How To Combat Road Rage
Just because you're a professional driver doesn't mean your immune to frustrations and anger produced from dealing with other bad drivers and road hazards. Whether you're yelling at the person in front of you for going 20 miles under the speed limit, or you're honking at the car in front of you who cut you off, road rage affects us all. This is why it's important to understand what causes road rage and how we're able to avoid it.
Aside from the normal external factors that inspire a bought of road rage , internal factors like hunger, fatigue, and stress can affect our attitude on the road too. Add to that time constraints and the concept of making deliveries on time, and you are facing an assured increase in agitation.
While we can't promise you we'll be able to prevent ANY road rage, there are a handful of ways you can deal with it more effectively and prevent yourself from becoming too worked up.
- Leave as close to on-time as possible. This may seem like a no-brainer, but being uptight about your schedule is always better than worrying that you're going to be late for the duration of your drive.
- Calm yourself with music that soothes, rather than stresses. Avoid heavy bass songs or tempos that are too fast.
- Deep breathing will help lower your heart rate and reduce your anxiety.
- And lastly, if you can't seem to calm yourself down, pull over and find a place to get out. Sometimes walking away from our stressor, in this case driving, is the only way to reset yourself and find balance again.
We have to understand that road rage is not only bad for our health, but that's it dangerous to ourselves and others. So stay calm, and carry on for your piece of mind and safety.