With April being National Stress Awareness month we wanted to address the most stressful part of most working Americans day. Traffic. You don’t have to let traffic jams ruin your day. Driving is a daily necessity for many people and learning how to stay calm will greatly benefit not only your commute but your life. While you can’t control other driver’s actions, you can control your reactions. If you allow drivers to affect your emotions, you may carry the negativity with you throughout the day. Here are some tips on how to deal with the traffic stress. 

Breath

Allow yourself to focus on your breathing while driving. You can use your car time to turn off the rado and breathe in slowly through your nose on a count of five. At five, exhale through your mouth on a count of six. Try to exhale for a second or two longer than the inhale. The deep breathing will allow you to effectively de-stress.


Create Stories

A way to de-stress while driving is to try and understand or least create your own reasons why other’s are acting crazy. If someone cuts you off, don’t immediately assume that they did it to harm you. Imagine that they are rushing to meet their wife in labor, and try to believe that they feel bad for cutting you off. Imagine them apologizing and move on. While you will encounter rude drivers and congested roads, your attitude and imagination can go a long way in helping you to cope..

Don’t Listen to Aggregating Music

Many test show that music highly effects your mood. The music you choose to listen to will affect your stress levels. If you’re anxious about getting to work on time, then listening to loud and aggressive music will only add to your worries. Try listening to classical music, Disney, jazz or another type of calming music. It will put you more at ease and in a better mood.

Books on CD/Devise 


Audiobooks can also help to ease some of the irritations of driving. Audiobooks help take you to another place and really focus on whats going on in the story, rather than focusing on the driver that is bothering you or the traffic. You will be happy to have some more time in the car to get into the story.
Plan ahead

Get up earlier. Sounds easy but it is a hard thing to change, try to get into the habit of waking up early and having enough time to get ready to drive. Like we mentioned in this post. Working out is a big help when trying to de-stress. If you can, try joining a gym that is close to your office. If you can make a habit out of going to the gym before work you will beat all the traffic by leaving before the rush. Then you will be able to get your endorphin’s going with your workout and then head into the office in a good mood without any traffic worries at all. 

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