Mindfulness as a tool for ADHD drivers: a comparative study of higher levels of self-awareness

Abstract

Learning to become a mindful driver involves the acquisition of skills and striving to reach a level of attention and awareness of the driving activity. This learning process can be of value to drivers in general, and in particular, to those with ADHD, whose impaired attention, inter alia, heightens the risk for collisions. Mindfulness practices which, among other things, cultivate an attentive mind, could help them to overcome their cognitive challenges to become expert drivers. This article compares the practical application of mindfulness to established theory of learning skills. In this regard, the most valid comparison to be made is to the expertise paradigm. Previous research supporting this paradigm has shown that people move from primarily individual concerns for personal gain and the understanding of facts and features relevant to the skills that are being learned to more complex and sophisticated ways of understanding. The progression from novice to expert driver is, similarly, a process that takes the driver through transitions, challenges and transformations. Mindfulness, as a useful psychological construct, is explored in comparison to the theory of acquisition of skills and in relation to the Buddhist scripture Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta.

Keywords:

• ADHD
• Buddhism
• comparative analysis
• mindfulness
• skill acquisition

The mindfulness movement has attracted a great deal of interest from academic disciplines such as psychology, medicine and religion, each of which has approached the subject with questions arising from their own theoretical lens. This interest is focused on mindfulness as a form of treatment for those suffering from such conditions as stress, depression, anxiety, negative thoughts and feelings, and severe physical discomfort. In the area of religion, Gilpin (2008) has made a comparative study of Theravāda Buddhism and the Western-based therapeutic interpretation of mindfulness (known as sati in Buddhism). Additionally, in the area of Buddhism, Gethin (2011) has contributed a historical overview of commonly used definitions of mindfulness, which has been used as a reference by numerous researchers. Moreover, Theravadin Anālayo (2010) has made an important contribution with his dissertation on Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta, one of the most important and widely studied discourses in the history of Theravāda Buddhism. In the course of this article, mindfulness will be applied to individuals with Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD). In this regard, comparisons will be drawn between the skill acquisition model developed by Dreyfus and Dreyfus (1986) and the ancient Buddhist scripture Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta, the original source of modern-day mindfulness practices, through which individuals with ADHD have learned to regulate their emotions (Zylowska et al., 2009).

While positive outcomes in this regard are certainly encouraging, there remains a need to look more closely at how mindfulness can work as a tool to develop and enhance driving skills both in the general population and among individuals with ADHD. To my knowledge, such research has not been conducted in the field of mindfulness. For this reason, the present article aims to discuss the potential of mindfulness to develop individuals’ driving skills and knowledge, particular among those with ADHD, who have a greater risk than the general population of displaying unsafe driving practices. Taylor (2011) states that persons with ADHD have been found to present risks to safe driving due to traffic violations, license suspensions, and more driving errors and crashes, both in driving simulations and on the road. The crucial factor for drivers with ADHD is their impaired attention. In Buddhism´s Adhidhammic analysis, attention is conceived as being present in all mental states (Nilsson & Kazemi, 2016a), and so, the Buddhist practice of mindfulness, with its emphasis on attention and awareness, might be of great help as a self-regulating practice for drivers in general and ADHD drivers in particular.

As mentioned above, the topic of mindfulness, ADHD and driving skills will be analyzed with the aid of two expertise paradigms: the Dreyfus and Dreyfus (1986) model of skill acquisition and the Buddhist scripture Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta. In the Dreyfus and Dreyfus model, skill acquisition refers to how learners gain skills through experience, instruction and imitation, advancing through the stages of novice, advanced beginner, competent practitioner, proficient performer and expert (Crane et al., 2012). The skill acquisition model aims to highlight how drivers (or those seeking to become skilled in another practice) pass through the various stages of acquiring skills. The Buddhist scripture Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta, by comparison, describes the four stages (or satipaṭṭhāna) of mindfulness experienced by those that are endeavoring to attain this state: body, feelings, mind and dhammas.¹

