Me? Road Rage? Never......

I am a massage therapist (surprise surprise).  I am an on call massage therapist.  This means that I work at four or five different places (chiropractors, spas, my own clients) as needed. This can mean driving 20 miles a day, 60 miles a day, or even almost 300 miles, if I have to go far enough on the day.  Inevitably, though I try not to let it affect me, there are a lot of crazy drivers out there, which drives me (no pun intended) to.....ROAD RAGE.

Not cool!

The day can start innocently enough.  Driving along, my favorite songs playing, the sun is shining....what's this?  Someone driving in the middle of the road.  Hmmmmm......why am I not surprised...texting.  Good Lord.  As I drive around them, the car which has been trying to decided for the past 60 seconds whether they should enter the road or not, even though they clearly see me coming, pulls out at the last minute, causing me to slam on my brakes.  Ok, Carrie.  Don't get upset.  Focus on the music.  Focus on the nice, sunny....hey!  You didn't even put your signal on!  You almost hit me!  Ok.  Just breathe.  This light has been green for at least 20 seconds. The driver appears to be checking the radio.  I'll just give him a little beep to let him know it's his turn to go.  WHAT?  I really don't think that I deserved the middle finger for that!  What is wrong with people?


Roadragers.com describes road rage as "the informal name for deliberately dangerous and/or violent behavior under the influence of heightened, violent emotion such as anger and frustration, involving an automobile in use.  This can involve deliberately hitting another person, vehicle or object with his/her own vehicle and/or firing a weapon from it. Other possibilities include hitting the person or vehicle with an item which is not his vehicle, but which ultimately hits another person or vehicle."  Simply put, you get mad at someone's driving, you try to get back at them, either by cutting them off as they did to you, or worse, getting out of your car and getting into physical altercations.  I don't know about you, but I find that the time of year also factors in, i.e. holidays, etc.  Is it really worth it?  Probably not.  But sometimes we just can't help ourselves.  I have told myself so many times to let it go, and nine times out of ten, I do.  But that 10th time.....


So what can we do?  Road ragers gives some tips.  Don't retaliate, don't make eye contact.  Take time to breathe.  Could the other driver have made a mistake?  Nothing is worth your life.  You never know what other people will do or how they will react.  They may look harmless...but they probably aren't.  My best friend was cut off by someone and reacted by honking her horn and flipping him off.  At the next light he pulled out a gun and just waved it at  her, to show what he COULD do.  Just a friendly little reminder.  It just isn't worth it.

I hate it when my husband tries to show
off.  :)

So remember....breathe in, breathe out.  Laugh it off if possible.  Just keep thinking - it isn't worth it.  Chances are, you will feel ten times better for it.  


Oh, and if you've got some time, take this road rage test.  You could find out something about yourself that you just didn't know.

http://www.roadragers.com/test/index.htm.