Mindful Driving - Leaning Into Sounds

This gentle practice offers you the experience of leaning into your sense of hearing to let go of thoughts and feelings, as you take the road to clearer thinking and reduced stress. Jo guides you to let go of tension, frequently reminding you to bring your attention to your sense of hearing to help you feel calmer, more grounded and accepting of the world around you.

Transcript

This mindful driving practice has been created to support you to feel more present,

Calmer and clearer on your journey in the vehicle and in your life.

Driving is a beautiful metaphor for your journey in life,

Where you choose your own path,

Which maps to use,

Which roads to avoid and which to follow.

And then with mindful driving,

You're choosing to bring mindfulness to the driver's seat,

To be more deeply aware along the path to your chosen destination.

As you listen,

Remember you're in control of your vehicle in life.

Your safety remains your own responsibility.

So remain awake and alert,

Allowing this session to remind you to be in your present moment.

At times the traffic may require all of your focus,

So let that be your practice.

Coming back to focus on your sense of sight when conditions allow.

Consider starting this session with a parked practice.

Often drivers find this helps them to let go of the day more easily and more quickly.

And here it would allow you to close your eyes for three deep breaths,

Then noticing what you can hear in a longer,

Deeper immersion than driving allows.

Let's begin by engaging the vagus nerve,

Inhaling and exhaling with an ah sound,

And repeating this three times.

Let the breath wash through you,

Noticing the sounds of the breath,

Your own sounds and your own experience as you release and let go with a gentle ah sound on the exhale.

Let this experience and this sound release any tension,

Allowing you to unwind and become more deeply present in this moment.

And becoming aware of the sounds you hear around you.

Notice the sound of other traffic and tuning in to hear the most furthest away sounds.

Perhaps you can hear something flying,

The birds going past or an aeroplane flying in the sky.

Simply noticing these sounds,

Noticing the sounds closer to you,

Sounds of nearby traffic,

Perhaps nearby people,

The constant hum of the engine,

Noticing the sound of the wheels on the road.

And as you're noticing these sounds,

Noticing acknowledging if any emotions pop up for you,

Any feelings pop up for you,

Noticing any sense of wanting to avoid the sounds,

Or wanting more of the sounds.

Simply noticing and acknowledging these emotional reactions to the sounds,

And then seeing if you can let them go.

Letting go of judgments,

Of attraction or aversion.

Looking to simply be a witness of the sounds without needing to do anything with them,

Or anything about them.

Practicing accepting the sounds just the way they are.

And as we come to practice acceptance of the sounds of what we're hearing and experiencing in the here and now,

It can help us be more resilient,

More accepting of life as different things come to us along the journey.

And rather than quickly and habitually judging or deciding that they're good or bad,

Simply sitting with the experience,

Being with the experience.

And here we're practicing this by being with the experience of sound,

Noticing the sounds,

Noticing the sounds around you,

Being aware of those sounds as traffic allows.

And as you drive and come to a stop sign,

Red light or traffic,

You can lean more deeply into your experience of sound,

Taking the opportunity to perhaps focus on just one sound.

It could be the ticking of a pedestrian light,

The hum of your engine,

Whatever it is you're experiencing at this pause on the journey.

It's leaning into the experience a little more deeply than you can when you're driving,

Leaning into the experience of sound,

Noticing what you're hearing as you're driving,

Noticing the sounds inside the car and the sounds outside the car.

Notice them while also practicing non-judgment,

Practicing not deciding if they're good or bad,

But just being with the sound the way it is.

And if and when a sound brings up some emotion in you,

Stirs up some emotion,

You can choose to acknowledge that or if you feel really irritated by it,

You could journal about it later.

Often people are triggered by the sound of sirens,

Perhaps it brings up bad memories,

Perhaps it brings up fear about your own family or your own existence.

Whatever it is for you,

If a sound seems to trigger something uncomfortable,

You can write about it later,

Talk it over with a friend or a helpful therapist.

Leaning into the experience at these times of feeling aversion to a sound.

When we practice mindfulness,

Sometimes the discomfort doesn't feel like a sore knee or it doesn't feel like hunger that's quite easily recognizable,

But it's often more abstract.

It might be an aversion to a siren as I've said,

And this may come up for you as feeling like you need to speed or feeling like you need to stop or feeling like you just want to get away from the sound.

And if that's happening for you,

Then you can also lean in to the feeling of wanting to get away or writing about it later,

Just choosing the path,

The road that is best for you.

It's often been my experience that an emotion goes down deep for seven layers.

And if this happens for you and you're feeling triggered while you're practicing mindfulness,

You may actually experience the trigger as being hungry or being lonely or being angry,

Wanting to get away,

Wanting to stop or turn off the practice,

Wanting to fidget or jiggle,

Or take that next sugar high.

And all of these things are quite normal and quite okay.

They're also all things that stop you deepening your mindfulness practice.

They can upset the digestive system and they can mess with your memory.

The anxious brain is unable to receive information and hold information.

For those of you who are not aware of this,

You may be able to receive information and hold information,

But just know that all of these things can be worked through.

The triggers can be released.

And as you practice mindfulness and driving and you find your brain slides into an alpha brainwave state,

The healing begins to happen.

Even without effort,

The brain begins to integrate these previously uncomfortable experiences.

And once integrated,

The triggers no longer exist.

So while mindful driving can lean itself towards an alpha brainwave state,

Other forms of meditation can take you even deeper.

The healing can go even deeper through the process of brainwashing and cellular regeneration and healing.

Know that a mindful driving practice supports any other meditation practice.

Yogi Bajan was a very wise yogi who brought one form of yoga to the West.

He talked about a 10% rule that whatever you do for 10% of the time,

You can do it for the rest of the day.

And he said that the most powerful yoga is the one that you do for the rest of the day.

And he said that the most powerful yoga is the one that you do for the rest of the day.

And he said that the most powerful yoga is the one that you do for the rest of the day.

And he said that the most powerful yoga is the one that you have to watch your back,

Turning over your shoulder to see if someone's coming for you in some way.

Then imagine if you're in this for more than eight hours a day,

How long the effects of this workplace last with you.

I've found this 10% rule to be quite true.

And perhaps you can manage 20 minutes of mindfulness in the morning,

40 minutes of mindful driving to and from work,

Already you're going to be experiencing some deepening of your life experience and some changes.

Add another 20 minutes meditation before sleep,

Or mindful eating during the workday,

And your mindfulness practice will gently stay with you for the whole 24 hours experience.

And as you're driving,

Continue to remember to bring your awareness back to your sense of hearing,

Exploring and deepening your connection with your sense of hearing and sharpening your sense of focus with hearing and choosing to bring your sense of awareness more deeply into your hearing space.

Noticing a sound or many sounds around you and allowing your sense of awareness to settle in to your sense of hearing,

Settling in,

Grounding and calming using the anchor of hearing and bringing your awareness into your sense of hearing and bringing your awareness back to your sense of hearing and bringing your awareness into your sense of hearing and bringing your awareness into your sense of hearing.

For the remainder of this recording,

I'll be popping back to remind you to bring your focus back to the present moment using your sense of hearing.

In case your journey ends before this recording does,

Thank you for practicing today.

You can collect a whole set of valuable mindful driving tools by exploring more driving practices,

Courses and workshops.

Until next time,

May you be happy,

Safe and kind.

Noticing what you're hearing,

Noticing the sounds around you,

Bringing your awareness back to your sense of hearing,

Accepting what is,

Letting go of thoughts and bringing your awareness to your sense of hearing and bringing your awareness into your sense of hearing and bringing your awareness into your sense of hearing.