These models might at first seem incompatible since the skill acquisition model on the one hand and mindfulness (as practiced in Buddhism) on the other are based on radically different understandings of human nature. This does not mean, however, that an extraordinary level of rapprochement between the skill–acquisition model and Buddhist mindfulness practices cannot occur. Cross-disciplinary discourse, practice, and understanding may provide a forum for the development of spiritual growth that instructors and teachers may otherwise miss or fail to integrate to the same degree. Establishing a dialogue between the adherents of these divergent theories of learning (i.e., skill acquisition and mindfulness) may, moreover, allow each to learn from the other, showing that learning mindfulness cannot be effectively addressed in isolation since all forms of learning is interconnected and intimately involved with each other.

This article’s discourse is divided into the following sections: (1) a brief overview of mindfulness and ADHD; (2) a brief discussion concerning the method; and (3) the comparative examination of the five stages of learning (i.e., the novice, the advanced beginner, the competent practitioner, the proficient performer and the expert) and the four phases of satipaṭṭhāna (i.e., body, feelings, mind and dhammas) in which mindful driving takes shape. Before moving on to the next section, it is worth noting that my perspective on this topic may be biased since I am not only a scholar but also a practitioner of mindfulness. Additionally, as senior lecturer, I currently teach a course for driving instructors known as Educational Leadership in Driving Schools, where topics such as mindful driving and individuals with ADHD/Asperger’s are discussed.

Mindfulness

As indicated above, mindfulness is rooted in the Theravāda Buddhist tradition and its practice of insight meditation (Nilsson, 2014). Mindfulness is formalized both as a training method (i.e., body scanning, meditation and yoga) and as a state of awareness that this method is intended to develop (mindfulness in everyday life) (Nilsson, 2014). Nonetheless, over the last hundred years or so, many Western thinkers interested in both traditional and modern forms of Buddhism have viewed mindfulness as a self-regulatory practice that enables individuals to better adapt to society, enhancing their sense of health and wellbeing and improving the quality of their work and relationships within a Western capitalist framework (Stanley, 2013). In a more broadly defined and Buddhist-oriented sense, mindfulness can also be viewed as a self-regulatory tool for individuals with or without ADHD that train for a driving license. In this regard, attention, a hallmark in mindfulness, can be viewed as form of practice that improves self-regulated activities such as driving (Shapiro, 2006). The opposite mode, inattention (mindlessness), has been found to be directly related to risky driving behavior (cf. Jerome et al., 2006).

ADHD

Attention deficit hyperactive disorder (ADHD) is a disability among the young that seems to have grown rapidly during the last decade. Individuals diagnosed as having ADHD display significant problems with concentration (e.g., distractibility), impulsivity (e.g., reduced impulse control) and hyperactivity (reduced cognitive flexibility) (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). For young adults with ADHD that train for a driving license, such symptoms can be challenging, to say the least. For this reason, we can assume, driving instructors (and parents) that supervise young adult drivers require a certain pedagogy or didactic teaching in order to understand the particular learning needs of these individuals and help them overcome their disability and meet their individual driving needs. In many cases, there is clear evidence that pharmacological treatment helps to improve driving skills and mitigate the above-mentioned ADHD symptoms (cf. Fuermaier et al. 2015). However, Fuermaier et al also note that non-pharmacological treatment approaches should be investigated in more detail. In this regard, it has already been shown that mindfulness regimes can help young adults with ADHD to regulate their emotions (cf. Zylowska et al., 2009), indicating that mindfulness may have great potential in terms of helping those afflicted with ADHD to better regulate themselves and bolster their deficiencies within the context of driving.

