Even with many people working remotely, millions of people still commute daily to work. Traffic, congestion, and unsafe drivers can invite stress—and that isn’t healthy. There are a few ways to make your work commute peaceful.

Music

Music can either raise your blood pressure or lower it. When it comes to our health, lower is better.

Choose your favorites quiet songs for the commute. If you aren’t the quiet music type, try something new and see if you notice a change in tension. When your shoulders relax and your grip on the steering wheel lightens, you’ve found your commuting playlist.

Pay Attention

Pay attention to other drivers to avoid conflict or an accident. Even the smallest fender bender on the way to work will put a damper in your the day.

Know how to recognize distracted drivers and try to avoid them during your commute. Distractions due to phones and other technology in our cars is the number one cause of accidents.

Stay alert and move to another lane if the person next to you is looking at their phone rather than the road.

Be Mindful

Being mindful is the art of quieting your mind and thinking purposefully. It’s an excellent habit while commuting.

On the way to work, thoughts of what the day may bring can race through our minds and raise the stress level. Instead, take a deep breath and choose to think on things that bring you peace. It’s a purposeful practice and, if you do it consistently, will become second nature in no time.

Similarly, on the way home, troublesome thoughts may bounce around inside our heads, such as repeated thoughts of what we didn’t get done at work, reviewing scenarios about unpleasant coworkers, or even wondering, “What’s for dinner?” Driving home after work is the perfect opportunity to practice mindfulness and be purposeful about what you allow your mind to dwell on.

Put a smile on your face and think about how you’ll relax when you get home.

Spread Kindness

Kindness is contagious, so why not start the trend of improving everyone’s commute?

Try little things like waving another driver over when they are trying merge. Or simply look at the car next to you at a red light, make eye contact and smile. Let others go first at stop sign by signaling with a smile and a wave.

Every act of kindness we do ourselves, translates to an inner peace inside of us.

As you apply these ways to make your commute peaceful, you’ll never look at commuting in the same way again. You may even begin to enjoy it.