Mindfulness Daily Check-In November 30, 2017

Hello wonderful Mindfulness community! How are you all doing?

Practicing mindful driving can be a powerful antidote to the driving-related problems. As with any activity, being mindful while driving means first of all focusing attention on what we're doing right now. There are many experiences that can anchor our attention in the present when we drive, such as:

~noticing what we see in front of us

~feeling the movement of the car

~being aware of physical sensations, like the feel of the steering wheel in our hands

~sensing the movements we make to pilot our car

~hearing the sound of the road and the wind

Present-focused attention in mindful driving is coupled with an attitude of nonjudgmental openness to the experience, just as it is. This openness while driving includes practicing acceptance of the things we can't control, like the volume of traffic, whether we make a green light, the actions of other drivers, and so forth.

Acceptance when driving to be extremely helpful. We often add so much stress to our drive by fighting things we can't change. For example, there are countless times we might've silently (or aloud) cursed a stop light for turning red, or another car for "getting in my way." When we deliberately let go of the need for everything to work out exactly our way, much of the stress and anger we experience can dissolve.

"Acceptance" while driving doesn't have to mean liking or condoning something. We don't have to convince ourselves that other drivers don't make mistakes (as do we), or that we don't care what time we get home, or anything else. All it means is that we don't add unnecessary resistance to what is.

Some people might be concerned that meditation while driving could be dangerous, which would be true if the practice were about adding an attention-grabbing task on top of driving. But mindful driving means bringing our full attention to the act of driving—simply put, actually doing what we're doing. It's the opposite of our tendency to drive mindlessly, miss exits, be distracted on our phone, etc.

Let me know your thoughts below!

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