Method

This article employs document analysis as a systematic procedure for reviewing and evaluating documents (Bowen, 2009). The attempt will be to examine how driving skills among the general population as well as among individuals with ADHD can be developed and enhanced by using the expertise paradigms of mindfulness (Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta: body, feelings, mind, and dhammas) and skill acquisition (the novice, the advanced beginner, the competent practitioner, the proficient performer and the expert). The research design was further influenced by an encyclopedic comparative analysis that compares the Buddhist scripture Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta with the Dreyfus and Dreyfus model of skill acquisition. The analytical procedure has been conducted in three steps: skimming (superficial examination), reading (thorough examination) and interpreting texts (Bowen, 2009). An encyclopedic comparative investigation, as used in the current article, is characterized by its focus on cross-cultural material arranged by topics (i.e., expertise paradigms) (cf. Stausberg, 2011). I am mostly concerned with examining how an Asian expertise paradigm (i.e., mindfulness) in combination with a Western expertise paradigm (i.e., skill acquisition) might enhance driving skills among individuals in general and those afflicted with ADHD in particular. These two contexts, mindfulness and the skill acquisition model, will be compared and contrasted in this regard.

Result of the comparative study

Novice driver

According to Dreyfus and Dreyfus (1986), in the first stage of learning, the novice (the driver) must recognize various facts and features relevant to the skill and must then establish rules for determining actions based upon those facts and features. The novice mindfulness practitioner likewise begins by learning breathing techniques and correct postures. It is also necessary to learn to carry a mindful state, or informal mindfulness, into everyday life ( Nilsson & Kazemi, 2016a). At the novice stage, much of informal mindfulness is embodied (i.e., body, the first phase of satipaṭṭhāna) and directed to a doing-mode (Nilsson & Kazemi, 2016b). Through the practice of mindfulness, the practitioner (i.e., the novice driver) increases this form of bodily awareness (cf. Sujato, 2012). Anālayo (2010) states that: “The sequence of the body contemplations [in the Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta] is progressive, beginning with the more obvious and basic aspects of the body and continuing towards more detailed and analytical understandings of the nature and the body” (p.117).

The physical (embodied) dimension of mindfulness thus involves approaching the body’s various states of being not on autopilot, but rather with a heightened sense of sensory presence and attention (Anālayo, 2010; Kabat-Zinn, 2013; Shaw, 2006). For the novice in a driving context such a heightened state of mind is hard to achieve without enough driving experience. Instead, the novice driver more commonly drives according to a step-by-step routine without being genuinely conscious of how to bring attention to the dual-task environment – i.e., how to be a mindful driver (see Beilock et al., 2002 for a discussion of step-by-step vs dual-task environmental attention among novices and experts). Thus, the mind of the novice is filled with intrusive and stressful thoughts and emotions (known in Buddhism as the “monkey mind”). These thoughts and emotions might be the result of ADHD, but also might be spurred by and related to underdeveloped driving skills in general. The novice might be distracted by noises (e.g., music, honking drivers), visual stimuli (e.g., traffic lights, pedestrians, bicyclists and motorcyclists) or physical challenges (e.g., how to coordinate bodily movements; starting, shifting gears, parking and stopping) (cf. Huang & Winston, 2011). One way for the novice driver, with or without ADHD, to practice mindful driving is by learning “mindfulness breathing.” For instance, in a program such as BREATHE, the participant can learn mindfulness breathing by following six core themes. These themes are: body awareness, understanding and working with thoughts, understanding and working with feelings, integrating awareness of thoughts, feelings and bodily sensations, reducing harmful self-judgment, and integrating mindful awareness into daily life (Broderick & Metz, 2009). Bringing mindfulness to breathing before and while driving can be highly efficient, because it has an impact on both stress and intrusive thoughts and emotions (cf. McClean, 2016). As such, integrating mindfulness into the practice of driving (e.g., in driving schools) can result in an embodied awareness, a clearer, calmer way of driving, and a clearer, calmer state of being while driving, as McClean (2016) points out. In this regard, Fuermeier et al. (2015) notes that “a driver´s emotional state and personality may also play an important role in safe driving” (p. 123).

