How to make your daily commute more relaxed and bearable

If you live far from your school or work, then you’re pretty familiar with the life-draining experience that is commuting. You know that feeling when you’re in one heck of a traffic jam, your blood pressure spikes and your stress-level goes from zero to a hundred real quick? Yeah that.

I personally have no qualms on long commutes; my family has always lived far from the city centre and we prefer it that way. But I despise the heavy bumper-to-bumper traffic that comes with commuting.

I hate it with passion.

And when I’m royally pissed while commuting, I’ll bring that mood with me wherever I’ll go. Then I’d be royally pissed at everything for the rest of the day.

How to Make Your Daily Commute More Relaxed and Bearable | Daily commute, relaxed, mindfulness, happiness, stress relief

Let’s be real here: being royally pissed for a whole day can be quite exhausting.

Bad moods drain the life out of you. They exhaust you. And when you’re in one, it’s sometimes pretty hard to get out of it. Daily commute and traffic jams have a way of pushing our buttons, which is why commuting can be so stressful.

The thing is, it doesn’t have to be that way! Your commute time can be peaceful slices of your day, if you want it to. That’s why I always try and make my long commute to and from uni as relaxed and as bearable as I possibly could. Here are some things you can try to have a more relaxed and more bearable daily commute.

6 SIMPLE WAYS TO MAKE YOUR DAILY COMMUTE MORE RELAXING AND BEARABLE

1 | Read a book

This works when the traffic is super heavy and the cars move at, like, less than five centimetres per hour. Reading a book that’s light and in your favorite genre can make the daily commute more enjoyable. If you aren’t into or able to read a book in your commute, then maybe listening to an audiobook would be great for you. (And yes, listening to audiobooks is technically reading! Fayt me.)

2 | Listen to relaxing podcasts

Podcasts and commute are the best combination, you guys! I was a skeptic before, since I love listening to podcasts in a quiet room. But I was a quick convert the moment I listened to some of my favorite podcasts while taking the suuuper long commute to the office I interned in last semester. It made that hours-long travel more bearable. Sometimes, especially when I’m listening to Straight and Curly, I’d have to bite back a laugh. Talk about bringing good mood to where you’ll go!

3 | Do small craft work

This one, I’ve never personally done during my commute. But one time, there was this fellow passenger in front of me who was crocheting while we were in a traffic jam. She looked absolutely cozy and relaxed while doing it, too! There are also fellow artists who bring a small sketchbook with them so they can sketch while commuting. If you’re into small craft works like crocheting and art, you can totally do this! These are definitely small yet absolutely fun activities you can do in your daily commute.

4 | Be present (and listen to Sargant)

Being present, especially in an often stress-filled environment like the middle of heavy traffic, can be extremely difficult. And I’d like to give a special side eye to those impatient drivers who toot their horns like some entitled trolls and horribly adding to the already noise-polluted situation. We all want to get out of this traffic, Benjamin.

I recently came across Ash Sargant, this man who created ten-minute tracks of the BEST ambient music I’ve ever heard. What he did, in my opinion, was extraordinary.

Sargant believed that one of the reasons why we find our commutes super stressful is because we associate the usual sounds we hear during a commute – the footsteps, the car horns, the engines – with stress. So he recorded calming music tracks using traffic, escalators, footsteps on cement floor, and all other mundane sounds that we usually find annoying. This particular track, Big Departure, is my favorite.

5 | Practice mindfulness

I don’t practice mindfulness regularly but the times that I did, it never fails me. One simple mindfulness exercise I do while commuting is picking up four things that I can sense with four of my senses. So, four things I can see, smell, feel and hear. I usually don’t include taste. If mindfulness meditation seems hard for you, there are also short guided meditation podcasts, like Chel Hamilton’s Meditation Minis podcast, and apps like Headspace that you can listen to.

6 | Catch up on sleep

By far, this is my favorite thing to do while commuting. And as someone who can sleep on, like, any-freakin-where, this comes easy-peasy for me. It’s great too, since I don’t have to awkwardly look at that window pane in between the two passengers in front of me. Catching up on sleep during your commute is fantastic especially if you didn’t have much time to sleep in the past few days.

Do you take long commutes everyday? What do you do to make your daily commute more relaxing and more bearable?

xx Kate

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6 Simple Ways to Make Your daily Commute More Relaxed and Bearable | Lifestyle, stress relief, mental health, happiness
PS. I have a Pinterest board for stress relief and another one for mindfulness and mediation. Check them out!

Comments

Wowww! thanks for this!

Sumedha says:

I do take long commutes. I spend one hour, on a good day, to go and come back each. So about two hours. It was stressful recently since I made the shift from travelling by college bus to public bus. I’ve found ways to reduce the stress and anxiety pretty quickly, though. Instead of taking the direct bus, I take two buses, both of which are usually not crowded. I HATE crowds so that has improved my mood TREMENDOUSLY. I also listen to upbeat or calming music depending on my mood. If I can bear the usage of phone during commute, I catch up on blog posts.

Also, great tips! I’m going to check out the podcasts you mentioned.

Debbie J says:

A bad journey can definitely give me a bad mood quite easily, maybe not one that lasts the whole day but it certainly can feel like that sometimes!
Glad you mentioned podcasts as a tip, I’ve been getting them really into them recently and they’re so good for travelling when you’ve got nothing else to do.

Kate says:

Oh totally! And yes, podcasts are sooo good for travelling. What podcasts have you subscribed or love at the moment?

Debbie J says:

My favourites are the ones I’ve listened to for the longest now. I’m a big fan of Dear Hank and John and There’s No Such Thing As A Fish. Both are funny but factual, which I really enjoy as a mix.
Which do you enjoy listening to?

Kate says:

Omg I didn’t know Hank and John had a podcast! I’ll check that one and the Fish one out. I really love Invisibilia and Radiolab, they’re about psychology and science respectively but they talk about it through human stories which I absolutely love! Straight and Curly, which I mentioned in the post, is my obsession! It’s about self-improvement 🙂 I’ve yet to find a good bookish podcast and I really want to!

Debbie J says:

I’m going to check yours out. And Hank and John’s is so good, it’s a must!

[…] don’t work from home, it’s impossible to get around the fact that you have to commute to work. Kate over at All the Trinkets has some great tips for finding relaxation during your daily commute. For me personally, I find listening to an […]

hanmwill says:

I always either read, listen to a podcast or fall asleep on the bus, depending on how tired I am and it definitely always makes it more enjoyable! I will have to try out your other suggestions! Great post, lovely x

Yes to all three!!! Thanks for dropping by, Hannah 🙂

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