This is a little something to try while driving to keep your attention on the road and deal with stressful traffic. It is based on R.A.I.N. (Recognize, Accept, Investigate, Non-identify) a mindfulness tool for dealing with strong emotions. A good explanation of it can be found here:
http://tarabrach.com/articles/RAIN-WorkingWithDifficulties.html
The idea here is to look for each the colors of the rainbow and go through the process of RAIN for each one. For instance:
Recognize Red - Red is the next big thing. Hey, Red 'sup?
Accept Red - Red is in the house! Yo, Red thanks for being in my head!
Investigate Red - Where is Red? Taillights, Red cars, stop signs, stop lights, lots of stuff is Red. Move your head around, look left, right, further up the road, check you r mirrors. You are supposed to be doing this stuff anyway.
Non-Identify Red - Later Red! Letting go. Detach. Red happened and now Red is done.
Do the same for Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet.
OK, Indigo and Violet are not always jumping out at you when you drive. Just do Red, Blue, Green a few times in a row. The idea is to use the commute as a mindfulness tool not subscribe to a rigid structure.
When I go through the rainbow at a relaxed pace set by inhaling and exhaling deeply two or three times for each step it takes about 15 to 20 minutes. That is pretty decent amount of time to spend in a mindful way and I get to do it while I am driving to work.
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