Stop battling traffic—and discover a gold mine
Do you HATE getting stuck in traffic jams? It’s one of the those modern stressors that anybody who lives in a big city has to deal with.
You know, that feeling when the overhead sign tells you just how long you’re going to be sitting there (in Chicago, rush hour signs report things like: “25 minutes to Circle,” a trip that normally takes 7). And you look around, and the guys next to you are swearing (you can tell because their lips are snarling), and the massive truck ahead of you hasn’t moved in like 15 minutes, and the fumes are getting funneled back into your car til you have to push the “recycle air” button, and your stomach is knotting up, and you’re starving because you didn’t have time for lunch. You know the drill.
You probably don’t have one of these suckers to just drive right over the cars ahead of you in the traffic jam…
One way NOT to deal with the traffic is to do several other physical things. The Okanagan blog complains about traffic jams and says multi-tasking drivers admit causing 1 out of 20 accidents. Okanagan doesn’t have much traffic up there in BC, Canada.
Okay, but let’s say you’re in a city that does get traffic jams. The first trick is to choose to stop thinking about this stuff. Instead, come inside your own mind (where else can you go?) and breathe slowly. I knew a yoga teacher who described one type of breathing that’s powerful for calming the mind—”use the back of your throat” when you breathe. It makes a quiet noise, and that’s what it should do. Let the breath come in through your nose, not your mouth, and you’re drawing it in with the back of your throat. Try it. And here’s a few more ideas about yoga breathing to calm you down.
Next, decide the positive thing(s) you want to think about. Could be your great job, your dear spouse, your beautiful kid, your garden, your friend–pick only things you can feel good about right now. Decide that this time is yours–and you get to pick what you want to do. You can focus on your favorite music or think about how to surprise your family with something positive when you get home.
Positive thoughts can be mined like gold. All you have to do is pick them out and wash the bad stuff through the sieve of your mind.
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May 5th, 2008 at 11:47 pm
I cannot complain about terrible traffic where I come from, but there is the occassional slow down. More irritating are the “Sunday drivers” who pull in front of you or the seemingly endless amounts of traffic lights that slow you down. However, when I get stuck behind that slow-moving vehicle or I have to slow down for yet another yellow light for the strip-mall parking lot, I remind myself of the bigger picture. Initially, there’s frustration. I’m not perfect. But when the slow-down starts to sink-in, I believe there is a reason I’ve been slowed. Perhaps I need to take that breath - Life can get hectic. Perhaps around the corner is an accident waiting to happen that I will avoid because I wasn’t “a second sooner.” I can’t control the traffic, so I go with it. I don’t fight it. When that green Ford LTD is slowing in front of me, looking for the correct turn for it’s destination, making me late for my workout, I take that extra minute (because we are just talking minutes in most cases) and enjoy the ride.