The advanced beginner

When the novice driver becomes an advanced beginner, the situation starts to change from facts and rules to recognizing situational elements (Crane et al., 2012; Dreyfus & Dreyfus, 1986). Similarly, the advanced beginner in mindfulness learns to recognize and internalize yoga postures and breathing techniques. Various feelings are present when carrying out meditation, yoga and body scanning (a relaxation method that brings calmness to the body and mind by letting the mind sweep through various parts of the body), and these must be ignored (Crane et al., 2012). Feelings must pass through the mind without disturbing concentration on the situated experience. Advanced beginners as well as competent practitioners (discussed below) are still connected to a doing-mode (i.e., they are still concentrating on “getting stuff done”) and to the stages of feelings (i.e., feelings, the second phase of satipaṭṭhāna). Advanced beginners and novice drivers are still ego-minded and attached to sensory experience (i.e., the surrounding traffic environment). Thus, advanced beginner drivers, and especially those with ADHD, are easily provoked by bad drivers, such as those who don’t move out of the passing lane while going slower than everyone else, waiting till the last minute to squeeze into the single lane in a construction zone, and making no lane change signal (cf. Jerome et al., 2006; Thompson et al., 2007). Although advanced beginners can’t change the behavior of bad drivers, they can master their own minds and feelings in traffic through the practice of patience. A patient mind, that is, a mind free from agitation and tenseness, stands in contrast to impulsivity, a characteristic that those with ADHD struggle with. The Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta states that this stage (i.e., the second phase) deals with questions related to knowing how one feels, and this with such immediacy that the light of awareness is present before the onset of reaction, projections or justifications in regard to how one feels (Anālayo, 2010). According to McClean (2016), this stage aims to train the (driver’s) conscious mind to resist and/or ignore the constant flow of thoughts, feelings and desires that often arise as a result of body-unconscious breathing and/or unconscious autopilot driving (e.g., over-learning of the driving task). Disturbing and/or intrusive mental/emotive states such as restlessness, irritability, (driving) anxiety, and unpleasant memories suddenly emerge during driving lessons as a horde of chattering monkeys, making it difficult to remain properly focused on the traffic objectives (McClean, 2016). In this regard, individuals with ADHD symptoms such as hyperactivity-impulsivity could have an even higher risk for losing focus on the traffic objectives (cf. Fuermaier et al. 2015). For this reason, it may be helpful for both parents and driver´s education instructors to teach individuals with ADHD to anchor their breath in the present moment and to act (while driving) with a non-judgmental attitude. This is truly a hard lesson to learn. However, cultivating mindful breathing and a non-judgmental attitude while driving keeps the mind focused on the here and now.

Advanced beginners (and competent practitioners, as discussed in the next stage) are able to treat thoughts and feelings such that they no longer disturb the meditating or driving, but are simply allowed to pass without being distracting (Anālayo, 2010; McClean, 2016; Shaw, 2006). At the end of this stage, advanced beginners become more competent and can progress to the competent practitioner stage.

