It’s no secret, trucking driving is a very tough job and is considered a high-risk occupation. Truckers deal with long periods of isolation, substandard living conditions, lack of sleep, time pressure, and more.

All of these things contribute to one of the most challenging aspects of the job — mindfulness. Being mindful means staying aware of your present surroundings, and mindlessness is the lack of it.

As you can imagine, it’s challenging to stay always in your surroundings when faced with hours upon hours of monotonous driving. Having constant pressure and stress makes it easy to drift off and worry about problems to make matters worse.

While truckers can still effectively drive while not being 100% mindful, it certainly makes the job more dangerous.

So how can truckers stay more mindful and reduce stress while on the road? Through the art of meditation and mindfulness.

How Mindfulness Helps

Both mindfulness and meditation can be performed together, but they can also be separate. Mindfulness is about existing only in the present moment and without judgments or interpretations.

When people hear about mindfulness, they think that it sounds obvious and straightforward. Try it yourself right now, just be in your present moment.

Feel the weight of your limbs, hear sounds around you, feel the seat you’re sitting on, make no judgments about anything you see. How long can you do that before your mind drifts off?

We’re guessing that after only a few minutes or even less, your mind will wander into something else, usually something that’s troubling us.

The thing is, mindfulness is actually very difficult but also very powerful.

What it ultimately does is prevent negative emotions from creeping in, assumptions about how a situation might turn out, and stops self-criticism in its tracks.

How can it do all that? By keeping you totally occupied in your current environment, where none of those thoughts are happening.

Of course, you’ll need to think about problems and have time to evaluate what’s troubling you. However, you should leave that for when you’re not on the road.

Keep Meditating

Many people think that meditation is sitting in a dark room lit only by candlelight with incense burning. That’s not the case at all, and meditation can be practiced basically anywhere.

You can make your truck your sanctuary and start every morning with a time of silence, clearing your mind before you’re on the road. Many truck drivers are stressed out about time and continually worrying about deadlines and what-ifs.

What if this, and what if that happens and ultimately you’ll only cause yourself stress. Before you start worrying about deadlines or anything else, just exist in your cab and release any emotions and stress from your body.

You don’t need to become the Buddha, but it’s important to remember these moments throughout the day. Remember the calm you felt in the morning and how probably nothing has changed since you started your day.

Release the Stress

It’s important to remember that mindfulness and meditation are practices. There is no end goal, and it won’t be easy, but you will benefit significantly from them.

These practices can help you identify emotions, practice self-acceptance, and ultimately learn from experiences rather than reactingto them.