How to have a mindful lunch hour in London

Micro-facials, hunks of fresh coconut and meditation apps can give you a daily blast of Zen in barely any time, says Peta Bee
Tune out: getting away from the office can have big health benefits (Picture: Neustockimages/Getty)
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Peta Bee3 August 2015

Stressed-out Londoners are discovering that the humble lunch hour can be so much more than an opportunity to grab a salad pot in Eat. Utilised to its utmost, your midday break can be enough time to revive and reboot, to achieve spa-like unwinding in the length of time it usually takes to eat your sandwich. So if you have 60 minutes (and counting) in which to calm the mind and soothe the soul, where should you start? Here are our top tips to de-stress in an instant.

Turn off your tech

Or, at the very least, turn off your smartphone for an hour. Psychologist Richard Balding from the University of Worcester reported a direct link between stress levels and the amount of times a phone was checked, with the most tense office workers so anxious that they were experiencing “phantom” vibrations when in fact there have been no alerts. “Employers should encourage people to switch their phones off; cut the number of work emails sent out of hours and reduce people’s temptation to check their devices,” Balding advises.

Eat avocado

Among the best foods to have at lunchtime, either in a salad or chucked in a smoothie, according to the nutritionist Ian Marber, they are not only packed with beneficial fats but also the stress-relieving B vitamins vital for healthy nerves and brain cells. They’re also high in potassium, important for maintaining healthy blood pressure.

Wholesome: Avocados (Picture: AFP/Getty)

Take a nap

If you can find somewhere to sit back and close your eyes during the lunch hour, then you will almost certainly return rejuvenated for the afternoon. Having a 30-minute power nap can help relieve stress and bolster the immune system by restoring hormones and proteins to normal levels, a recent study found. “Our data suggests a 30-minute nap can reverse the hormonal impact of a night of poor sleep,” says Dr Brice Faraut, of the Université Paris Descartes-Sorbonne Paris Cité.

Colour in

Waterstones has reported a 300 per cent rise in the sales of adult colouring books this year as thousands rediscover the relaxing benefits of putting coloured pencil to paper. “Being ‘in flow’ or immersed in a task like colouring seems to help soothe many people, from investment bankers to busy mums,” says UK colouring book artist Johanna Basford.

Breathe in

Mindfulness apps are a fast route to ridding yourself of the shackles of work-related tensions. Among the best are Buddhify (£3.99), which uses an “urban” version of the Buddhist prayer wheel to provide a range of five-minute meditation sessions or, if you are really bushed but pushed, the 7 Second Meditation (free) that prompts you to get back into the moment with simple cues.

Get a mini-facial

Furrowed brows are a response to tension in the jaw and pent-up stress. To relieve it, try a quick facial massage, suggests Charlotte Watts, author of The De-Stress Effect: Rebalance Your Body’s Systems for Vibrant Health and Happiness. Find somewhere quiet to sit and pinch your eyebrows near your nose and progressively pinch outwards to the ends of the brows, then across the temples, Watts says. It can trigger a ripple of stress-relief throughout the body.

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Take a stroll

If you manage nothing else, then at least get outside to buy your lunch. A recent study at the University of Birmingham showed that even a gentle lunchtime stroll of up to 30 minutes can perceptibly — and immediately — buoy your mood and ability to handle stress at work. On afternoons after a 30-minute lunchtime walk, participants said they felt more enthusiastic, less tense and generally more relaxed — factors that the researchers said are “very important to productivity” as well as your state of mind.

Devour fresh coconut

Make your lunchtime dessert a coconut yogurt pot from Pret A Manger or some coconut chunks from Waitrose. It’s not just the oil and water of a fresh coconut that are good for you, but the scent of it can relieve anxiety and slow your heart rate. Researchers at Columbia University found that breathing in the smell of the on-trend nut seemed to blunt the stress response and slow the heart rate in a group of volunteers subjected to challenging tasks.

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