The competent practitioner

A competent practitioner in mindfulness as well as in driving evaluates the situation based on facts (and focuses on, for example, context-free rules) (Crane et al., 2012). Failing in performance is not a matter of whether or not one has sufficient facts or information (as was the case in stages 1 – novice and 2 – advanced beginner). Instead, the competent practitioner in mindfulness or driving fails as a consequence of incorrectly setting priorities (Dreyfus & Dreyfus, 1986). A competent practitioner of mindfulness, for example, is mindful while carrying out the mindfulness regimes (i.e., body scanning, meditation and yoga) and also starts to approach everyday life as a mindful being. Likewise, a competent driver coordinates and integrates three levels of competence strategies into driving (Huang & Winston, 2011). Basically, the ADHD driver should be learned by driver instructors to acts in traffic by paying attention to the road, by scanning the environment, and through cognitive processing, a skill known as operational competence. At the next level, tactical competence, the ADHD driver makes decisions about driving speed, passing other vehicles, and so forth. The third level is referred to as strategic competence, meaning decision-making and planning about the best use of the vehicle in regard to the weather and one’s own condition (Huang & Winston, 2011). These multidimensional strategies are particularly challenging for teens with ADHD due to their high impulsivity and impaired reaction time (Huang & Winston, 2011). However, it is worth bearing in mind that even teens who do not have ADHD as well as older competent drivers have not yet developed sufficient skill and wisdom to overcome feelings and/or automatic reaction tendencies when occasional distractions occur during daily traffic. The social psychologist Langer, who has discussed the notion of mindlessness perhaps more than any other researcher in the field, has indicated that mindlessness often manifests as the direct cause of misjudgment, prejudice and/or stereotyping in complex human situations (Nilsson & Kazemi, 2016b). Given this, one can say that mindlessness in spite of the context also can be observed among drivers in general and especially among those with ADHD. There are, for instance, inattentive drivers who let their minds wander from driving for unimportant reasons (cf. Regan & Hallett, 2011). Individuals with ADHD are particularly prone to inattentive driving (Thompson et al., 2007) due to small distractions. In some cases, the inattentive driver is occupied by talking on the phone/texting or by eating while driving (cf. Lipovac et al., 2017). In other cases, drivers are driving under the influence of substances (e.g., alcohol).

It is important to note that when we speak of mindlessness we speak of something more than “minimal information processing,” since the difference between mindfulness and mindlessness primarily involves a qualitative rather than a quantitative distinction (Langer, 1989). To provide a more direct definition, the term “mindlessness” is generally indicative of the human tendency to wander through daily life on autopilot, whether by stereotyping the people and situations we meet, by performing thoughtless, mechanical and/or routine activities (e.g. the drive from home to the workplace), or by simply being inattentive (Khanna & Greeson, 2013). A competent driver moves away from the mindlessness state toward a mindful state of being. Thus, the way of being emerges through sustained engagement, the practice of which is an integral part of the skillset of a competent driver. The transition from competent driver to proficient performer/driver occurs with further advancement and the deepening of learning strategies.

The proficient performer

According to Dreyfus and Dreyfus (1986), the proficient performer (driver) uses situated intuition that is based on experience. ADHD driver as a proficient performer is an active learner that works extensively with feelings in a way that does not involve withdrawing from what is present during driving. Similarly, Buddhist mindfulness teachings state that it is with the help of the mind, the third part of satipaṭṭhānas, that lust (raga), anger (dosa) and delusion (moha) are held back. These three mental states, lust, anger and delusion, underlie the distinction between worldly and unworldly feelings in the previous satipaṭṭhānas. A mind without lust, anger and delusion is the mind of an arahant (an “enlightened human” in Theravāda Buddhist terms), according to Anālayo (2010). Within the context of driving, an “enlightened mind” can be described as one of equanimity (upekkhā) (i.e., an attentive mind that controls counter-intentional thoughts), compassion (karuṇā) (i.e., a strengthened mind prepared to meet distraction of all kinds, for example, from bad drivers) and wisdom (paññā) (i.e., an emancipated mind based on good conduct and marked by discernment of the fact of change and impermanence (DeSilva, 2014). However, to become an enlightened (ADHD) driver requires three qualities of the mind: alertness (the ability to know what is happening in the body and mind while it is happening [an attentive mind]), ardency (the desire to develop skillful qualities [driver control action] and to abandon unskillful qualities [e.g., wandering] that may arise in the mind), and mindfulness (a mindset characterized in terms of a being-mode). Klein (1994) asserts that “mindfulness is a way of being there. It does so [allows one to be there] by fostering a capacity to relate to oneself without trying to oppose, judge, or change what is observed” (p. 121). Likewise, driving while practicing breathing-controlled meditation means remembering to stay with the breath and to maintain the qualities of alertness and ardency with every in-and-out breath (McClean, 2016; Sujato, 2012). When alertness, ardency and mindfulness become strong, they can bring the mind to a state of strong concentration known as jhāna (Sujato, 2012). Such a mindset, of course, is challenging for all types of individuals to achieve. Nonetheless, in the case of those suffering from ADHD, such a mindset is still possible to achieve with extensive driving and mindfulness training. It is here worth noting that even though individuals with ADHD struggle with impaired attentiveness, they have the advantage of being highly energetic and fast learners, which facilitates the achievement of strong concentration, which, in turn, can lead to a higher level of self-awareness. It is precisely in relation to these sorts of severe situations that knowledge of mindfulness practices might guide ADHD drivers in their attempt to be proficient drivers.

