Mindful Driving

Welcome to mindfulness driving.

We spend a lot of time in the car and this is a wonderful opportunity to learn about meditation and mindfulness in an easy way while you're driving in your car.

The key is to stay really present as you listen to this audio recording.

In no way should you be so engaged in this material that it takes you away from the attention of driving.

The most important thing is that you stay safe.

Stay safe while you drive and simply listen to this as a guide,

As background information.

This recording is intended to increase your awareness during driving and give you the basic mindfulness tools that you can use while driving and in everyday life.

We can use our experience of driving to raise our own consciousness and our awareness.

We'll begin by noticing where you are right now.

See what's in your direct driving environment.

Notice and really look at what's in front of you right now.

What do you see in the road ahead of you?

Feeling your grip on the wheel?

The way the road feels beneath your car.

What do you see?

What do you hear?

What are you noticing?

Paying attention,

Full attention to your experience of driving here in the present moment.

This is how we begin mindfulness.

We start where we are right now.

We stop and notice our inner landscape,

The outer environment,

What's happening here in the present.

We aren't engaged in the story of our mind so that we're just half driving,

Half here.

We're fully engaged.

Listening to the voice of the instructor,

Paying attention to the best of our ability,

To the experience of driving,

Of being on the road.

We'll begin by taking this moment to check in with yourself.

How are you feeling physically?

Just noticing the physical body without any judgment.

Seeing where you feel pockets of tension.

How about emotionally?

Remember we're still paying attention to the road,

Paying full attention to driving.

And as we're doing that,

We're noticing what we're feeling emotionally.

What emotions have you experienced so far?

What helps you calm your emotions?

Allowing your emotions to settle and calm.

How about mentally?

What are your thoughts in this moment?

What have you been thinking about?

We're noticing our thoughts,

But not engaging heavily in our thoughts.

We can just watch them pass by,

Like clouds in the sky.

Watching our thoughts with a sense of neutrality and detachment.

Check in now to see how you feel spiritually.

How is your spirit today?

Again we're just noticing without getting attached to labeling our experience.

Just being aware.

When we do this and take time to check in with ourselves internally,

We raise our levels of self-awareness,

Which is one of the intentions of mindfulness.

When we take time to pause and notice our inner landscape and what we're really feeling and experiencing,

It helps us to connect to the present moment.

It also helps us raise our awareness of the environment,

The people around us,

And the relationship to all that is.

Let's turn our attention again to the physical body.

Notice now the way that you're sitting in your car seat.

You're just paying attention to your physical position,

Noticing how comfortable you feel where you are,

Or if you feel tension of being in your current seat.

We're noticing it without having to change it or make it different.

This is another practice of mindfulness.

Noticing without judgment,

Noticing without reacting,

Noticing without having to do something about it.

So I ask that you please not move your actual car seat position if it's going to distract you from your driving in any way.

We're taking this time to become aware of your overall body position.

And just taking note,

Becoming consciously aware of how you're sitting now in your seat,

Noticing your legs,

Your feet,

Your hips,

And seat,

Your upper body.

What about those shoulders?

Are you holding your shoulders up,

Or can you allow those shoulders to relax down?

Your arms,

How are you holding the wheel?

What feels best for you?

What about your neck?

Can you let go of the tension of your neck?

And then seeing the way that your head's positioned on top of your spine.

If you were to sit in a way that would allow the most energy to flow through your body,

What would that seat be like?

As you become aware of your seat,

See if you can reflect and become aware of how you have been sitting in your driving seat.

And notice if that position is conducive and sustainable for your overall health.

Driving with neutrality,

Noticing with compassion.

We're being mindful not to make any sudden moves or adjustments in our car.

That would take us away from the attention,

The full attention of driving,

Which is your primary focus right now.

We are simply taking note of our physical body and our physical body position.

Instead of driving the way that we're accustomed to,

We consciously position ourselves that allows for greater relaxation,

More ease,

And sustainability.

What about feeling more centered?

You can invite your attention to the center of your body as you drive and notice what shift that creates for you.

Where does your attention go when I mention being centered?

It could be the center of your heart.

It could be the center of your body at your solar plexus.

See if you can rest your attention there while being present to the experience of driving.

Just being still where you are,

Whether you're on the freeway or on the road,

We're raising your levels of presence and awareness of what's happening in the moment.

Oftentimes when we drive,

It becomes an unconscious and stressful experience.

We may not know that we're gripping the wheel,

Breathing shallowly,

Or carrying inner attention as we drive.

What we can do is bring our attention back to our body over and over again and notice if there's any inner clenching or gripping.

