Get Recentered While Stuck In Traffic

What is your automatic reaction to being stuck in traffic? I tend to feel a combination of frustration and desperation. My mind gets busy trying to calculate the extra time it will take to get where I am going and estimate the negative impact the delay will have. None of this helps! Face it: you aren't going anywhere for a little while. Instead of struggling, why not use this as an opportunity to let go and just be?
If you can relate, you might give this meditation a try.

Transcript

Re-centering when stuck in traffic. If you're driving someplace, You're trying to get where you're going as quickly and safely as possible. Sometimes it seems like everybody and their mother decided that they wanted to get on the road at the same time, And you're delayed a bit. Maybe you're at a standstill. If you're like me, My first reaction is to become irritated, And then my mind starts to get really busy. It gets busy being indignant. Why is this happening? It shouldn't have happened. Sometimes I start to blame myself. I should have left earlier, Or I start to get upset with other people. Why did they have to drive at this time? What's going on up there? Why can't we just get moving? And then my mind will start to think about ways that I can escape traffic. What if I make a turn here, Or what if I speed things up a little bit, Or I might start to look at my GPS and look for alternative routes. And then it starts to think about what's going to happen as a result of being stuck in traffic. Are people going to be mad at me? Am I going to be late? I'm already feeling rushed. Am I going to be even more stressed when I get to where I'm going? Will I miss out on something? None of this is helpful. None of it helps. If you're in traffic, You're going to be there for a little while until the traffic starts to move. So in this meditation, I'm going to invite you to, Instead of struggling with the fact that you're in traffic, To use that as an opportunity to re-center and to do a little practice. You're going to be here for a while anyway, So why not give this a shot? So the first thing that you want to do is just stop. Stop struggling. Stop putting effort into trying to figure out how to make this go faster to get out of traffic. And as you do that, You might do that now if you're doing this practice, You want to just notice your posture. So if you're hunched forward or you're bracing and tight, See if you can just relax a little bit. Let your shoulders relax and then sit up just a little bit straighter. Not stiff, But just a little bit straighter and more alert. Just like you would if you were sitting on a meditation cushion or something. And just allow your vision to soften a little bit. And if you're in traffic right now, Maybe letting your eyes kind of gently focus on the bumper of the car in front of you or their license plate or just whatever is right in front of you. Stop looking ahead and just look far ahead and just look at what's right in front of you. And as you get into that posture and settle, Just again see if you can let your shoulders drop a little bit. Pay attention to are you bracing or tightening in your abdomen and just kind of let that be relaxed. And let's just start by acknowledging what is. In the most boring and descriptive language we can. So instead of stuck in traffic, I want you to see if you can just even maybe say out loud to yourself. And if you don't feel comfortable doing that, Just maybe to yourself silently. Right now my car is stopped. Or right now my car isn't moving. When you can just describe what is in the plainest terms possible, See if that just starts to allow you to settle a bit. It's not a problem. It's just what is. And as you settle into what is, Just begin paying attention to your breath. You might start by just taking a slightly deeper breath in and filling your lungs. And on the out breath, Really just slowly let it go. And settle. Maybe another deeper breath like that. And on the out breath, Let yourself settle. And if you find out that you're kind of tensing and bracing and struggling still, You might add a couple of words. So on the in breath, You might say, Come back. And on the out breath, You might say, Let go. So you want to come back to this present moment if you're getting pulled into thoughts about the future. If you're getting pulled into the struggle, Just gently come back on the in breath. And on the out breath, Let go. And just with every passing breath, See if you can come back and let go. And just be in your car waiting for things to loosen up and for you to be able to move again. So you can just continue this practice as long as it takes for things to start moving again. If you notice that you're getting pulled into thinking about the future, Trying to find a way to escape, Maybe come back to just describing, My car has stopped right now. I'm not moving right now. And then on the in breath, Just let go. And you can experiment with the words. So maybe it's on the in breath, I'm here. And on the out breath, Let go. Or if that worked for you earlier when he said let go, You know, Let go on the out breath. And on the in breath, Come back. Just letting go and coming back over and over again and breathing in that upright posture. Hopefully by now you're moving again and if not, Just continue this practice as long as you need to. You're going to be here for a little bit. Why not use this time to get some more recentering practice in.