Tag Archives: Emotions

Apr 30 2024

Grandma’s Guide to Road Rage Resilience

Navigating the tumultuous tangle of traffic can sometimes feel like venturing into a chaotic jungle. Amidst the angry honks and not-so-nice gestures, it’s important to keep a level head. While you can’t control the actions of others, you do have the ultimate superpower: the ability to keep your cool!

Picture this: a driver cuts you off without so much as a blinker. Instead of letting your blood boil, take a beat to breathe. Accepting that other drivers often make mistakes, sometimes unintentionally, can help break the cycle of road rage. By expecting the unexpected, you regain control of the steering wheel and your emotions.

So next time that ill-mannered motorist steals your right of way, pause your impulse to “get them back” – instead, do what my grandma taught me, “Channel your inner Zen and count to 10.” After a few deep breaths, your boiling blood will return to a gentle simmer, and life will be good again… and, most importantly, you’ll be home safely instead of sorry.

May 18 2017

Shake Those Moody Blues

Driving Attitude

Your mental and emotional state can significantly affect your actions while driving. If you bring a bad attitude into the car with you, it will cloud your driving decisions. Stress and emotions can hijack your mind and you may find yourself unaware of your driving environment or over-reacting to another driver’s bad driving behavior.

Having a positive, courteous attitude, and driving with your own safety, as well as other’s safety in mind, is key to making safe driving decisions. When behind the wheel, put aside negative thoughts that enter your mind and concentrate on driving instead. If you ever feel like you are having a bad day, or you just can’t shake your problems, avoid driving until you feel better.

Jun 15 2015

All Shook Up

Driver Emotion

Driver impairment is not only caused by drugs and alcohol. Our driving is impaired anytime our ability to operate a vehicle is compromised. Because emotions can govern our behavior to a large extent, they too can diminish our driving capabilities. Emotional impairment can affect our ability to recognize risks and quickly react.

Here are some helpful tips to help regulate our emotions while driving.

  • Do not take the aggressive actions of other drivers personally.
  • Cool off when angry or frustrated.
  • Don’t drive when feeling upset, frustrated, depressed or angry.
  • Don’t have emotional conversations while driving.
  • Stay focused on the driving task.
  • Turn a negative driving situation into a positive situation.
  • Demonstrate the kind of courtesy you would like to receive from others.

Safe driving requires our focus at all times. When behind the wheel, try to ‘shelve’ problems temporarily. Instead, concentrate on the driving tasks at hand. If unable to do that, then it is best to wait to drive until our emotions are under control.