I spent most of 2014 meditating in the Arizona desert — seven months of silence and solitude. Then I moved to New York City.

After all those months, I figured my meditation practice was too strong for my new surroundings to affect me. Nope. The city tore my zen calm to pieces. My only option was to embrace the chaos of the city and somehow make it a part of my practice.

In the process, I discovered that a pinch of meditation can transform the most soul-crushing parts of city life into uplifting experiences. I started finding hidden pockets of delight in the sound of jackhammers, the swarms of tourists, and even the dreaded subway.

It’s easy to hate the subway — the crowds, the heat, the variety of unique aromas — but taking the train doesn’t have to suck. In fact, all the things that make the subway insufferable also make it a weirdly perfect place for meditation practice. By playing with some simple meditative exercises, you can turn your commute into something you enjoy and even look forward to.

Part 1: Practicing Generosity

One of the main causes of our suffering is a fixation on our “self” and its petty concerns. Am I comfortable enough? Do I have all the things I want? Do people like me? It may seem like we’re looking out for our interests, but we’re actually suffocating ourselves, choking off our ability to enjoy the present moment. One of the best antidotes to this claustrophobic fixation on self is — surprise, surprise — cultivating concern for others. That’s why practicing generosity is a key part of the meditative path.

You may not associate generosity, which we all learned about in kindergarten, with the “exotic” practice of meditation. In reality, meditation is simply a practice of cultivating healthy habits of mind, and generosity is one of those habits. It makes the mind spacious and joyful — which is nice — and obviously the people around you benefit as well. It’s the purest win-win there is. Maybe that’s why the Buddha traditionally taught generosity as his first lesson to new students.