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Five Strategies You Can
Use To Decrease Your Own Road Rage
By Chris Le Roy
Road Rage has become one of the most serious issues in
Western Society. The number of murders and manslaughter cases going
before the court due to road rage is simply quite appalling. Just
recently I watched a segment on A Current Affair where a person was
bashed with in an inch of their life simply because they cut another
person off.
What, has the world gone totally nuts!
There is no reason on the planet why any person should be
behaving like apes from the caveman period on the road. Nobody is
that important that they have the right to take another man or
woman's life just because they cut you off. Sometimes someone
cutting you off will happen by accident and some of our vehicle
designs are much the reason for these incidents. As an owner of a
Toyota Lite Ace Van, the simple design of this vehicle has led me to
find many dangerous blind spots where I can effectively see out but
many vehicles owners do not know blind spots even exist, so we all
need to give a bit of leeway when it comes to driving cause simply
due to a vehicle design can led to an accidental cut off.
Look us all make mistakes when we drive, nobody is perfect but is
it really the incident of being cut off that leads to road rage or
are there other underlying issues. In reality, most road rage
incidents that occur are simply an outlet for other things that are
going on in their life. With this being the case, whilst you are
driving, you are the only one who can control YOU so it is important
that you control your own road rage and to help you to do that I
want to outline five strategies you can use to help you with your
own road rage.
Strategy 1 - Leave Yourself Enough Travel Time
One of the biggest mistakes people make during the day is not
leaving themselves enough time to travel from one appointment to
another. The stress alone of running behind schedule is enough to
make a persons blood boil and personally if you are running late
then you should not be behind the wheel of the car. You are a danger
behind the wheel to yourself and everyone else. One of the
observations I have made is that anyone who is late, always wants to
do 10 kilometers over the speed limit and will get really aggressive
and abusive to those who want to do the speed limit.
In fact one day I was driving along, this bloke got incredibly
aggressive and abusive behind me simply because he could not force
me to speed. The speed limit on the road was 100 km per hour and we
were in an outback area where there were no fences and cattle
roaming freely. I was fortunate I was in a Toyota Landcruiser which
gave me a bit of size and protection. The individual in question
eventually drove his truck up next to my vehicle and tried to drive
me into the creek. Fortunately being in a four wheel drive gave me
the ability to go off the road and cope with this individual. In the
end, the individual was stopped by the police and charged with
dangerous driving as the police officer had seen the incident and
clocked me doing the legal limit. I was very lucky in the end
because I could have been killed that day. In turns out the whole
reason the individual was getting so aggressive was that he was late
to get home to his wife. Instead of taking his time the police
caught up with him and he was not home for quite some time.
The moral of the story is to plan your day and plan to stay
alive. If you have a full calendar of appointments to go to during a
day make sure you work out how long it takes to get from one
appointment to another. If you find you can not get to your next
appointment on time, then simply ring the client and tell them you
are on your way, apologise and drive sensibly, cause remember life
is not a dress rehearsal.
Strategy 2 - Chew Gum
Whenever I used to go away with my parents when I was younger my
parents would always chew gum. Could never understand why but they
did. Well, a few months ago I was reading some new research on the
value of gum and it actually found that a combination of chewing gum
and listening to music, helped in releasing alpha waves in your
brain. It is the alpha waves that are responsible for the feeling of
calmness you feel, like when you whistle a happy tune.
Recently I was listening to a researcher who helps students study
for their High School exams and he found that students increased
their ability to learn by as much as 30% by chewing gum in
combination with their studies and listening to music. We will cover
more on the music issue in a moment.
Strategy 3 - Meditate Prior To Traveling
Okay, I can hear it now, "Oh Yeah Hippy, Want Us to Meditate
do ya?" Absolutely! Look whilst meditation has certainly been a
thing of fringe groups in western society or associated with eastern
religions many researchers are now coming to the distinct conclusion
that meditation can make a huge difference to our day-to-day lives
and help us to overcome stress, especially while traveling. Look,
why not try out meditation for just 20 minutes a day. It is a
fantastic tool and when you become proficient in the art you will
find that moving to a start of calm is really easy.
There are many different techniques to help you meditate and I
certainly recommend meditating using Baroque music as we have found
that it helps the person meditating get to that point of peace a lot
quicker than other types of meditation music.
Let us face it… if you are calm prior to getting into the car,
then you have a much better chance of staying calm but if you are
out of sorts prior to getting into the car, then with the stress of
driving all you are going to do is run the risk of doing something
silly.
Strategy 4 - Play Baroque Meditation Music during Your Trip
Playing music in the car can really help you to maintain your
calmness and is a great stress reliever whilst driving but be
careful of what sort of music you do listen to. You can find that
certain music can in fact heighten your anxieties or stress whilst
traveling. Researchers have found that Baroque Meditation music at
60 beats per minute will in fact help release alpha waves in your
brain and lead you to a sense of calm. Combine this strategy with
that of chewing gum and you will have a much greater chance of
beating road rage than without.
Strategy 5 - Have A Photo Of Your Family Visible
When fighter pilots go into battle, one of the objects they carry
with them and put on the cockpit of their aircraft is a picture of
their family. The reason they do that is to remember in the heat of
a dog fight exactly what they are fighting for. Sometimes when they
go into a really steep dive, they may loose consciousness for a few
moments due to the G-forces and as they come to the photo of their
loved ones jolts them back into place. Well just like the fighter
pilots, I encourage all drivers to have a photo of their loved ones
on the dashboard of your car.
The next time someone cuts you off and you want to run up the
back of the car in front or to give them what for, simply look at
the photo of your family briefly and remember what you will loose if
you do something silly. Remember, if you kill someone whilst
driving, you are going to go to jail. What would you do if your
family lost you? Your family should be the most important thing in
your life, why put them at risk.
Road Rage is a major problem on the roads today and whilst there
is nothing you can do about all the other people on the road you can
do something about yourself and that is where we need to start. The
next time someone cuts in front of you or someone steals your car
space, do not abuse them or confront them, simply feel sorry for
them and move on.
To finish off I want to reiterate the five strategies that you
can do to help reduce your own road rage:
Strategy 1 - Leave Yourself Enough Travel Time
Strategy 2 - Chew Gum
Strategy 3 - Meditate Prior To Traveling
Strategy 4 - Play Baroque Meditation Music During Your Trip
Strategy 5 - Have A Photo Of Your Family Visible
