Driving and the Meditative Effects of Focused Attention
Last week, I took my first meditation class. During the group introductions, I explained that one of the existing ways that I relieve stress is to drive. Not during a commute. And not into Los Angeles. Rather, I drive fast*, on the twisting 2-lane roads laced atop the Santa Monica Mountains between Malibu and the suburb I call home.
During class, the instructor introduced the concept of focused attention meditation (FAM) one of several techniques our group will explore in the weeks to come. To illustrate FAM, she provided several examples, including the act of hand-washing dishes. Sole concentration on this activity, on the water cascading onto the plates, glasses, and silverware, on the building bubbles of soap suds, on the swirling motion your hand makes while cleaning, is a form of FAM.
It struck me that when I’m driving fast, I’m actually meditating.
For nearly two decades, I’ve been driving the stretch of Mulholland Highway between Decker Canyon Road and Pacific Coast Highway, typically once per week. This is where I test cars for work, a downhill stretch of typically vacant road that twists and turns its way to the beach for several miles. I know the nuances of this ribbon of blacktop well. I know where the decreasing radius turns are, where the hidden driveways are, where rocks have likely fallen onto the road, and where hikers are likely to be resting against a guard rail.
Each time I drive Mulholland in a capably tuned vehicle, I am happy and at peace by the time I hang a right onto PCH and head north along the sand. The meditative effects of FAM likely have something to do with this.
Similar to the example of washing dishes provided by my instructor, when I’m hustling down Mulholland, a road I know better than the lines aging my face, I am solely focused on the elements involved in the task at hand. Steering feel and response. Braking feel and response. Tire grip. Suspension motions. Transmission shifts. Engine power.
For 10 minutes, and if the car I’m driving is engineered and tuned the way it really ought to be, I am one with the machine. Everything else fades to black.
*Driving fast is not recommended for everyone. Professional racing instruction, a perfectly maintained vehicle, intimate knowledge of the route ahead, understanding of traffic and pedestrian patterns on the route, understanding of the limitations of the vehicle, accepting the rules of physics, and a big, fat dollop of common sense are absolutely required.
