Five Strategies You Can Use To Decrease Your Own Road Rage

Chris Le Roy
August 5, 2006

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

Chris has a Six Step Meditation Program called Relaxation Techniques for Stress Management, Baroque Meditation Music - Meditation Music and Seven Ways of Reducing Stress