Open Road, Open Mind

Open road, open mind—sounds like a familiar meditation, something along the lines of breathe in, breathe out. In May of last year I discovered during an epic first-time long distance solo road trip how the act of driving on the open road, over a long distance of concrete and asphalt and the passage of time had put me in a very Zen space. A "peaceful easing feeling" started to settle in with the drone of the rubber meeting the road, or the sounds of me happily singing along to the tunes on the iPod. Either way, in silence or not, my mind began to open up, expand, and released the thoughts of to-do list sitting on my desk back home, and all of the other out-of-the moment mind-clutter.

An open road, "the perfect way to clear your thoughts". Not only was my mind clearing, streams of creativity, brilliant ideas, and the answers to long overdue questions easily emerged—why was that? Here is my non-scientific scientific theory: There are two minds, the ego mind and the other one— the good one! When the ego mind is busy, say...driving a car, keeping track of hands on the wheel, feet on the pedals, eyes on the road, and tracking it's surroundings in motion, it has no choice but to leave your good mind alone. I think the best way for me to describe this phenomenon is to say you are, during those moments of clarity, creativity, and euphoria, OUT OF YOUR MIND!

Looking forward to more open road adventures this year. There is something to this—you might want give your mind a drive.