4 Point Plan

If you have read this far it probably means you are one of thousands, if not millions of people who get stressed by driving. Maybe you get angry at other road users, or panic when you are running a little late. Every light you come to seems to be on red and your journey is thwarted by obstacles. Pedestrians crossing the road and drivers hopping from lane to lane.  Large vehicles hogging the road ahead. Older drivers, younger drivers...EVERYBODY! The list is endless.

You need a plan of action. 

A method that will radically alter the way you perceive the driving experience.

A way of changing your attitude to the experience so that it is more enjoyable.

That's it ... an attitude change!

It all starts with having rapport with the vehicle, the environment and most importantly yourself. We achieve this by developing Awareness. We have to learn to really switch on the senses just as we did when we first learned to drive. Remember that feeling?

Take your mind back to those early days when you were filled with apprehension and nervous excitement. Maybe even fear. You climbed into the vehicle and everything around you was unfamiliar and new. Your senses were being overloaded with information and if you had a great Instructor, he/she fed you small chunks of information to help you get to grips with the situation. They literally helped you gain a level of Rapport with the vehicle and what was going on around you. If they were really good they realised that they had to gain your trust and rapport developed between the two of you and the learning experience just got easier.

When you think back to  this time you may be making visual images, some of you may hear sounds but we all get feelings about it. Notice where these sensory experiences are. That's all for the moment. You are reliving a time when you really were awake in the vehicle. That's the first step. 

If the image in your minds eye make you feel apprehensive or feel anxious notice what happens when you:

 Shrink the image or enlarge it.

 Change the brightness or location of the image.

 Are you in the picture or are you looking through your eyes? 

Change this perspective and notice how it makes you feel. If it changes the feeling from bad to good you have taken the first step in being the driver of your state.

These are just a few simple things to do that will increase your  awareness and decrease your heart rate!