THE COMMUTE

Believe it or not, your familiarity with your journey to work can make your commute fertile soil for cultivating presence. Here’s how.

When the mind is familiar with a journey, it can switch on to autopilot and cruise along, paying less attention to its surroundings. That’s because it perceives the route as a known and registered reality, therefore devoid of fresh interest. (This can also happen in our romantic relationships.) In this scenario, we come to rely increasingly on our memory rather than an awareness of what’s occurring in the present moment.

No matter how many times you have made the journey to work, always be listening and looking. Wonder and loveliness can appear in unexpected places.

TIP: Say you’re hell-bent on getting to that life-changing meeting (focusing on the destination rather than the journey, which is known in the meditation game as ‘end gaining’), you risk missing the life-changing conversation the lady at the coffee house was trying to have with you as you rushed off.

Meditation: Walk to Work

(30 minutes, or length of your commute)

• Head out the door willing to see the world with fresh eyes.
• Feel your feet on the ground. Hear the sound of your footsteps – all that noise you are making. Your walking is part of this grand moment too.
• See if you can use your commute as an opportunity to be present. For example, pay attention to what’s happening now, for the entirety of your commute. This way, each commute becomes a wonderful practice in present-moment awareness, as opposed to thirty minutes of random mental activity.
• Last but not least, be aware of this wonderful capacity you have: to be aware, awake and a part of this great life we share.

Feeling Overwhelmed by Commuters

‘We are all here on earth to help others; what on earth the others are here for I don’t know.’

John Foster Hall, comedian

Sometimes you’re travelling to work and everything would be great – except for all those other people in your space. Here are some handy tricks for staying sane on the train.

Meditation: For the Thrill Seeker: The Wild West

The Indian mystic Swami Vivekenanda is said to have suggested that the best jobs for a truth seeker were in the armed forces or the police. I expect his reasoning was that these jobs require a person to navigate many a sticky situation.

I think the same can apply to the commute.

When intense situations arise, treat them like a rich, deeply vital yoga class. Get immersed in the entire experience.

• Approach the diversity of the commute like riding a raucous Wild West Train.
• Embrace the mass of life joining you for the trip.
• Don’t resist the ruckus or cut yourself off from it with your book or your phone, for example. Instead move more deeply into the experience so that you can feel entirely intimate with life.

TIP: Read the poem ‘Snow’ by Louis MacNeice and laugh at how intense the world is sometimes.

Meditation: For the Intellectual: the Transparency

You feel overwhelmed by people being so close to you. You wish you could wrap yourself in a magical bubble to protect yourself against their thoughts, feelings and smells …

Maybe some people are rude or smelly or dawdling. Watch carefully as their actions draw reactions from you – despite the fact that moments ago you were so chilled out. Before you know it, you too are drawn in and start to take your surroundings personally.

• Don’t withdraw and don’t aggress. Just remain in stillness, as though you have become transparent.
• Allow noises, smells and sly manoeuvres to pass through you, unable to get any purchase on you.
• Let it all happen. And remain the quiet observer of your reactions.
• Having nothing to grip on to and nothing to play the game with, life will start to hook into you less and feel easier.

Meditation: Improving Focus on the Train

(2 minutes)

Try choosing to keep your attention focused on the image or idea of an apple, or maybe the feeling of breathing in and out. See if you can keep your attention tied to your object of choice for the time spent between stops on the train. This works best if the time between stops is a couple of minutes long.

Meditation: Pause Points

(15 seconds)

Many mini meditations make for a very happy day. Pause for three conscious breaths before you take the lift, stars or elevator on your way to work.