Turn Your Daily Commute Into Your Daily Meditation

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be able to flow through life effortlessly and gracefully?  What it would be like to be unaffected by the stresses and pressures of this sometimes insane and often fraught world?

 

Well, the good news is you can.

Travelling by bus or train can be a stress-busting experience

Your daily commute by public transport can become a blissful experience (and I don't use the word "blissful" lightly!).

Twice a day, commuting gives you an opportunity to experience valuable "me" time.  You spend this time alone, even if squashed and surrounded by hordes of other travellers, so why not use this time wisely to go within yourself, to connect with the real you and experience what can be an amazing sense of peace and serenity. 

At its simplest, taking advantage of this daily experience can enhance your health and wellbeing, reducing stress and its associated illnesses.  However, it is when connected to this inner state that you can make your wisest decisions and gain clarity about difficult situations.  So whether you just want to relax and chill or whether you are seeking the answer to a problem that is upsetting you, this is the untroubled, less emotional state to act from.

Some describe this state as meditation, others as connecting with your Higher Self whilst others simply consider it as relaxation.  However you choose to describe it, the benefits are the same: the ability to start and end the working day, focusing on your goals and desires, will sustain your true self rather than allowing it to get lost amidst the madness of the modern Western world.  From this state, wiser decisions are made and instincts and intuition are easier to heed and follow.

Learn to trust your intuition.

Intuition is certainly not something to be disregarded as spiritual mumbo-jumbo.  You can probably recall that not one animal died because of the tsunami in Thailand in December 2004.  They sensed the imminent arrival of the gigantic wave and made their way to safe ground whilst people remained ignorant of the danger, in the hotels and on the beaches.  Similarly, scientists have conducted studies, which concluded that people make better decisions acting on their first instinctual impressions.  In one such study, a group of people were asked to decide which of four cars was the best one to buy. Half of the group was given detailed information about the vehicles and asked to assess all the data before making their decisions.  The other half were simply shown photographs of each car and asked to select which one they felt was the best.  Of the first group, 25% chose correctly.  In contrast, almost 75% of the "intuitive choosers" chose the best car.

It is this ability to make decisions intuitively that is so greatly enhanced by quiet moments of relaxation or meditation. 

Easy steps to reaching mental and emotional peace

The following is a simple exercise to bring you into a relaxed mental state.  Whilst starting in a tranquil place is ideal, this process can work just as effectively on a train, bus or in any noisy environment provided you are free to close your eyes (so while driving is not a good idea!). Listening to an MP3 player loaded with relaxing, instrumental music will also enhance the experience and help to ease you into a world of focused relaxation.

Begin by just watching your breathing.  Notice how when you concentrate on it, your breathing rate actually begins to slow down, finding its own natural, deeper rhythm.  You may want to count along with it, breathing in for a count of seven and out for a count of eleven, maybe.  This alone will start to alter your brainwave patterns so enhancing your connection to your wiser intuitive self but let's take it a step furtherÂ?

If it is the journey to work, begin to get a sense of what lies ahead for you today Â? meetings, phone calls, discussions with colleagues and clients (some friendly, some maybe not so amicable), then start to imagine how you would like the day to go.  Drift through the day's events, organising them as you would like them to occur.  You can become the controller of your life just as if you were the director of a play.  Then once you have done that, go through the day again, enjoying the events as you have now created them.

Alternatively, if you are on the commute home, once relaxed, review the day that has passed.  Acknowledge to yourself that you did your best and then let it go.  If anything occurred during the day that is bothering you, ask yourself "Will it matter in a year's time?"  The answer is more than likely going to be, "No, not at all." Accept this fact and then let the trouble go.  Instead turn your attention to your evening and look forward to how refreshing a deep uninterrupted sleep will be that night, preparing you for the next day. 

After completing either the morning or evening routine, you can either just go back to enjoying the steady deep rhythm of your breathing, noticing any thoughts or feelings that you may experience or you can take the process a stage further, perhaps begin to focus on decisions you need to take.  Maybe you could begin to create the future life you want to live.  Better still use your imagination (and intuition, of course) to determine how to use this time most beneficially for you.

One lady decided that she would use this "me" time to imagine a more harmonious relationship with her husband with whom she had been having constant arguments.  So on her journey home each day she imagined enjoying the evenings with her partner as she used to do when they first got married.  The relaxation and the thoughts of enjoying her husband's company combined so that when she got home each day, she continued to be relaxed and so was less likely to be offended by her husband's comments and actions.  Very soon, the changes in her made him look at her differently and act in a more amenable way. Not much later, they were enjoying the evenings together exactly as she had imagined them on her train journeys home. 

Whatever you decide to do, I can guarantee that this process will enable you to begin and end the day in a much happier frame of mind.  Once you have mastered the process of relaxing, you will be amazed at how quickly you can return to it whenever and wherever you need to, almost as easily as just flicking a switch.

The uses you can then put it to are endless Â? decision making, future planning and manifestation to name but three.  Your mind only functions 10% on a conscious level, which means you are completely unaware of 90% of its activities and it is these subconscious processes that are controlling your life.  This process of guided relaxation enables you to make the unconscious (i.e. the stronger and more powerful part of your brain) work much more effectively for you.

So why not give it a try today Â? simply get as comfortable as you can and begin to slow your breathing rate, count to seven in and eleven out, seven in and eleven outÂ?and so onÂ? and then see what you can learn from yourself.

As Budha said,

"Meditation brings wisdom; lack of mediation leaves ignorance. Know well what leads you forward and what hold you back, and choose the path that leads to wisdom."

 

About the author:

Fiona Atkins is a solution-focused hypnotherapist, reiki practitioner, NLP practitioner, life coach and co-founder of Guiding Compass. Guiding Compass run one day workshops introducing people to a number of life enhancing techniques including self-hypnosis, confidence boosting and stress reduction.

Website: http://www.guidingcompass.co.uk/

Author: Fiona Atkins
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