4 Self Improvement Tips While Driving

Driving a car can be a scary experiences if you’ve ever been in a car wreck, it can be a boring, angering, fist-clenching, finger-pointing, steering-wheel-ripping experience while in an ocean of traffic, or it can just be whatever we want to make of it. A time to think and improve ourselves, a cloud nine, or a rock concert. Driving can be an active experience instead of a waste of time. Here are some tips next time you find yourself traveling or in the midst of that sea of traffic.

Adjust Your Mirrors So You Have To Sit With Good Posture

Make sure your mirrors are adjusted so that you have to sit fully erect with your head held up high in order to see clearly. This is such a simple trick that can greatly improve your awareness of your posture and you awareness while driving. Good posture is part of a healthy core and a healthy spiritual life. Driving doesn’t have to be a deadening of your senses and your body. It can be the time you really focus on your posture and one day you’ll find yourself sitting erect without even thinking about it!

Audio Books

Yes driving can be dull. Traffic even more dull. An audiobook might be just what you need to make each trip an enlivening experience. Solve a mystery, fall in love, or listen to information about your field of work, art, or play. Podcasts are especially great for driving. RadioLab is awesome! Make driving an education or cultured experience!

Plan Your Weekend or Your Week:

”The purity of heart is to will one thing.” – Kierkegaard

When you are driving, you have time to mentally restore yourself. Why not plan what you are going to do the upcoming weekend or if you are travelling, think about your intentions for your trip? Every moment, even when you are driving, is full of life and splendor don’t let the mundaneness of it keep you from looking out the windows and finding gratitude or astutely planning what you are going to do this weekend, something you want to build, a project you want to start, a book you want to read, or a new skill you want to learn. Think about other people in your life, what they mean to you, and how you can act on their meaning in your life.

Avoid Snacks

We live in a society that is all about consumption. For our success, for the success of others, and for the success of society. But all that consumption, especially combined with all the information we are constantly taking in these days, can lead to a mind that is unable to stimulate itself. In other words, a bored mind. Take time in the car away from snacks. Drink some water and be present for the music you are playing or continue thinking about good posture while driving. When you are stuck eating snacks or consuming anything really, you forget about the moment you are in and the possibilities you can summon up within yourself!

Drive Yourself Happy

While driving we might constantly worry about car wrecks, about other drivers cutting us off, debris in the road, or wherever our mind wants to take us. When we can take a step back and make driving a happier and more relaxed time in our life, not only will we be enjoying our day to day living more often, but we will also be more aware and capable while driving. When you focus on something else other than driving, the body takes over and driving become autonomous. However, the relaxed and aware temperament you will carry with you in this state keeps your driving safe and defensive.

Jeremy Smith is a writer at The McMinn Law Firm, a personal injury law firm in Austin, Texas. Having seen so many clients fall victim in a car wreck, who hopes to promote driving as a healthy, positive experience.