Emma Willis, 49, skips the gym for meditation: can 10-minute sessions and short strolls between meetings reset your mind?

When she skips the gym for a 10-minute meditation and a brisk stroll between studios, it lands like a small rebellion — and a big question: can tiny pauses do what a full workout doesn’t?

It’s 8.43am on a grey London morning and the city is half-caffeinated, already late. Down a corridor that smells faintly of hairspray, a presenter slips out of a makeup chair, phones pinging, producers waving. Emma Willis passes on the weights session she’d pencilled in and takes ten quiet minutes instead. Eyes closed. Shoulders down. Then a short walk round the block before the red light goes on.

The shift is almost invisible. The effect isn’t. *The quiet felt louder than the gym.* A cup of tea later, she looks more grounded than glowy, and that feels like the point. We’ve all had that moment where the day owns us before we own it. What if, just for once, the smallest pause called the shots instead?

Maybe this is the reset.

The case for the 10‑minute reset

There’s a pattern you hear whispered in green rooms and read in comments beneath Instagram reels: long workouts are brilliant, yet short rituals keep the wheels on. Ten minutes of stillness. A brisk walk between meetings. A pocket of daylight to rinse the mind. The logic is disarmingly simple — you can’t always change the day, but you can interrupt it. That’s the micro-break revolution in a sentence. It sits comfortably with midlife metabolism, media schedules, childcare, and the very British weather.

Some call it maintenance mode. A producer I met in Soho swears by eight minutes with a breath app and a loop round Golden Square before a live hit. She doesn’t chase enlightenment; she just likes not snapping at emails. Public Health England’s Active 10 campaign has been nudging us towards ten brisk minutes for years, and for good reason. Small studies suggest that even brief mindfulness practices improve attention and lower perceived stress. Add daylight and a pulse-raising stroll and you’ve upgraded a coffee break into a nervous-system rinse.

Why it works sits somewhere between physiology and psychology. Switching to slow, nasal breathing is a quiet message to your vagus nerve that the threat has passed. A short walk recruits big leg muscles, glucose gets used, and anxious energy has somewhere to go. Your eyes land on far horizons, the brain’s default mode network gets a breather, and ruminations lose their grip. **Ten minutes is not a compromise; it’s a strategy.** You’re not dodging effort. You’re shifting state on purpose.

How to build a 10‑minute reset day

Start with breath like you’d lay a table. Set a timer for ten minutes and sit upright, feet flat, phone on aeroplane mode. Try a 4‑4‑4‑4 rhythm: inhale for four, hold for four, exhale for four, hold for four. Two minutes in, widen the exhale by one count if it feels natural. No apps required, just your lungs and a clock. When the bell goes, stand and take a short, brisk loop: five to ten minutes, arms swinging, eyes scanning the distance. That pairing — deliberate breath, then light movement — is the reset recipe.

The trick isn’t intensity; it’s frequency. Place these little anchors where the day naturally frays: after your first meeting, before a school run, between emails that wind you up. Let’s be honest: nobody does that every day. Aim for most days and keep the bar low. The most common mistake is turning a micro-practice into a performance — new gear, perfect playlist, perfect conditions. You don’t need perfect. You need repeatable. Also, watch the doom-scroll ambush. If you sit down to breathe and end up on your phone, the reset vanishes.

There’s a tiny phrase I use when my brain starts sprinting: “Breath first, then move.” It sounds twee until you try it in the wild. It’s a simple script that gets you from intention to action without drama. **Movement between meetings is not procrastination. It’s pacing.**

“Small resets don’t make a big life smaller; they make it sustainable.”

• The 10‑minute stack: 6 minutes of box breathing, 4 minutes of soft-focus breath or body scan.
• The walk loop: a brisk rectangle around your building or block, keeping a pace that shortens your sentences.
• One tactile cue: a warm mug, a smooth stone, a jacket zip you notice — anything that anchors attention.
• Light where you can: step outside, even if it’s drizzly. Daylight is a free cognitive enhancer.
• A phrase to deploy: “Interrupt, don’t endure.” It helps you stand up before you spiral.

Can tiny pauses really reset a busy mind?

Short answer: yes — enough to matter. A ten-minute sit won’t turn a hard week into a spa day, yet it can shift your physiology from frantic to functional. When you place micro-breaks at the pinch points, you get fewer blow-ups, better recall under pressure, and that elusive sense of being one step ahead of your own nerves. It doesn’t replace strength work or cardio; it makes those sessions easier to show up for. **Small doesn’t mean small-minded.** It’s strategic maintenance for a brain that does serious miles.

There’s also something quietly radical about letting go of the all-or-nothing mindset. When someone as visible as Emma Willis leans into stillness between the big, shiny moments, it gives the rest of us permission to do the same. No lecture. No guilt. Just a humane rhythm for a life that won’t slow down on command. If that sounds like a cheat, sit for ten and see how you feel. The mind often needs less fixing than friction.

FAQ :

• Do ten-minute meditations actually work?They can. Brief sessions lower perceived stress, improve focus, and create a calmer starting point for tasks that matter.
• Is walking between meetings enough exercise?It counts as movement and mood medicine. Keep your structured training, but use brisk mini-walks to stabilise energy and attention.
• What if I can’t sit still?Try “anchored” breath: count steps on your walk, or breathe in time with your stride. Stillness isn’t the only door in.
• Morning or evening — which is best?The best time is the one you’ll repeat. Many people like a mid-morning or mid-afternoon slot when attention dips.
• Which app should I use?You don’t need one. A timer is enough. If you like guidance, pick a simple breath or body-scan track and stick with it for a week.