For many years at Centre of Gravity in Toronto, there was a practice we did as a community that I call the five-minute practice.
The practice is, whenever you’re engaged with something and you start getting agitated or resistant, and you feel anxiety or discomfort in your body, you stay with it for five more minutes. This was our practice.
My partner Carina has a tattoo, right on her hand by her thumb, which is the number five in Sanskrit, as a reminder of this practice.
Like so many techniques, it’s simple but not easy. Whenever you’re worked up, or you’re in a conversation and you want to jump out, stay for another five minutes. It is a beautiful way to let yourself not know and witness the present. When you’ve watched your habitual responses come and go for a few minutes, some new way of responding, perhaps one the situation really could benefit from, may arise.