The need to change our driving philosophy

It has become self evident to me that driving is a reflection of one personality. Erratic driving is often manifested by uptight, on the edge, diffident drivers. On the other hand, calm and smooth driving is usually performed by secure, confident, well-balanced drivers.
Thus, it is significant to develop and nurture the ability to disassociate our inherent personality and our driving style. This psychological metamorphosis is not easy as it needs to undergo some devolvement against the trendy current of the “me first” philosophy. This voluntary change is only genuine when it is implemented when nothing appears to be leading to that change, when it is produced from our inner resource.
Stress and adverse intense psychological attacks do affect us profoundly as we react to our life environment.
A few years ago, I was contracted to evaluate a senior driver whose license was suspended as the result of running through a red light just next to a police car. The driver stated that he saw the policeman clearly well before committing the potential fatal traffic violation.
The elderly gentlemen revealed to me that he was on his way back from his wife funeral.
There is no excuse for committing such road sin but it is important to understand the imperfection of our physical and mental constitution to arm ourselves with the tools that are going to increase our chance to perform at our very best on the road. It is paramount to remember that our driving does not only affect ourselves but others: someone son, someone wife, someone father, someone grandson, etc…
The very first action before driving is not to look around the vehicle, adjust the mirrors and turn on the engine. Prior to that, take a few long deep diaphragmatic breath to calm yourself and flush yourself from all counterproductive issues, meditate on your change of demeanor and surround yourself with the feeling of gratefulness toward your life, towards who or what positively contributed to your existence.
Those few minutes of preliminary reflection constitute a pro-active exercise to help you become a safer, more tolerant driver.

Please promote good driving behavior.