We can then give ourselves permission when we notice this to simply relax and let go,

Giving ourselves permission to be as tension-free as possible while we drive,

That it's okay we can even enjoy this process of driving and have it be a meditative,

Mindful experience for us where we're very alert and present and we can practice presence in each moment.

We're not just driving physically and our mind is somewhere else,

Turning the same thoughts over and over again,

The same stories and beliefs.

When we practice mindful driving,

We're just really present to the experience of driving and all the things that are happening with this experience.

What we're noticing with our senses,

What we hear,

What we see,

What we feel.

And this is how it becomes a mindful experience of bringing all of our attention to what we're doing in the moment.

The mindfulness experience allows us to be more present and engaged.

After we bring our attention to our body,

We can now draw our attention to our breath.

Have you ever noticed the way that you breathe while you drive?

How about right now?

And just noticing your breath without judgment.

Many of us breathe shallowly.

You're noticing what the quality of your breath is like.

Is it shallow and restricted?

Or does it feel full and relaxed?

Now as you drive,

Pay attention to your breath and see what helps you relax a little more easily with your own breath.

The way you can do this is by slowing down your exhale.

Sending down the exhale and really letting the breath out smoothly,

Easily,

Effortlessly.

Exhale all the way out until all the air is completely gone from your lungs.

And then when you inhale,

Let yourself re-energize with new breath.

Breathing out slowly,

Exhale,

Exhale,

Exhale all the way out.

Really squeezing out all of the breath while being present to your experience of driving.

And then breathing in fully.

So now for a few minutes,

We're paying attention to the way that you're breathing.

The way that you're breathing.

What would it be like to breathe easy while you drive?

To breathe totally relaxed,

Yet very attentive,

Paying attention to everything that's happening around you.

We're just doing this to the best of our own degree,

Breathing and driving.

That's it.

Learning how to breathe well as we drive.

Because we spend a lot of time in the car.

And now we're making good use of this time.

Letting the body become as tension-free as possible.

Letting ourselves breathe as tension-free as possible.

Breathing and noticing.

Really paying attention to the breath as we drive.

This simple practice can change our whole experience of driving.

If we allow ourselves to bring our full attention to it.

Have you ever noticed that when you're in traffic,

That both your body and breath tend to become more tense?

We resist against it.

The body resists.

But we don't need to hold our breath when that happens.

It doesn't make the traffic go away.

Even if we're stuck in traffic,

We can give ourselves full permission to let go and fully breathe.

Fully breathe and be present to being stuck in traffic.

Noticing what traffic is bringing up for us.

How it brings up those feelings of resistance.

Anger even.

We're just being aware of it.

We can choose to take it personally or we can choose to let it go.

And we become more empowered in that choice the moment we become aware.

Anytime you experience those moments of tension and you have an awareness of it,

You can stop and take a deep breath.

Finally hold your breath.

Become fully aware of being in that experience and your intention to let go of the inner resistance.

And then exhale.

Let it go so that you can free up that space to be more present to your environment.

And that perhaps by being present to your environment you allow for more flow to come through your experience.

As you're driving,

Paying attention to the road and everything that's going on around you.

See if you can touch your breath down to the bottoms of your feet.

When you breathe in,

Breathe all the way in through the bottoms of the feet down to the floor of the car.

Then exhale,

Breathe all the way up through the body,

Clearing the body to the top of the head.

And then again back down to the soles of your feet.

Inhaling,

Fill up your whole body with your breath.

So now you're massaging the whole body with your breath.

Every cell of the body,

You're giving yourself permission now to let go of your entire day.

This could be the beginning of your day,

But anything that you've been carrying with you,

You can gently release through your breath.

Anything that you've been carrying on your mind,

Stress,

Projects,

Responsibilities,

You're going to breathe that out.

And as you breathe it out,

You'll notice how it starts to shift your inner state.

You might notice that you begin to feel a little lighter,

A little more clear and open.

Just keep breathing.

Notice so fully that it's as if you now are being breathed,

Your whole body is being breathed.

You're just allowing this breath to happen,

Allowing it to fully happen.

What if we breathe fully while we drove?

In all situations,

It helps to be aware of your breath and the way that you're breathing.

Breath is life,

It sustains us.

The more we breathe,

The more life force and energy we give to ourselves.

Our breath is our source of life.

It is a source of our vitality.

The more we allow ourselves to breathe fully,

The more oxygen we give to ourselves.

Being aware of our breath is one of the most important mindfulness tools we can use while we're driving.

