Mindfulness Practice

5 Minutes a Day: Join Our May Mindfulness Practice Challenge for Mental Health Awareness Month

What if one of the most powerful things you could do for your mental health took only five minutes a day? It can be done with mindfulness practice.

This May, in honor of Mental Health Awareness Month, Gladstone Psychiatry & Wellness is launching a month-long mindfulness challenge, and we want you to be part of it. Whether you’ve never tried mindfulness before or you’ve been curious about deepening your practice, this challenge is designed to meet you exactly where you are.

Read on to learn how the challenge works, what you’ll win, and most importantly, why a consistent mindfulness practice could be one of the most meaningful investments you make in your mental health this year.

Introducing the Gladstone May Mindfulness Challenge

Throughout the entire month of May, Gladstone Psychiatry & Wellness will post a daily mindfulness video on our social media platforms — Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. Each video will offer a simple, doable idea for incorporating a mindfulness practice into your day.

Your challenge: practice mindfulness for at least five minutes every day during May, and pay attention to how it affects your mood, stress levels, sleep, relationships, and overall sense of wellbeing.

That’s it. Five minutes. Every day. For 31 days.

Engaging in the daily challenge is simple: find our post for that day on Facebook, Instagram, or TikTok and interact with it. Every interaction earns you entries into our daily prize drawing:

Like the post = 1 entry
Comment on the post = 2 entries
Share the post = 3 entries

Each day, we’ll hold a random drawing among all entries from that day’s post. One lucky winner will receive a $5 gift card every day in May. That’s 31 opportunities to win over the course of the month, one every single day.

Facebook: Gladstone Psychiatry & Wellness on Facebook
Instagram: @gladstonepsychiatry
TikTok: @gladstonepsychiatry

What Is a Mindfulness Practice, Really?

“Mindfulness” is a word that gets used a lot, but it’s often misunderstood. Many people assume it means sitting cross-legged on a cushion, closing your eyes, and emptying your mind. If that image makes mindfulness feel inaccessible to you, you’re not alone, and you’ve also been given the wrong impression.

At its core, mindfulness is simply the practice of giving your full, present-moment attention to whatever you are doing, without multitasking, without judgment, and without letting your mind drift to the past or future.

That’s it. No special equipment. No meditation app required. No prior experience necessary.

Yes, focused breathing is one form of mindfulness practice, and a great one. And it’s also true that the beauty of mindfulness is that you can bring it to almost anything you already do every day. The key is simply to do one thing at a time, with your full attention.

Simple Ways to Practice Mindfulness in Everyday Life

One of the most exciting things about this challenge is that we’ll be sharing 31 different ideas for mindfulness practice throughout May. Here’s a preview of what a mindfulness practice can look like in real life, no meditation cushion required.

Mindful Eating

How often do you eat while scrolling your phone, watching TV, or answering emails? Most of us eat on autopilot, and as a result, we miss the experience entirely.

Mindful eating means putting down your devices, sitting with your meal, and actually noticing it. What does the food smell like? What flavors do you notice? Is it sweet, salty, bitter? What’s the texture? Is it smooth or crunchy, warm or cool? How does your body feel with each bite?

You don’t need to eat an entire meal this way. Even five mindful minutes at the start of a meal counts as your daily practice.

Mindful Listening

Think about the last conversation you had. Were you truly listening, or were you also half-composing your response, thinking about what you needed to do later, or zoning out?

Mindful listening means giving another person your full, undivided attention. It means allowing yourself to hear not just the words, but the tone, the emotion, and the meaning behind what they’re saying, without simultaneously planning what you’ll say next.

This practice strengthens relationships, reduces misunderstandings, and often leaves both people feeling more connected. And it only takes a few minutes of genuine presence.

A Mindful Walk

Walking is something most of us do without thinking. We walk while texting, listening to podcasts, or mentally running through our to-do lists.

