Almost every day while driving to work, I witness drivers that would kill another driver if only they had a weapon. “Road Rage” seems to be the phrase that was coined in the late ‘90s and is continuing into this millennium. I began to think this was only a phenomenon in Toronto and other large cities, but as I have travelled to other parts of the country I found it is nationwide. Actually, I read that in California there have been some killings due to road rage.

Personally, I have found myself getting very aggravated with other drivers who make insane moves on the road and I, too, have been tempted to retaliate in some manner. Is it really worth the added stress?

The dictionary defines stress as “physical or mental overexertion.” When a person stresses a muscle by overexertion, it can usually be healed by slowing down and taking a break from a particular activity. For example, pounding out five buckets of golf balls at the driving range in an hour is overdoing it! Something is bound to be hurting after that excessive activity. With physical stress, the cause and effect are fairly clear.

Mental stress is another ball game. Mental stress can lead to physical troubles and the cause and effect are not always crystal clear. During a normal day, everyone is faced with various levels of stress. From children to retired adults, all of us experience many levels of stress that occur during all of our waking hours. Too frequently, I have found myself with neck, back, and even jaw pain, having no clue as to what is wrong with me. After some self analysis, it is clear that mental stress got the best of me and I realized it was time to get it under control.

Eliminate the non-important stress in your day. If that driver wants to cut you off to get himself to work 30 seconds quicker, then let him do it and smile; it is really not a big deal. When you get to the office and spill your coffee on your desk, use it for a good excuse to clean up and get better organized, At lunchtime you may find your favorite pizza shop has a long line; wait it out rather than running like crazy to find a place that might have a shorter line. This kind of stress is not worth your while and will assist you in having a bad day.

Save yourself and your body for important business and family situations. It is those important issues where stress is actually good. You can use this stress as positive energy that will steer you toward making good decisions both personally and in business. I find that this type of stress, usually caused by a problem, will get me motivated to either call a meeting at work or plan a quiet dinner with my wife and get things ironed out before they escalate into a more significant situation.

I have certainly found this stress control to be very helpful and hope that you can also utilize some of these practices to help you relax a bit and take life a bit easier.