How to enjoy driving as a Highly Sensitive Person?

Driving as a highly sensitive person can be a big deal.
As a highly sensitive person, you may have felt driving as a gruesome task, a means to an end. I have always found driving therapeutic but traffic or too many people bustling the street was a big no for me. It irritated me and would make me react to things that weren’t worth my attention.

Whenever I was in traffic, my senses would become hyper-aware, and my mind would notice each and everything around me to dodge any possible danger around me. It will make up scenarios so that it knows everything around if something were to happen in the future. It will repeat the things to say or do for future safety or things that could have been said or done in the past.

Once I reach my destination, my mood will be off the charts because my therapeutic task became depressing. Over the years in my mindfulness practice, I realized the cause and started to work on it. And it does work. Here are the things that I applied as a highly sensitive person to make driving enjoyable and I hope that they might help you:

Avoid traffic hours

Sounds obvious. But why not? Life is already hard for highly sensitive people, so why make it more complicated? Try to go early so you don’t have to face the energy of people around you. If it agitates your emotions you can give yourself a favor and leave early.

No need to rush

No need to rush to get somewhere. Your mind goes into high beta mode when you try to avoid the present moment and try to be somewhere else. This gap creates an imbalance in your brain circuits and makes your body feel like it’s in an emergency. Thus the body feels it needs to protect itself, the moment the body releases fear or stress-based hormones, the mind starts to create scenarios that put the body under more stress. It becomes a never-ending loop.
To avoid this, you need to be mindful enough of your thoughts like- I need to be there, I need to hurry up, I need to leave this place so that I can be there, I don’t want to be here, I want to be there, etc. Observe your thoughts non-judgmentally. Let them be there, if you try to avoid them or try to get rid of them, they will come in full force. Just be aware of them, let them rise and fall.

Avoid making driving as a means to get somewhere

Try to make the process as important as the goal. Make it your ritual.
Observe nature around you, listen to the sound or the silence beneath the sound, the chirping of birds, the vibration of your vehicle beneath your hands or legs, and winds flowing through the leaves or trees without leaves, Observe the shape of those trees. It’s amazingly enchanting.

Observe your inner state of being

Ask yourself how you feel right now. If you’re frustrated, observe the cause of your frustration. Is there really something bothering you or is it just your normal state of being? Sometimes we react over things that we don’t even realize we are reacting to. Unbelievable? Try observing your behavior right now. How are you feeling right now?

Observe the space around you

When we observe space around our body we get out of our mind and place our attention on our body. Try to observe the energy around your hands, feet, arms, and legs. Keep doing this, now open your focus by feeling your whole body’s energetic field. Stay there, if you are getting distracted, it’s normal, just gently get your attention back on your body. The reason why I follow this practice is that it helps my mind off the loop and helps me to return my attention to the present moment.

Make it your spiritual practice

Driving becomes more enjoyable for highly sensitive people when they make it their ritual. Highly sensitive people love rituals or to know what to do when. Otherwise, our mind will start to look outside to analyze. So it’s better to set the task of driving as your spiritual practice. Honestly, when I do this I observe things that I haven’t seen before or see them now in New light.

Life is tough but so are you. We will get it one day but until that day, let’s take it one day at a time. Slow yourself down, HSP, when life is in a rush. You will eventually realize that life is never about the next moment but this moment. Until next time. Bye.