A mindful walk asks you to put the phone away and simply notice. Notice the sensation of your feet making contact with the pavement or the ground. Notice your breathing as your pace increases or slows. Notice the sights around you, like the color of the leaves, the quality of the light, the shapes of the clouds. Notice sounds you might otherwise tune out, like birds, traffic, or the wind.

Even a five-minute walk done mindfully can function as a genuine mental reset in the middle of a stressful day.

And So Much More…

Throughout May, our daily videos will introduce you to many more ways to weave mindfulness into your routine, from mindful dishwashing to mindful stretching to mindful journaling. The possibilities are genuinely endless, and we can’t wait to share them with you.

The Mental Health Benefits of a Daily Mindfulness Practice

You might be wondering: does five minutes a day actually make a difference? The research says yes, and the benefits compound over time.

A consistent mindfulness practice has been shown to produce meaningful mental health benefits, including:

Reduced anxiety. Mindfulness helps interrupt the cycle of anxious thinking by training your brain to return to the present moment rather than spinning out into worry about the future.
Decreased rumination. Rumination – replaying past events or negative experiences on a mental loop — is a major driver of depression. Mindfulness creates the cognitive distance needed to step out of that loop.
Improved emotional regulation. When you practice noticing your thoughts and feelings without immediately reacting to them, you build the ability to respond to difficult emotions more skillfully and with greater intention.
Reduced stress. Mindfulness activates the parasympathetic nervous system, your body’s “rest and digest” state, which counteracts the physiological stress response and lowers cortisol levels.
Greater self-awareness. Regular mindfulness practice helps you notice your own patterns of thought, emotion, and behavior, a foundational skill for meaningful personal growth and therapeutic work.
Improved focus and concentration. Each time you notice your mind has wandered and bring it back, you’re essentially doing a “rep” that strengthens your attention, just like a bicep curl strengthens your arm.

In fact, mindfulness is a core component of Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), one of the most evidence-based therapeutic approaches available today. At Gladstone Psychiatry & Wellness, we incorporate mindfulness skills into many aspects of our clinical work precisely because the research supporting its benefits is so robust.

How to Join the Challenge

Joining couldn’t be simpler. Here’s what to do:

Follow Gladstone Psychiatry & Wellness on Facebook, Instagram, and/or TikTok.
Watch our daily mindfulness video each day in May for a fresh idea to try.
Spend at least five minutes practicing mindfulness that day in any way that feels right for you.
Engage with our daily challenge post: like it (1 entry), leave a comment (2 entries), and/or share it (3 entries) to be entered in that day’s drawing.
Notice what shifts. Pay attention to how your mood, stress, focus, or relationships feel over the course of the month.

Every day in May, one participant will be randomly selected to win a $5 gift card. The more you engage, the more chances you have to win. And the more you practice, the more your mental health stands to benefit.

This May, Give Yourself Five Minutes

Mental Health Awareness Month is a reminder that mental wellbeing isn’t a luxury, it’s a necessity. And the good news is that meaningful mental health support doesn’t always require a huge time commitment or a major life overhaul. Sometimes, it starts with five intentional minutes.

A daily mindfulness practice is one of the simplest, most accessible tools available to support your mental health, and this challenge is your invitation to find out what it can do for you.

We’ll be with you every step of the way, one video at a time, all month long.

Follow us on social media, join the challenge, and let’s make May a month that actually moves the needle on your mental health, five minutes at a time.

About Gladstone Psychiatry & Wellness

Gladstone Psychiatry & Wellness is a mental health practice serving the greater Maryland area, with offices in Baltimore City, Hunt Valley, Columbia, Frederick, and Bethesda. Our multidisciplinary team offers a comprehensive range of services, including DBT, medication management, TMS therapy, ketamine-assisted psychotherapy (KAP), advanced psychiatric screening, and weight management support. We are committed to providing compassionate, evidence-based mental health care to individuals and families across Maryland. To learn more or schedule an appointment, visit us at www.gladstonepsych.com.