REVIEWS

Take some time for this book

Five Good Minutes™ at Work: 100 Mindful Practices to Help You Relieve Stress and Bring Your Best to Work by: Jeffrey Brantley and Wendy Millstine New Harbinger Publications, 2007 ISBN-10: 1-57224-490-9 ISBN-13: 978-157224490-0

Since there are only 24 hours in a day for work, family, social life and sleep, who has extra five minutes?

You do.

Five Good Minutes at Work is part of the Five Good Minutes series. This one about work is a wonderful book full of useful, mindful meditations that only take FIVE minutes out of your day. The book is for anyone who works, paid or unpaid.

Most of us, including me, spend most of our waking hours worrying about the past and future, and our working hours wondering when our next break is, or whether there’s a long weekend in February, how long till we retire. And so on. When you honestly dissect how much time you actually “work” you would be surprised at how little you get done within an 8-hour day. It is sad, but that is what it is. The following is a great example of time wasted.

When the authors challenged me, the reader, to choose from the 100 different meditations and actually practice those that resonated with me, it took me more than 20 minutes to not only choose which ones to do, but scheduling when I should do the FIVE minute meditations during my work day. Hence, I “wasted” four days!

These meditations can be done at your desk. There is no need for any type of preparation. You don’t need candles, incense or music to set the mood. The directions are quite simple and each step is easy to follow.

These practices, when done, can help you deal with difficult coworkers, bosses, deadlines and you will be rewarded with increased productivity, reduced workplace conflict, plus a sense of inspiration that will start to spread to the rest of your life.

Considering you spend the majority of your time at work with people in close proximity, you owe it to yourself to get from drab to fab, tired to inspired, conflict to peace. Not only will you benefit from the positive changes in your workday, but this will influence others around you; when you are happy, your family is happy as well.

I have my favorites and each time I pick up the book, I find other meditations that resonate with me; I am open to receive more and keep building upon the meditations. Go ahead, stop reading this, and find FIVE minutes. Your body, mind and spirit will be grateful, not to mention your coworkers and your family, or dog, or whomever you spend the other part of your life with.