Continuing my Top 10 Tips for fitting meditation into your day … because we all know that meditation can truly transform the moment and the day, and it doesn’t have to be complicated! I’m proof!

So, I’ve been sharing ten ways I incorporate meditation into my standard workday, inspired by a Harvard Business School article on how meditation helps reclaim focus, clarity, and calm … both an ancient and a modern antidote to our declining ability to direct and sustain attention, whether at work, in relationships, or life.

Today, I want to continue with another ‘typical’ workday moment where meditation is truly my best friend.

Last week, we explored the Powering Up Meditative Exercise (Tip #6) for those afternoons when mental and physical energy is failing. This week, I want to share a practice you can easily incorporate into your end-of-day commute:

Tip #7: The Coming Home Mantra

This is especially useful for those who travel on public transport. If you drive to and from work, this one isn’t for you (please don’t meditate while driving – just focus 200% on the road!). However, if you do drive, you might try this practice while remaining stationary, seated in your car before heading home or even in your driveway before entering the house. Get creative!

Home Time Mantra ‘Receiving – Releasing‘

After a busy day filled with information overload, meetings, creative problem-solving, and general work stuff, it’s natural for our minds to feel full … plump to over-full with all the discussions, thoughts, plans, and events that have consumed the day.

Personally, I don’t want to carry any of that mental baggage home with me. Nor do I want it spilling into my evening or affecting my sleep.

So, once I settle onto the bus or train, I take a few deep breaths and prepare to consciously release my day. I might put in my earphones, close my eyes, and shift my focus inward … and then invite my personal mantra to weave itself into my breath, and my breath to weave itself into my mantra.

Science backs this up: certain breathwork techniques can help regulate emotions, improve memory, and sharpen decision-making. These exercises are incredible tools for those moments when you need to shake off fatigue and get back into flow.

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My Daily Commute Home

As a single mom with a high-energy child, I knew that when my workday ended, the real “life work” often began. I needed (and wished) to be fully present for all the chatter, the news, the excitement, and the challenges waiting for me at home.

So, this pause on my train journey was vital for a smooth transition between my work and home life.

Rather than letting my mind spiral with office tasks, conversations, and projects, I decided to empower this time (about 35 minutes) with my mantra practice. My mantra helped settle my nervous system, clear my mind, and reconnect me with myself … so I could show up fresh and ready to engage with my daughter. Most days, I was lucky enough to find a seat on my train, which certainly helps with relaxing mind and body. Feeling safely held in my seat made it easier to close my eyes, and sometimes I’d put on my headphones; although not necessarily for music, but more as a subtle do-not-disturb signal to those around me.

Although mantra practice is often done while seated, a mantra is incredibly portable. You can mentally repeat it while moving or standing, with your eyes open but your gaze soft. That’s the power of a mantra … you invite it into your mind and breath, letting it roll around, over and over again.

Our sense of time is often distorted when meditating, some call this Buddha Time, but sometimes my time with my mantra felt like only a few minutes! And, I never missed hearing when my station was announced (or, on different journeys, I might also set my meditation timer to alert me to my arrival) .. on arriving at my station, I would take a long, deep inhalation, open my eyes, smile (both at those around me and for myself), before mindfully stepping into the next part of my day.

Why Mantras Work

Mantra meditation is a simple, gentle, yet powerful practice that dates back thousands of years. A mantra, whether chanted, whispered, or silently repeated, is a profound meditation and therapeutic tool. The word mantra comes from two Sanskrit words: Manas (mind) and Tra (tool). So, a mantra is literally a “tool for the mind” … designed to help us access a higher power and our true nature.

“Mantra is a sound vibration through which we mindfully focus our thoughts, our feelings, and our highest intention.”

By focusing on a word or phrase, your mind shifts from the noise of daily life into a more centred, balanced state.

Mantras create a rhythmic, calming effect that activates the parasympathetic nervous system, promoting relaxation. Research on mindfulness and mantra repetition has shown that it can reduce stress, improve focus, and enhance emotional regulation. A 2014 study in Psychiatry Research found that practising mindfulness, including mantra repetition, helped individuals reduce anxiety and improve mental well-being.

Try This Simple Mantra Practice

Here’s a simple guided mantra that I recorded and shared on InsightTimer:

Receiving ~ Releasing

This simple guided mantra meditation reminds us to invite fresh new energy, openness, and clarity into our mind, while simultaneously letting go of what no longer serves us.

In this meditation we invite a silent mantra to join us: “Inhaling is to receive. Exhaling is to release. Balancing our breath in this way is our most powerful tool for harmonising our inner and outer worlds.”

Train Ride Mantra

  • Breathe. Take a few moments to prepare by getting into the most comfortable position that you can, putting in your earphones and closing your eyes (if you can, or wish to) and then taking some slightly longer, deeper and fuller breaths.
  • Feel your body. Notice your posture. Where do you feel tension or tightness?
  • Soften, relax, and release. Consciously invite your body to let go.
  • Tune into your surroundings. Feel the gentle rocking of the train, the subtle swaying, the shifts in motion, and let these sensations ground and rock you into a sense of ease and calm.
  • Listen fully. Notice the chatter of passengers, the hum of the air conditioner, or distant music. Be open to the sounds, without judgment – just listen and release.
  • Acknowledge and release. If something from your day still lingers in your mind, allow yourself a moment to reflect. Then, mentally say: “That’s enough.”
  • A simple Mantra: on the Inhalation silently note “Receiving“, and on the exhalation, silently note “Releasing” .. Receiving – Releasing, Receiving – Releasing, Receiving – Releasing, Receiving – Releasing … repeating again and again and again
  • To close. When you have finished your mantra and arrived at your home station, take a moment to give thanks (to yourself) for taking the time to meditate, and a few long, slow, full inhalations to bring fresh energy and awareness to your mind.
  • Let It Go. Leave your day behind at the station and step into a more peaceful and engaged remainder of your day.

When I finish my train ride Mantra .. I always feel renewed and refreshed, ready for the next part of my day.

Meditation, in its simplest form, resets your mental state – and the commute home is the perfect opportunity to do just that.

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Top 10 Tips Series:

Integrating Meditation into Your Day
A Day of Meditation: Tip #1 – Mindful Waking
A Day of Meditation: Tip #2 – Mantra on the Commute
A Day of Meditation: Tip #3 – Moments Waiting
A Day of Meditation: Tip #4 – Mindful Meeting Minute
A Day of Meditation: Tip #5 – The Joy of Mindful Eating
A Day of Meditation: Tip #6 – Powering Up