Did someone say road rage?
When it comes to road rage we have all either been guilty of it, on the receiving end of it or are familiar with both sides. We hear stories of people getting into accidents or physical and verbal altercations with people on the road all the time. Living in South Florida, road rage seems to be an every day occurrence akin to having your air conditioning running all day. For some people road rage is not a problem, but for others it can be a big deal and the results of their actions in response to it can be quite hefty.
We often look at road rage and focus on the person who explodes, but I think this overlooks another group entirely: the imploders. No I’m not talking about the guys who blow up buildings at construction and development sites. I’m talking about the people who are either on the receiving end of road rage and push down/ and hold on to their anger or those who are “closet road rages”- they perceive that someone has wronged them on the road, but instead of confronting them they hold on to the anger and then take it out on others.
Explosive Much
Your behind the wheel of your car sitting in traffic where you have been for the last 20 minutes. Slowly you move forward and inch and you think we might actually get somewhere, when out of the side a car comes down the service lane and decides to cut in front of you bypassing the long wait you just had to endure. It’s enough to rub anyone the wrong way, but for you it seems like the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back. How dare this jerk just come barreling down the road and cut you off like he’s king of the road? For most, this is just seen as another example of rudeness and its tossed aside as soon as its done, but you can’t let it go. You decide this guy needs to know just how much of a jackass he really is. So what do you do? you proceed to start hiking your horn out and you roll down your window and hurl every insult that has ever crossed through your mind (and it’s quitter a lot) and let the bird fly very chance you get and we’re not talking about your pet parakeet.
You my friend are a ROAD RAGER. If given the opportunity you’d let every jerk out there have a piece of your mind. The thing is you’re not alone in this type of behavior . According to statistics compiled by the National Highway Traffic & Safety Administration, “Half of drivers who are on the receiving end of an aggressive behavior, such as horn honking, a rude gesture, or tailgating admit to responding with aggressive behavior themselves”. The thing is you’re not really helping them or yourself. In fact, you’re doing more harm to yourself that anything by your acts and if you find yourself in a position where you’re raging more often than not it will catch up to you.
There’s a famous quote by the Buddha about anger:
“Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of
hurling it at someone else; you are the one that gets burned.”
When you road rage you are not just attempting, but actually hurling the anger out at others. Well, you might think, “well that’s smarter than holding on to it..this way you don’t get burned.” While it might appear that way, quite the contrary, you still get burned just in a different way. For one, you are inviting the possibility of raging at the wrong person and having them retaliate violently and /or the possibility that you yourself may go overboard and let things spin out of control. Even if neither one of those happens, you are still filling your environment with a field of negativity that hangs off you like a wet blanket weighing you down with every step. Have you ever noticed how hard it is to pull yourself out of a foul mood once you’ve entered it? Well, with road rage that anger sticks around even after the incident has passed. You’ll go home or get into work and relate the story of the jerk who cut you off and how you put him in his place, yet the anger has not lessened its still there. It takes up space in your thoughts and festers like a cancer spreading and fueling more anger with each passing moment. Talk about filling your mind and body with toxicity!
Did Some Say Implosion?
Unlike our friend above, you appear to remain level- head to all concerned, but if anyone were to look inside your mind they’d see that there’s a level 4 nuclear meltdown going on inside it! Imagine tiny versions of yourself running around in your mind trying to batten down the hatches before everyone and everything gets sent overboard. Yet, you smile, albeit a tight one and no one in the car or driving around you has any idea. Yet, here’s the thing with imploders’: you may not lash out like exploders, but inside you are seething and boiling over. You my friend are not holding the hot piece of coal, you have swallowed it and are now allowing it to burn you every inch of the way down.Like with the exploders although you think you are doing the right thing by not lashing out, which don’t get me wrong it is good not to lash out that way, you are still carrying around the anger and its effects are going to continue to harm you. In fact, it might just lead you to become an exploder if you keep tapping down on it for too long and I’d feel sorry for the person on the receiving end of that pent up road rage.
Here’s the short of it: Either way, whether you are spewing it out or pushing it away inside, when you road rage you are avoiding dealing with the real issue: Why is there so much anger? Why do you feel a need to take the perceived aggressive actions of another person so personal? Why do you allow it to affect you so deeply that it robs you of your joy and good mood for any more than a second? This is not to say that rudeness is excusable, but if someone is rude to you on the road why should you allow it to alter your mood and emotions? Neither one of the above road rage methods truly looks into this or provides a means of dealing with the problem in an effective and positive manner. So if you are one of the two above what can you do?
Hypnosis and Road Rage
If you are an exploder or imploder don’t worry it’s not the end of the world, you can rest assured that there is hope. Hypnosis can help you to do what those methods of dealing with the issue lacked: actually getting to the root of what is truly behind the anger and targeting the strategies to confront and ultimately overcome them. Sometimes there are other things that are really behind our anger, but we ourselves are not aware of it. Through hypnosis, you are able to uncover what the triggers are from a subconscious level. By gaining an understanding of where our anger is coming from we can deal with it and let go of it, which will essentially render it powerless over us. The toxic feeling they comes from all that road rage is not healthy and being able to let it go and live without it will truly make a difference in the way not just you day goes, but in your life overall.
If you find yourself dealing with an road rage or uncontrollable anger, we can help you overcome it at the Miami Hypnosis Center.Give us a call for a free initial consult and start on the road to living a better life today!