If life is about the journey, not the destination — as the practice of mindfulness reminds us — then the many hours you spend in cars is no exception.
Sure, it may seem a kind of purgatory for the millions of office workers reluctantly returning to their commutes in 2022. But even while stuck behind the wheel, this time can be reclaimed as yours. At an excruciatingly long red light, any driver can practice some mindful breathing or focus on the present moment.
Even better is an electric commute. In an EV, it’s a quiet ride thanks to nearly silent electric motors and battery, and charging at public plugs or at home is time to recalibrate and recharge in more than one way.
Is it actually safe to meditate while driving?
While driving, mindfulness experts mostly seem to encourage on-the-go meditation, especially to combat road rage and tense moments in traffic. The Calm app has a commute playlist for drivers and passengers, while Insight Timer has a 15-minute session for drivers that starts with breathing exercises while your hands are on the steering wheel. Headspace doesn’t recommend doing a full session from the app but offers a car-based variation that starts before you shift into drive.
Psychologist Seth J. Gillihan wrote in Psychology Today about using his drivetime as a place to practice acceptance, a form of gratitude and mindfulness.
“I’ve found 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 I’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.”
Mindfulness expert Jim Posner is a big advocate of meditating in the car, and not just when it’s parked. In a Thrive Global Medium post he writes, “There is a misconception about meditating. You do not have to be sitting on a cushion on the floor with your eyes closed in a full-lotus position to practice Mindfulness. You can do it while you are: driving, walking, eating, showering, waiting for the elevator, being intimate.”
More of your fellow drivers might be practicing mindfulness than you’d think.
My Mashable colleague Chris Taylor uses the Mindfulness app on his Apple Watch while behind the wheel. Using haptic feedback, the watch guides him to breathe for up to a five-minute stretch. He said while focused on breathing, he’s not zoning out nor in a trance — instead he’s paying attention to the task at hand (breathing and driving) and can’t be as distracted as when listening to music or a podcast.
Carmakers get on board with mindfulness
Similar to Apple’s haptic feedback, Mercedes-Benz recently partnered with personalized audio company Endel to create a chill driving experience through sound. Endel CEO Oleg Stavitsky said in an email that, “A car is one of the few environments where you need to both focus and relax, often switching between the two states.” Mercedes-Benz’s soundscape was supposedly tuned to keep drivers calm, alert, and responsive, all while accounting for their driving behaviors, such as speeding or strong braking.
While many cars are adding in features to induce calm and relaxation with soothing sounds, glowing lights, massaging seats, and even pleasant scents, any electric vehicle is almost always an ideal meditation mobile: While parked and plugged in, you have time to meditate and practice gratitude and mindfulness, while the quiet hum of an engine-less car also makes drivetime an opportunity to focus on your breathing.
Just about any EV can become a meditation pod when charging at public stations or even parked in your driveway, plugged into a home charger. Unlike the gas-station stress that comes with internal combustion engine vehicles, “refueling” your electric car can be a time to decompress.
Tesla has garnered attention for its games, fart mode, and “caraoke” built into the car, but Tesla’s infotainment center also serves as a portal to calm, focus, and attention. Connect to your music account and plug in any playlists or apps like Headspace and Calm, or play Spotify’s Daily Wellness collection. Especially when seated in the spartan Tesla Model 3 and Model Y front seats, it’s easy to forgo distractions.
Dustin Krause, Volkswagen’s director of e-mobility, said in a phone call that EVs are a “peaceful place to be.” He described any EV as quiet and smooth, and pointed to VW’s first electric SUV, the ID.4 for its massage seats upfront, panoramic glass roof, and driver assistance and voice control. To set a mood the ID.4 also lets you customize the ambient lighting to create a personalized, calming space. The lighting takes advantage of the open, expansive layout of the car because the battery lies flat on the bottom of the car.
Krause said charging time is “time for yourself or to connect with others.” Even though he has a plug at home, he said he’ll often go to a nearby Electrify America station where he’ll take time for personal phone calls while charging. “I catch up with my mom,” he said.
Other EVs are leaning into the built in “me-time” that comes with charging. Ford F-150 Lightning has seats that recline nearly 180 degrees. The new Hyundai Ioniq 5 has an option for reclining back seats, while Lucid Air offers luxurious executive seating in the back that practically feel like a bed.
The future of (safe) mindfulness on the road
Soon we’ll contend with the next level of driving: autonomous vehicles. When self-driving cars let drivers look away from the road and refocus their attention, the car space becomes somewhere to play, work, relax, or even sleep. Those full-blown Headspace sessions, which the app’s founder Andy Puddicombe advised against using while behind the wheel, would be fair game in a self-driving vehicle.
But we’re not there yet. Until then, there’s always public transit. Under the right conditions, you can steal a few minutes for yourself, and not have to worry about driving, traffic, bicyclists in your blindspot, or anything other than being there on that bus seat, present in the moment.
