Oct 26 2008
De-Stress your Driving
The average American drives about 30 miles a day. Combine a 45mph speed limit with stop signs, traffic lights and congested roads, and that can easily translate to over an hour behind the wheel. If you’re going to be stuck in your car every single day – and let’s not calculate how many hours that would be per month or per year – you should really try to make it an enjoyable, stress-free experience. Easier said than done, you might say… but here are a couple tips to de-stress driving.
- Leave 5-10 minutes earlier than you think you need to. Worrying about being late the whole time in your car can lead to a lot of unnecessary stress. Leaving earlier can also lead to safer driving habits; if you’re not going to be late, you don’t need to weave in between traffic to pass people who are going 1 or 2 miles above the speed limit instead of 5.
- Don’t be quick to criticize other drivers. Whenever you do something like speed around a slower vehicle or speed up to a four-way stop sign intersection so you get to go first, you know that it’s because you’re in a hurry and have important things to do. Whenever someone else does it, you ignore all possible reasons they might have and call them a __________ (fill in the blank with the worst word you can possibly imagine). I’m not trying to call you a bad guy – what you’re doing is just a natural part of social psychology. But for your own good, you should really try to stop the habit. Some people think that saying bad things about other people makes them feel better, but it can also put you in a negative mind-set and get you stressed out for no good reason at all.
- Find yourself getting frustrated when you can’t find anything good on the radio? Make a CD of your favorite play list on ITunes and bring it with you in the car. No more commercials! And now you’ll have both hands on the wheel instead of one on the tuning dial.
Remember these tips. Happy driving to all!
