A Three Minute Reset Before a Difficult Conversation

Before a conversation you are dreading, whether that is a performance review, a conversation with a partner, or a call you have been putting off, three minutes spent settling your attention can change how the first two minutes of the actual conversation go.

A 2021 randomised controlled trial published in the journal Mindfulness compared short, five-minute mindfulness practices with longer twenty-minute sessions and found the shorter practices were at least as effective, and on some measures more effective, at reducing stress and anxiety across four sessions. Brief practice is not a lesser version of meditation, it is a different tool for a different amount of time.

This is not about arriving at the conversation calm and unaffected. It is about arriving with enough space to listen to the first sentence properly, instead of already rehearsing your reply. If what is ahead of you is a decision or a meeting rather than a conversation, there is a grounding practice for that moment too.