A Meditation for Driving

Driving can be wonderfully free: the wind caressing the side of your face, the radio playing the perfect song, and the car and the driver merging in a beautiful relationship of machine and (wo)man. 

Driving can also be an exercise in frustration, with honking horns and the expressway seemingly filled with negative people.

Our experience of the world is how we perceive ourselves, and it is truly in our minds. Compare how you saw the world when you were in love, versus when you were annoyed by your partner. Did everything change as much as is felt like to you, or was it all your internal experience?

As you get behind the wheel, before you turn the ignition, prepare yourself.

Make yourself as comfortable as possible.

Take some time to sit before you press the gas and form for yourself a mantra. A friend of mine likes to think, "I will be safe. I will be calm. I will travel and arrive happily." Say this, or your own mantra, to yourself in your head, with conviction, three times.

Then start the car. Begin your journey. Remind yourself to breathe.

Feel the wheel beneath your hands and keep your shoulders relaxed. If you begin to feel short of temper by external circumstances (a driver that cut you off) remind yourself that your reaction will not change anything (except perhaps your blood pressure). 

Repeat your mantra (this time with eyes open, please!). 

As you arrive, notice if you feel calmer than you normally do.

If the mantra worked, write it down in the car and place it on the steering wheel as a reminder that you can react less in life, and enjoy more.

If the mantra didn't work, keep trying until you find the right combination of words and sounds that lead you on more peaceful journeys.