De-Stress Your Commute

Try these exercises and guided meditations to make the most out of your morning ride to work.

Commuting can be stressful, but what if you could use your commuting time to reduce anxiety? According to Living Well workshop instructor Susmita Jasty, MD, who provides workshops throughout Westchester aimed at helping healthcare providers learn to de-stress, “It’s not safe to meditate while you drive, but you can use your breath to de-stress. Full breathing releases the neurotransmitters serotonin and dopamine — all chemicals that improve mood.”

For those who ride the rails to work, Jasty recommends downloading the Sattva app and listening to one of her favorite guided meditations:

1. Yoga Nidra

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2. Panchakosha

3. Transforming emotions

4. Hari om

Take Baby Steps Toward Nirvana

No, not the group, silly — the other Nirvana. The one that is the ultimate goal of Buddhism: the end of dukkha (suffering and dissatisfaction) and liberation from samsara (the endless cycle of birth, death, and rebirth).

People have devoted years, even entire lifetimes, to the study of Buddhism and have not learned everything there is to learn. So can you really learn anything significant in, say, a day or a week? The answer is yes.

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You can at least familiarize yourself with the Four Noble Truths, the foundation upon which Buddhism is built. Learning the Four Noble Truths “is an extremely helpful way to contextualize the fundamental human experience of dissatisfaction or unhappiness by showing how we are instrumental in creating that situation — that it is created and not self-existing,” says Derek Kolleeny, founder of the Westchester Buddhist Center, “and that we can reduce it by finding and resolving its source.”

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