Driving with mindfulness.
This is of course an eyes open mindfulness practice.
Driving gives us a chance to investigate the different capacities of the mind in a daily life setting.
We require focused attention for navigating busy junctions and heavy traffic,
Open awareness when we are driving on quieter stretches of road and compassion for ourselves and others when we are stuck in a traffic jam or experience an incident that triggers our adrenaline.
So before beginning your journey start with relaxing the body as you make yourself comfortable in the driver's seat.
Taking three deep abdominal breaths as if you were filling from the bottom to the top of the lungs.
Then scanning through the body from the face over the torso and down to the buttocks,
The thighs and the lower legs.
Noticing if there are any points of tension.
As you continue to breathe seeing if you can soften and open around them on each exhale.
And now feeling your hands on the steering wheel with a light touch and your feet on the floor or the pedals.
Using the breath to bring a feeling of centeredness and the sensations of the feet on the floor to feel more grounded.
Check in with your feeling tone and allow whatever emotions are present to be held in awareness without trying to change anything.
And then beginning the journey with the intention to arrive safe and relaxed.
Once you start driving you'll notice whether you need concentrated attention or whether you can relax into a more open awareness and you'll find that you can shift between these two as the need arises.
A concentrated focus requires more energy so as soon as it is safe to do so,
Shift into an open orientation.
Driving along quieter roads can be the chance to open your awareness beginning with your inner environment.
Noticing the sensations in your own body,
Any feelings or emotions associated with the heart and recognizing thoughts moving through the mind.
Allowing them all to be just as they are without needing to change anything.
Most of us are not used to maintaining this open awareness orientation so notice when you start to be carried off by thinking and seem to be driving more on autopilot and if that is so we can use the senses,
Particularly the sense of sight,
To bring you right here and now.
Taking in the world around you,
Tuning in to the sights,
The sounds,
The smells or maybe tastes in the mouth and the touch of the hands on the wheel and the body in the seat.
Then noticing the road in front of you and opening to a more peripheral vision once again.
Maybe the sun is shining and there's warmth or the feeling of the heater in the car warming your skin.
With this open awareness the mind is at ease and this can often be the time when a new idea pops into the mind or the solution to something that has been troubling us.
So rather than playing music or listening to the news you may like to give yourself some time of quiet open awareness with the intention of letting the mind settle before you get to your destination so that you are fully prepared and nourished and use the travel time between two places as a chance to recuperate,
Leaving behind any thoughts or feelings that may be lingering,
Particularly if they are uncomfortable.
See if you can touch into the feeling that everything is okay just as it is.
Nothing needs to be different in this moment and if our experience is very pleasant,
The views beautiful,
Then we can savor them using the opportunity to replenish ourselves so that we arrive at our destination with a sense of internal ease and vitality.
If the outside world is unpleasant then we learn to stay steady with what is,
Knowing it will soon pass as we continue on our journey.
So rather than our driving being a frustrating part of the day where we pick up the tension of other drivers,
Allow it to be the chance to rest the mind deeply in our natural state of awareness.
Rather than going through all the things we have to do,
Notice the colors,
The light,
The textures.
Maybe noticing other people too and getting a sense of our human connection,
Our common humanity.
Allow people time to pull out into traffic rather than projecting a constant sense of rush.
And each time you stop at the traffic lights,
See if you can reconnect with your body and relax into the moment,
Allowing the waiting period to offer a chance to pause and to recenter.
And if something happens while you are driving which causes a sudden strong emotion to arise such as fear or anger,
Rather than letting your mind perpetuate the emotion by focusing on the incident itself,
Rather switch your attention back to the body and once again use some deeper breaths to soften and open around any places of tightness.
Notice whether it feels possible to let the emotion dissolve away in its own time,
Bringing you back to the here and the now.
If the emotion feels deeply entrenched and not willing to depart,
Then this can be a good opportunity to practice self-compassion.
We can repeat these simple phrases,
Acknowledging this is a moment of difficulty.
Difficulties are part of every human life.
Let me be kind to myself in this moment.
Let me offer myself the compassion I need.
And you may like to pause the recording and repeat this mini mantra for as long as you like,
Until you can settle back into the moment with less resistance.
And if we find ourselves stuck in traffic,
Maybe with people hooting and growing impatient,
This can be a time to offer loving-kindness practice.
Repeating these phrases and imagining that you can spread them out to all the people in the vehicles around you.
May you be happy.
May you be well.
May you be free from difficulty.
You can make the phrases specific to the moment.
May this traffic flow with ease.
May you arrive at your destination safely.
And once again we can repeat these phrases for as long as feels appropriate.
Maybe pausing the recording.
May you be happy.
May you be healthy and well.
May you be free from the difficulties of life.
Loving-kindness practice is carried out with the intention to help others.
Notice though as you offer the phrases,
Whether it may also begin to have a soothing effect on you.
This is the power of compassion.
The ability to support ourselves and those around us at times of difficulty.
As each car passes us by,
Imagine sending them these wishes that they may be happy and free from difficulty.
And once you have reached your destination,
You can add the quality of appreciation and gratitude that you have arrived safely.
Taking a moment before leaving the car to appreciate this technology that has allowed us to travel here and making the wish that all others driving today may also reach their destinations safely.
