That shift in perspective made the practice feel less intimidating. Instead of expecting myself to achieve some perfect state of peace, I could simply sit, breathe, and acknowledge whatever was going through my mind.
Day 5
For my final day, I tried to approach meditation without putting so much pressure on myself to do it perfectly. I completed three five-minute sessions, fitting them around my usual responsibilities. Rather than treating meditation like another assignment for this experiment, I tried to think of it as a small break I was allowed to take.
Going into this experiment, I think I expected meditation to make me feel instantly peaceful. After all, isn’t that what everyone seems to promise? Close your eyes, breathe deeply, and emerge as a calmer, more balanced version of yourself. Well, five days of trying to slow down taught me that stress doesn’t necessarily disappear just because I close my eyes and breathe.
I still had deadlines, work responsibilities, school assignments, and a million things I wanted to accomplish. Five minutes wasn’t going to reorganize my entire life. But maybe that wasn’t the point.
What surprised me most was how much pressure I put on myself to be productive every second of the day. Even when I was supposed to be relaxing, part of me was calculating how much time I was losing. I was treating rest like something I had to earn after completing every task, even though there was always another task waiting.
The verdict: Would I keep micro-meditating?
After five days, I wouldn’t say micro-meditation completely changed my life, but it did give me a different way to think about my relationship with stress.
On my first day, I noticed that I felt less stressed and could get through my work with a clearer head afterward. As the week went on, I found myself thinking more about the value of pausing before immediately jumping into the next responsibility. I also learned that finding five minutes wasn’t always the hardest part. Sometimes, the hardest part was convincing myself that I was allowed to use those five minutes for nothing in particular.
That doesn’t mean every session was equally effective or that meditation is a universal solution to feeling overwhelmed. My stress levels and schedule varied throughout the week, and five days isn’t enough to draw any sweeping conclusions. But I found the practice approachable because it didn’t require a major lifestyle change.
I’m still figuring out how to balance everything I want to accomplish with the person I want to be outside of those accomplishments. Maybe micro-meditation will become part of that balance, or maybe I’ll discover another way to make room for myself.
Either way, I’m learning that slowing down doesn’t necessarily mean falling behind. And if five minutes of breathing can remind me of that when my brain starts treating my to-do list like breaking news, I’ll consider that a pretty good start.
