How I Deal With Stress While Driving – Part 1

 One definition of stress is "a state resulting from a stress; especially : one of bodily or mental tension resulting from factors that tend to alter an existent equilibrium" (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/stress).  Most people will agree that driving a motor vehicle can be stressful. This activity requires focused attention for long periods of time and tries our patience to new levels.  It seems that stressful conditions are getting worse as time goes on with no end in sight.

I found that I was becoming more and more aggravated with other drivers and was beginning to compromise the safety of myself, my passengers and possibly my long term health.  I knew this was totally unacceptable.  Therefore I began to consider how to change this.  While I am by no means an expert in this field I have found a number of things that have helped me.

First and foremost is the fact that we can't completely remove stress from our lives.  We must therefore learn to manage it in such a way as to minimize  its negative effects.  Primarily I manage stress by a change in the way I think about a situation; a change in attitude if you will.

Reality

In order to change one's attitude one must come to terms about certain things regarding a situation.  The first being reality.  I define reality as the current situation or scenario in which you find yourself.  That reality follows its own rules and doesn't have to make sense.  To use a popular term, "It is what it is."  We must realize that we don't have the power to change the scene ... we are not the directors of this play, just the actors.

Control

The second thing with which we need to come to terms is control.  We can control ourselves not other drivers.  We get frustrated or angry when other drivers don't follow the rules or do "crazy" things because most of us were taught to play by the rules and we are offended when others cheat.  We often lash out at the offending driver through angry words, gestures, or retaliating with an equally rude maneuver of our vehicle.  We must resist the temptation to do this because it increases the negative effects of stress and may escalate the situation into something much worse.  Instead we should take the safest action and don't waste emotional energy on something in which we have no control.

In this first part I have discussed learning to manage stress by coming to terms with "reality" and not being able to control other drivers.  Both of these things are beyond our ability to control and therefore a waste of emotional energy on which to dwell.  We would be better served if we instead focus our energy on safely driving through the situation.  In the second part I will discuss how time affects stress.

To be continued ...