🎯 Today’s Mission:

To successfully complete today’s mission:

✅ Make your commute more mentally active.

✅ Write down how today’s task made you feel.

✅ [OPTIONAL] Share with us, in the Morning Routine Challenge Support Group how your morning went.

✅ Complete the form at the bottom of the page when done.

The Sleekgeek 21-Day Morning Routine Challenge is sponsored by Vitaforce.

💡 More Info:

❓ How to complete the mission

Mindfulness does not need to be done sitting silently on a mat with gentle music playing softly in the background, rather it is a habit that can be practised almost everywhere. In fact it is in these mundane moments that meditation can be the most powerful like washing your dishes, folding clothes or cooking.

We already asked you to mindfully complete one of your daily habits such as making coffee or brushing your teeth. Today’s task requires you to be more mindful on your commute to work or if you work from home a commute you may make during the day.

Whether you drive, walk or take public transportation this is a morning ritual that can help alleviate stress and help you be more present and focused throughout the day.

And if you are pressed for time during the early hours of your day, your commute presents the perfect opportunity to make up for lost time and add a great ritual to your day.

🤓 How?

There are a couple of exercises that you can do to bring yourself into your present space: Loving kindness, surrender to what is, focus on sensations, be aware of your environment or embrace silence. We’ve collected a couple of them and summarised them below:

Try loving kindness.

Loving kindness involves evoking a felt sense of compassion and empathy for yourself and others.

Early morning traffic can be a nightmare and bring out the worst feelings in us such as impatience, agitation, and even dislike for fellow drivers. Believe it or not but this is the perfect opportunity for loving-kindness practice. Use these feelings to reflect and gain perspective.

Step 1: Accept without judgement

It is important to realise and accept that the feelings you are experiencing are normal. Do not assign any meaning to them as they aren’t good or bad. They just are.

Repeat to yourself that compassion for others begins with compassion for yourself.

Step 2: We’re all human

Try to connect to the person sitting next to you at that robot or in the traffic jam. Feel that sense of shared humanity with those around you. This isn’t always easy to do, and sometimes it feels a little contrived. That’s okay.

Now try to imagine that each and every person on the road, in the bus or driving by in their vehicle has a life of their own, a family at home, and a story. Try to feel some compassion and acceptance for yourself and the environment around you.

Step 3: Connect with your breath

Finally, connect your loving kindness practice with your breathing.

Imagine breathing in the discomfort of others. On the exhale, send out relief.

This is such a simple yet powerful practice which combines the feelings of compassion and loving-kindness with a focus on the breath.

Whenever your mind wanders, return to the intention of inhaling discomfort and exhaling relief.

Surrender to what is

Two major components of mindfulness practice are acceptance and surrender. These aren’t easy to do so give yourself some grace.

Our daily commutes can lead to feelings of impatience as we sit in traffic and one way to ease these feelings of unease is to focus on accepting the situation.

You will not be stuck in your car forever or waiting at the bus stop. Use it as an opportunity to be with what is.

Step 1: Focus on bodily sensations

Ask yourself questions, like “Is my heart racing?”

Step 2: Experience the feelings

Allow yourself to experience these feelings without pushing them away. Let them be as they are.

Then try to reorient the feeling of resistance to a feeling of tolerance. Can you dissolve the feeling even further into a feeling of acceptance?

Step 3: Reorient your thoughts

Now this may seem difficult but can you go even further and begin to feel a sense of gratitude for those uncomfortable feelings? You can look at it positively in the sense that they were the trigger that reminded you of the opportunity for mindfulness.

Focusing on sensations

Another way to bring mindfulness into your commute is to focus on your sensations. One way to do this is by practising body scan meditation. Remember our task from Day Ten?

If you are driving, feel your hands against the steering wheel. Feel your back against the seat and the seat against your bottom.

Ask yourself:

Can I feel even more deeply and sense the texture of the road?
Can I sense the hum of the engine or the weight of the vehicle beneath me?
Can I feel the sheer velocity as I hurtle down the highway?

Let the sensations that arise bring you more into the present moment.

Environmental awareness

Your environment, whether you are in a car or in a taxi can be another opportunity to engage and be more present in the moment.

Keep your mind from wandering by bringing it back to the moment to moment reality of your surroundings.

Take a few relaxing breaths.
Take in the details of your environment that aren’t immediately obvious like noticing what you see in your peripheral vision.
Have a gentle awareness of what comes up.
Repeat until you feel calm and ready to stop.

Embrace silence

It may be tempting to fill the silence with a favourite podcast or music but embracing silence can be a great practice that can result in a general sense of appreciation.

You can begin by setting aside 5 minutes for nothing but silence. Just listen.

Notice the surrounding sounds that are both close and far away.

Pay attention to your stream of thoughts with curiosity, gentleness and detachment.

Observe your breath. Pay attention to your inhale and exhale.

This pause can result in heightened senses which means that once your five minutes are up and you put on your favourite song, it may sound far richer to your ears.