When your driving fears usually start eat you alive, you may think the best remedy is a nap, bubble bath or other forms of relaxation. That may not necessarily be the case as you might get more relief and a greater boost of energy if you instead do something you find interesting.
The Study
A study published in Social Psychological and Personality Science found that interesting activities played a role in replenishing energy, sustaining motivation and kicking out frustrations. Do all that and you have a dandy little equation for helping to alleviate your driving fears and driving anxiety.
The study consisted of three experiments where participants were asked to engage in an interesting activity after experiencing psychological exhaustion. That activity boosted their persistence and effort, thereby replenishing their resources for moving on to other things.
As the study notes, interest is a positive emotion. As the study showed, provoking it induces positive results.
The Activity of Choice
Columbia University Business School’s Motivation Science Center Associate Director Heidi Grant Halvorson says to keep two tips in mind when choosing something. Her tips help ensure what you pick is, well, actually interesting.
- Pleasure and interest is not the same thing. Perhaps you find eating cupcakes pleasurable, but unless they have some strange flavors or trinkets hidden inside, the act may not be all that interesting.
- Interesting is not always easy (or even relaxing). Reading a book geared toward your kindergarten neighbor may be easy, for instance, but it probably doesn’t do much for stimulating your brain cells. After all, we all already know Clifford the Big Red dog ends up happy in the end and the man with the hat never gets the best of Curious George.
That said, perhaps interesting to you is instead reading an article on neuroscience or finishing the Sunday crossword. Maybe you like perusing museums or analyzing poetry. Go for it!
Whatever task you choose, of course, should not be done while driving. If you’re in the midst of driving and feel that familiar driving anxiety creeping up your neck, perhaps you can help ward off the stress by stopping and checking out next tchotchke shop you happen to run across.
The point is to give your mind something active to do to refuel your own empty tank so you can keep cruising and humming down the road.
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