The major effect of strong concentration is what differentiates proficient drivers from those in earlier stages – i.e., novices, advanced beginners and competent practitioners. As a result of their strong concentration (jhāna), proficient drivers grow in deep knowledge and experience. This leads to the transition from being a proficient performer to the last stage, the expert driver.

The expert

An expert (ADHD) driver is a person who becomes one with the situation and experiences details and risky moments in traffic more intensely than others (Dreyfus & Dreyfus, 1986). An expert may have more efficient attentional processes than their novice counterparts (Pineau et al., 2014). The expert has considerable depth and breadth of driving experience and uses his or her intuition to solve problems and to respond to people and events (the surrounding traffic) in exceptional ways. Thus, the expert driver does not need to analyze every situation with a conscious mind. Instead, he or she has sufficient intuition to become absorbed by the situation based upon contextualized thinking (cf. Berliner, 2001; Dreyfus & Dreyfus, 1986). Dreyfus and Dreyfus (1986) explain that “an expert’s skill has become so much part of him that he need no more be aware of it than he is of his own body” (Dreyfus & Dreyfus, 1986, p. 30). The expert in mindfulness and in driving is a person who is being in the present moment, without letting thoughts and feelings run amok (e.g., road rage). This stage of mindfulness is described as immersion or deep mental involvement, and in yoga as “full participation” (Gordon, 2013, p. 1226). Viewed in a traffic/driving context, “immersion” is, similarly, manifest in a driver who is present in the moment, acting safely and possessing perceptual motor skills. The goal of dhammas practice, however, is often to go beyond the individual and to “change the world,” but this shift is not possible without changing the inner world first (cf. Sujato, 2012). The cultivation of such expertise, then, results from a holistic engagement – perceptually and bodily – with the task and its environment (Sujato, 2012).

The expert stage, according to my interpretation, is similar to that of dhammas (the fourth phase of satipaṭṭhānas). Anālayo describes the phenomena of dhammas as: “/…/these (i.e., dhammas) proceed from the direct experience of the impermanent nature of phenomena, to giving attention to their ‘fading away’ and ‘cessation’. These in turn lead to detachment, or ‘letting go’: a state of mind fit for awakening” (Anālayo, 2010, p. 185). In this regard, Buddha states that a monk who is mindful and who comprehends things clearly will understand the dependent origin of feelings, contemplate their impermanence, and abandon lust, aversion, and ignorance, whereby he attains liberation (nibbāna) (Bodhi, 2011). However, such levels of insight are not advisable (i.e., an area of incompatibility) in the context of driving. Nevertheless, an expert driver has developed a mindset that bears some resemblance to that of a mindful monk. Thus, a mindful driver is marked by patience, a mind that is present in the moment, a non-judgmental attitude, and highly developed perceptual motor skills. Additionally, a mindful driver has freed himself or herself from lust (e.g., talking on the phone or eating while driving), aversion (e.g., road rage, aggressive driving) and ignorance (e.g., speeding or not using a safety belt). Can such higher states of self-awareness be reached by individuals with ADHD? I submit that they can so long as they receive proper, patient training in the techniques thus far described.

