HOW NOT TO DRIVE.COM      

 

 

THINKING, FEELING & PUSHING THE GAS PEDAL

Road rage is a psychological problem. It is an extent of "anger," but it is caused by what a person thinks. What a person thinks causes what a person feels, and that's the nature of psychology: though = feeling = action. When the action is wrong, i.e. raging on a fellow motorist, that's because the thought process is wrong. That's a psychological "problem."

When a person thinks something is right when it is actually wrong, that person has a psychological problem called "cognitive impairment." In other words, they are stupid, which is a psychological problem. This is different from a "neurological" problem. 

Psychology is divided into three parts: thought, emotion and action (speech is included as an "action.") When a person becomes angry, yells and screams or even becomes violent, it's because the brain is sending a biochemical into the driver's bloodstream that causes the anger. That biochemical is triggered by a "thought," which is mental activity based on "perception" regarding the events, circumstances and situations that a person perceives by sound (including speech from others) sight (such as a middle finger) taste, touch and smell. (The latter three are usually not a part of driving perception.)

What's important here is when people do stupid things, we must ask why they do the stupid things they do (then if we know the cause, we can eliminate it; we cannot eliminate it if we don't know what it is!)

A quick rundown on psychology

There yare three types of psychology and thus three basic reasons as to why people do the stupid things they do, and this is very important to remember: a) psychological (cognition,) b) neurological (synapse) and c) sociological (group psychology, a collection of individual psychology.)

A "neurological" problem is a problem of the brain cells, biochemical fluids, etc. People with neurological problems usually don't pass the test for a driver's licenses. Neurological problems are usually the result of a birth defect, or brain damage, and are very serious.

A "psychological" problem is a problem of the mind, not the brain. In other words, you can have a healthy brain but a sick mind.

Normal, ordinary & otherwise healthy people with healthy brains can do stupid things, and the reason why they do stupid things is psychological, which is a problem of what a person "thinks."

Abnormal psychology, as a result of abnormal neurology, is sort of like when there's nothing wrong with the car, but there's something wrong with the driver. A neurological problem would be like something wrong with the car, but nothing wrong with the driver. Often, a neuorological problem causes psychological problems, but not vice versa.

I had a student once who was drifting off the road or into oncoming traffic. I instructed her to steer straight, but she insisted that she was steering straight, it was the car that was going crooked. What she didn't understand is that holding the steering wheel in the perfectly centered position will not cause the vehicle to follow the road perfectly; as most drivers understand intuitively, you must constantly make small steering adjustments to stay on the road.

The student did not have a neurological problem, the student had a psychological problem; the student did not understand, a psychological problem that can easily be fixed with counselling and instruction.

Neurological problems are very difficult to fix even with today's brain surgury technology. Problems of the mind are simply a matter of adjusting a person's thoughts.

YOUR FEELINGS

What a person thinks is not just based on a person's perception, but also what a person "feels". This "feeling" is called "emotion," and we usually categorize feelings into "wrong" and "right," or in other words, it "feels" wrong or it "feels" right.

Unfortunately, feelings can be unreliable when driving a car at high speeds. Often what feels right is wrong (speeding, for example, or not signalling for a lane change or turn,) and what feels wrong is right (merging at high speed, putting on the signal when there's nobody around, etc.)

Feelings are triggered by thoughts, and thoughts are influenced by feelings, so it's important that we start with the correct thoughts, which are based on correct information, such as the information contained in this web site.

META-ROAD RAGE

The term "meta" means "on a higher level." What this means is that when a person does something really stupid, not just stupid but really stupid, it's because they were experiencing an emotion that was incorrect for the situation, and the incorrect emotion was caused by the type of thoughts that cause these emotions, which then cause the stupid actions.

"Meta-cognition" means "thinking about thinking." So for example, when you get a little nervous, that's OK, but when you start to get a lot nervous because you're a little nervous, that's a problem.

So when you get angry, you might get "meta" angry, which is being angry because you are angry, which can grow to being angry because you are angry because you are angry, and so on.

Usually, when we are angry, we try to resolve the situation that causes the anger. If successful, the brain sends out a chemical response that neutralizes the anger response. But in the car, we cannot communicate very well with the other drivers, and this causes the meta-anger, or "rage," which is why it is so important that we all follow the same rules, accurately.

Being childish

When a baby deficates in it's diapers, which is really a stupid thing to do, but it's just a baby, it doesn' t know better yet, it does so because it learned to take it's pants off first and sit on a pot. On the other hand, an older child might have that knowledge and yet be afraid to take its pants off and sit on a pot, for various reasons, all reasons of which relate to what the child is thinking.