It's simply this,

Breathing in and breathing out,

Breathing in and breathing out.

In driving or anything,

Notice what takes your breath away.

What do you give your breath away to?

Is it the person who doesn't drive fast enough or you don't like the way that they drive?

Is it computer work or having to do chores?

When you notice that your breath is tense,

How do you reclaim your breath?

See if it helps you to pause and to take a deep breath in whatever that you're doing.

The things that are outside of you,

Even while you drive,

Don't have to determine what happens within you or what happens with your breath.

You can control your own breath.

When you shift your inner state through your body,

Through your breath,

By giving yourself full permission to let go and be present,

It can shift your experience of driving.

Your experience of driving can be more relaxed,

More easy.

You can use the experience of driving as a spiritual tool.

A tool to raise your own awareness of what is happening within you.

We can use any platform in mindfulness to raise our awareness,

Whether we're driving,

Washing dishes or tucking our kids into bed at night.

When we bring our attention to our body and breath in the moment,

It creates a moment of pause and reflection.

Instead of reacting and having the same experience within ourselves,

We have a chance now to pause and choose differently.

We're no longer hijacked by unconscious reactions.

For example,

In traffic,

If we were to be in a traffic jam and it felt stressful,

Instead of just reacting with a tense body and tense breathing,

We have a moment to pause because we become aware that we're tense and we don't need to be tense.

It's not going to help make the traffic go away.

Being tense doesn't serve you or anyone.

What about when someone cuts you off in traffic or does something that you don't like?

Pay attention to your initial reaction.

When you're mindful,

You can catch that moment of being angry instead of acting out on it or letting it consume you because anger doesn't so much hurt the other person as much as it hurts you.

So mindfulness becomes a way to calm our emotions,

To gain perspective,

And to choose to respond differently.

We don't give our peace away so easily because of the way someone drives.

We're able to maintain our center of peace and drive with full attention.

In those moments of awareness,

You have an opportunity,

An opportunity to shift and choose how you want to feel,

The way you want to breathe,

What you would like to experience in your own body.

The same goes for anything that we do.

When we're paying attention to what's really happening,

We can notice if we're tense while we're engaged in any of the activities that we're doing.

And this simple act of being aware and paying attention allows us to shift and be more conscious of what we're doing so that anything and everything can seem like a meditation.

We can always notice the way that we're breathing.

Our breath happens in the moment.

It happens real time.

It also gives us biofeedback and lets us know where we are.

When our breath is shallow and tense,

Our thoughts tend to be fast and racy.

It means that we're in our head thinking of some imaginary past or future.

When we connect to the breath,

It grounds us in the present moment.

Every time we allow ourselves to breathe a little more easily and effortlessly,

We get back in touch with life in the present moment.

We spend hours on the road,

Hours in traffic.

We can use these hours productively.

We can use them to pay attention to the breath,

To simply practice breathing and driving.

That one simple practice can shift our whole experience not just of driving,

But in life.

By staying connected and grounded to the breath,

Of course it could feel like a really mundane and boring practice.

It's such a simple practice,

But can be so profound,

Especially if you stay with it,

If you have the willingness and the discipline and the sense to really stay with that practice,

To simply learn to breathe while you drive.

Over the long run,

It can create a meaningful experience for you.

You can make a small commitment to pay attention to your breath.

For example,

Saying,

I'll pay attention to my driving and my breath five minutes a day.

When you listen to this track,

It'll plant a seed,

And how you decide to nurture the seed by practicing or not practicing,

It still plants a seed of awareness.

And when you're ready to practice,

That's when you'll begin.

This is a practice for you,

For you to develop greater mindfulness.

You can use this time in your car as a platform for raising your own consciousness.

The third thing you can pay attention to are your thoughts.

Have you noticed your thinking thoughts as you drive?

Just notice the kind of thoughts that you're having.

We're noticing again without judgment,

Just being neutral.

By simply noticing the thoughts you tend to entertain,

Especially while you're driving.

Maybe those thoughts are about other drivers and the way that they drive.

Notice what your thoughts get caught up in.

If you feel judgmental,

If you feel accepting,

And then see what really serves you in your own thought process.

You might notice how your thoughts take you away to some other moment,

Some other place,

Some other moment in place than here and now.

Does it serve you to stay engaged with your thoughts or to simply watch them pass by?

See if you can witness your thoughts by just observing.

Seeing what's happening outside of you and noticing how you respond inwardly can help inform you.

Every time you experience or have an encounter with another driver,

Notice what thoughts arise within you.

We've all had the experience where someone has caught us off or they tailgate us or they're speeding or not driving slow enough,

Fast enough.