General discussion

This article, with its comparative approach, has focused on mindfulness as a learning process that leads practitioners and drivers to higher levels of self-awareness. The practitioner/driver develops skills, learning and understanding about mindfulness and driving as training proceeds along this hard road. In the beginning of the training and driving, the novice attends to direct physical (body) sensation and feelings and shares a similar experience with the advanced beginner, by conducting mindfulness and driving in a doing-mode state. Such a state of mind evaluates different situations in relation to what has been done in the past and what must be done in the future to achieve certain goals. Furthermore, both the novice and the advanced beginner are heavily dependent in their training and driving on how the instructor and other skilled practitioners/drivers perform the mindfulness/driving routines of body scanning, meditation, yoga and daily driving practices. In this regard, skillful instruction in a quiet milieu may be particularly important for novice drivers with ADHD. Schmidt (2004) points out that mindfulness in daily life simply means “to be present” in all of onés activities. This entails a way of being, as opposed to doing.

To become a competent practitioner is to transition from the stage of body and feeling (i.e., the novice to advanced beginner) to the third stage of satipaṭṭhānas, the mind. This means to understand more profoundly the theory and practice behind mindfulness and driving, and to have a clear grasp of how to perform and plan for the training or driving. This phase also requires the ability to cultivate skills that make the competent practitioner see the world as it is (i.e., to be mindful) rather than as how one would like it be (i.e., to be mindless).

To make the transition from competent practitioner to the next phase, proficient performer, the practitioner must enhance the being-mode and self-awareness, which requires full internalization of the body, feelings and mind. Learning mindfulness and driving skills in this stage takes an active form as the proficient performer improves strategies and methods based on previous stages (novice, advanced beginner and competent practitioner). Thus, to become a proficient performer, or a skilled (enlightened) driver, requires three qualities of the mind: alertness (an attentive mind); ardency (the driver controls his/her actions without a wandering mind); and mindfulness (a being-mode mindset). By going through these transitions, the four satipaṭṭhānas and different acquisition skills pave the way for an intuitive and integrative expert driver. In terms of providing instruction, the expert driver is attentive, present in the moment, has developed perceptual motor skills and is safe in traffic. Additionally, the expert driver is free from lust, aversion and ignorance, and operates on a higher level of self-awareness.

Conclusion

As a parting reflection from one that actually teaches Educational Leadership in Driving Schools (30 credits), I can say that mindfulness, in its highest sense, can play an important role as a relaxation technique that enhances the traffic skills of drivers in general and those afflicted with ADHD in particular by teaching them how to become present, non-judgmental, patient and attentive, and thus safer in traffic. Research in the area of mindfulness and driving, however, is notably absent. Hence, it is vital that research in the fields of mindfulness and traffic pedagogy begins to explore this area. In consolidating and furthering the direction for future research on mindfulness for individuals with ADHD, some tentative suggestions are provided here. First, in order to better understand the research field of mindfulness (both Westernized and Buddhist), disabilities (i.e., ADHD) and drivers’ education, we need further theorizing. Another suggestion is that we need more interdisciplinary research in order for the field of mindfulness to grow in ways that enable us to understand the complex underlying processes that are involved in this practice, along with the pedagogic and didactic challenges that driving instructors face when working with the disabled. However, to effectively apply such an approach, we need to balance the practical and individualized ways of cultivating mindfulness in the West with the Buddhist sacred view of sati.

Notes

1 One can also speak of different stages or progressive patterns in mindfulness. In Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta these progressive patterns start with the body, followed by feelings, mind and, finally, dhammas (Anālayo, 2010, p. 19–20). The Pali term Dhammas connotes different meanings depending on the context. However, in this article dhammas are simply interpreted as mental qualities in terms of attention (cf. Anālayo, 2010).