The One-Minute Reset: Three Moments to Reclaim Your Inner Peace
Inspired by Jenny Garufi's conversation with Julie Riga on Stay on Course, three simple pauses that take sixty seconds and can change the shape of your whole day.
Julie Riga
Oct 7, 2026 · 2 min read
Why a Single Minute Works
Most people assume peace requires an hour of silence, a retreat, or a perfectly quiet house. Jenny Garufi's work argues the opposite: your nervous system responds to intention, not duration. A single focused minute, done with full attention, can interrupt a spiral of stress just as effectively as a much longer practice, because what matters is the signal you send your body, not the clock.
Moment One: The Morning Reset
Before you reach for your phone, place both feet on the floor and take one slow breath in through the nose, out through the mouth. Ask yourself one question: "How do I want to feel today?" You are not planning the day, you are setting its emotional tone before the world gets a vote.
Moment Two: The Midday Reset
Stress tends to peak between tasks, not during them. When you notice tension, a tight jaw, shallow breathing, a racing inbox, pause for one minute. Close your eyes if you can, unclench your hands, and silently repeat a short phrase such as "I am safe right now." This moment doesn't erase the to-do list, it just stops your body from treating every task like an emergency.
Moment Three: The Evening Reset
The last minute of the day shapes how your mind processes everything that happened in it. Instead of scrolling until you fall asleep, spend sixty seconds naming one thing that went right, however small. This is not about ignoring what went wrong, it's about training your mind to close the day instead of carrying it into tomorrow.
Making It a Daily Practice
None of these moments require an app, a class, or extra time in your calendar. They ask for one thing: that you actually stop for the full sixty seconds instead of rushing through them. Over time, these three small resets build a kind of emotional muscle memory, so that returning to peace stops being a special event and becomes something closer to a habit.