So the child who doesn't know better craps it's pants, but that is normal. The child that knows better but craps its pants anyway because of how it feels emotionally has a psychological problem.

Another example is when a child puts its hand into a fire. It does so because it hasn't yet developed the ability to create a connection between emotion, thought and action when it thinks about putting its hand into the fire, which if you think about it, is a somewhat attractive idea if you didn't know already how much it hurts.

So now, having experienced fire, when you think your hand is going to go into the fire, you experience a recollection of experience (thought) that triggers an emotion (feeling) that causes you to react (action) that keeps your hand out of the fire.

Even if you've never actually been burned, your imagination and instinct can provide the same "feeling" that causes you to take action to prevent yourself from getting burned.

The thought and emotional processes are cyclical, feeding and influencing each other; what you think affects how you feel, how you feel affects what you think, and so on. You might be driving with the wrong thoughts, which will cause the wrong emotions, which will cause more incorrect thoughts Incorrect thoughts are often philisophical, such as "it hasn't happened to me yet, so it probably never will" or "if there's an accident it will be the other driver's fault," and so on.

It's a cycle, meaning that it goes around and around, just like the blood in your veins and the wheels on your car. (Basically, some people just need a kick in the pants, but unfortunately that ties up traffic.) We can term this the "attitude cycle."

ATTITUDE, DUDE

But the "power" of your attitude cycle, like the wheels on your car, has to come from somewhere. In your car, the power comes from the motor, which is fueled by gas, electricity and air.

Your attitude is also fueled, but it is psychological, not biological or mechanic, and is fueled by what you see, hear and sense.

Speed gives you a "feeling," which you get from sensing the motion of the car. That feeling determines what you think about speed, what you think about speed determines how you feel about speed, how you feel about speed determines how much you push and release the gas pedal which determines how fast you go, and around and around it goes.

You can change how you feel by changing what you think. That is what "attitude" is all about, and is the most important part of driving because it's what leads to mistakes, and all accidents are caused by mistakes, and it's something that you can control (with a little bit of effort.) The place to start is with an education, which changes what you think, which changes how you feel, which changes how you drive.

Proper thoughts = proper feelings = proper driving = no crashes = NO HIKE IN YOUR INSURANCE RATES, NO INJURY, NO DEATH.

 

If you remember the crash rate (at least one car-crash per hour in the average city) and believe that it can happen to anyone who doesn't follow the rules and can happen at any unsuspected time while not following a rule, you might feel differently about taking chances, a feeling which will cause you to push the pedals and steer the wheel differently than if you felt otherwise.

Certain thought processes can stop these unwanted emotions, i.e. remembering personal outlook ideas, or philosophies such as, "at least it's faster than the bus," or "everyone is in the same boat," or "that driver has the right to change lanes" or "they obviously haven't read how not to drive.com".

 

Here's how it works:

You push the gas pedal, you feel good. Thus, the "happy pedal".

What you are feeling are chemicals secreted into your blood via your glandular system, and one in particular is know as "the happy hormone" endorphin, which is like a drug. It is the drug called happiness, and it comes from within our own bodies, and is the most important human drug. The constitution of the United States of America, for example, guarantees the freedom to pursue this chemical reaction, or rather the things that cause this reaction, such as driving a car.

Then the light changes to yellow, or a pedestrian shows up, or another driver wants to change lanes, or traffic is heavy, slow and congested, and not very fast at all and everyone else an idiot. Instinctively, the body shuts off the flow of endorphin, causing unhappiness. Unhappiness, however, can mean either: A) a different emotion, or B) a lack of emotion altogether.

There is only one desirable emotion (happiness,) but many undesirable emotions (all the others.)

Of course, the lack of happiness caused by releasing the gas pedal should not be interpreted by the individual driver as a need for anger, or sorrow, or frustration, or jealousy, or fear, or any of the other unhappy emotions. Instead, the driver should view the lack of happiness as a lack of emotion rather than replacing the void of emotion with any of the unhappy emotions, and this can be accomplished with correct thought process, including knowledge of actual law.

Unfortunately, some people cannot handle any lack of emotion, no matter what the emotion is. It takes much practice to drive unemotionally. So...

Good luck! (How does that make you feel?)

Unfortunately, it's impossible to live without emotions, so that's why we need to follow the rules. Capice?

Example:

THE LEFT LANE RULE

Driver (A), in the left lane, thinks, "Nobody should be in the left lane unless they are going very fast." Driver (B), in front of driver (A) in the left lane, thinks, "The law says that drivers in the left lane must not drive faster than the speed limit, and may drive slow in the left lane well in advance of a left turn and also when passing another even slower vehicle."