We have no idea of what's really happening with the other driver.

But we can definitely notice the reaction that it causes in us.

If we have a negative reaction within us,

Then it's affecting us.

It's not affecting the other driver as much as it's negatively affecting ourselves.

And this is where mindfulness really becomes handy,

Is that we don't have to get spiraled down into the negativity of our reaction to what's happening.

We're just using this as a platform,

Just like you'd watch a movie.

You'd see a movie and know that you're getting engaged in the movie,

You're feeling tense during the really dramatic parts,

And you're getting wrapped up in the movie,

But it's just a movie.

And the same goes for this experience of driving.

We can get wrapped up in it or we can bring ourselves back to center and remember that we don't have to react from that place within us.

We can respond with mindfulness.

With mindfulness,

We take a breath and have a pause.

And in that pause,

There's a space where we don't have to engage in our reaction or even our own thoughts.

We can simply notice it.

We can notice if we want to call someone an asshole.

We can notice if we want to try to punish them with our words or our thoughts.

Or we can choose to notice these things that arise with a sense of lightheartedness.

We don't have to be serious during this practice.

Mindfulness doesn't have to be a serious practice.

In fact,

The more you can bring in laughter and amusement,

The easier this practice becomes.

The practice of mindfulness helps us become more peaceful.

We can notice the thoughts that we have as we drive.

Simply notice them and be an observer to your own thoughts.

And then notice what helps you come back to the present moment and just be an experience of this moment.

What helps you to shift your attention to the now?

So often times,

Our attention is in our head.

That's our point of reference for life is just in our mind.

The voice in our head that just is constantly talking constantly has an opinion.

So what happens when you shift your point of reference from the head?

Perhaps towards the center of the body?

You might notice that when you do that,

It's harder to think as quickly.

So many of our thoughts are recycled.

They're not even original thoughts.

Many of them aren't even very purposeful.

So it's okay to let them go.

We don't have to hold on to them.

And every time we notice that our thoughts are taking us away,

We can always come back.

Mindfulness is an empowerment tool.

It empowers you to choose how you want to feel independent of what's happening around you.

Lots of things happen around us in our lives while we're driving.

But we have a part in how we want to respond.

We can respond with inner calm or we can respond with reaction.

When we cultivate inner calm and inner peace,

We can always come back to that place and respond from that place from within.

But if we're constantly engaged in unconscious responses through our habits,

Through our emotional reactions,

Then it's easy to forget that we have power to choose how we want to feel and how we'd like to experience something such as driving,

Which could be a very enjoyable mind uplifting experience.

We can open up our consciousness to what's happening.

In mindfulness,

We notice our emotional response,

Our feelings that get activated while we're driving.

And then we just watch them.

We watch them with a sense of compassion.

We witness everything without having to judge ourselves or having to judge the people around us.

We can really transform this experience of driving in many different ways.

What if you blessed every car that drove past you,

Good or bad?

What if you blessed the road that was ahead of you?

All these things that we can turn our attention towards,

That we can uplift ourselves during our experience.

Every time we become aware,

We have the power to transmute negative emotions,

Negative thoughts.

And there's nothing wrong with having a negative response.

So I just wanted to clarify that sometimes that is our true response.

But does it serve us to stay engaged in that?

This is a practice that allows us to become aware of our feelings,

Emotions and sensations.

A practice of being aware of them without always having to act on them.

Acting from a conscious place,

From a centered place,

Where you feel fully aware,

Fully connected to yourself.

The last thing I'd like to address during the practice of mindfulness driving is your intention.

Using your intention to direct the kind of experience you'd like to have while you're driving.

For example,

I'll often get into my car and I'll have the intention of safety and awareness.

Sometimes I'll include enjoyment,

Presence,

Balance.

But what I often notice is that when I make that intention,

That intention often comes true.

Notice too how this affects your driving experience when you combine your intention with your attention.

So in that sense,

You're consciously choosing what it is you'd like to experience and noticing if it shifts your experience of driving.

If you don't have time to meditate,

You always have time to be mindful.

You can always use this time in your car to be aware of your breath,

Your body,

Your thoughts.

You can spend this time in your car thinking old thoughts,

Having old reactions,

Or having new thoughts,

Having new awarenesses from being in the present moment.

Breathing,

Relaxing,

Connecting to your inner state,

Your body.

You can take this practice anywhere and apply it to every part of your life.

I hope you enjoyed this talk on mindfulness driving.

I hope you drive with peace and safety and joy in your own heart.

Blessings and Namaste.