Stress Free Driving

I’ve been driving to work for the past 24 years. At least two hours of my life were spent on the road five days a week. I live in Shah Alam City and working in Kuala Lumpur City, 25km away. There are three highways linking Shah Alam and Kuala Lumpur. However, traffics are almost bumper to bumper during the morning and evening rush hours. The 25km journey normally took me 45 minutes. If there is downpour or other situation that slowing down the traffics, the journey may take about 2 hours. Can you imagine the amount of stress that I have to go through every day to get to my office before 9.00am or to get home early for dinner with family members?

The aggressiveness of other drivers such as weaving in and out of the lanes, changing lane at the very last minute before exiting the highway and cutting queues at the toll booths, made me very angry, and some time I show them the one finger sign. Don’t they realize that their behavior can cause road accident? Malaysia is one of the countries that have high road accident and fatality rate. Don’t they watch the news?

Swearing at aggressive drivers has become my way of being. I was not present to it until more than a year ago. My family and I were on an evening drive when a lorry cut in dangerously in front of us and my 9 year old daughter cursed at the driver. It was a reflection of me and I’m not going to let it continuing affecting my daughter.

I look inside myself to find out why I always angry and stress up when I was caught up in traffic jam or facing rude drivers. It was clear to me that it was not the traffic jam or the drivers behavior that made me stress and angry, but my way of being. I was making the drivers wrong for their aggressive driving and the government wrong for not providing a good public transportation system to address the congestion problem. When I gave up making the drivers and the government wrong, I found peace inside me.

Traffic congestion is not a problem to me anymore. I have more time to enjoy music when I was caught up in a jam. Aggressive driver? I pity them; they might get high blood pressure, bad mood and a faster wear and tear on their vehicles. I’ll continue practising giving up making other wrong, especially when I’m sure that I’m right.