Driving Weddings and Guns
Yeah, it sounds strange to see these three words in the same title and it conjures up a horror story, doesn’t it?
My favourite question is “Why?” and this always leads me to discoveries, epiphanies and relationships between things – like this one.
Now what on earth does the concept of weddings or guns have to do with driving? The answer is simple, really. There is a common factor shared between them…in a very special way.
Now here’s the thing.
Brides caught up “in the moment(s)” at their weddings, victims of crime starring down the barrel of a gun and learner drivers approaching an intersection all share a common impact on their vision. This can happen to such an extent that neither of these would be able to recall much detail of anything else happening around them at the time. Brides often don’t remember much of their wedding day, crime victims are often at a loss to describe a perpetrator and learner drivers often forget the basics like when to break or even putting their car in gear.
The common factor is emotion and its impact is on how much of what you see gets processed the way it should when in an emotionally aroused state.
Why are learner drivers’ “vision” so severely affected that they can’t see things that they should and then they point-blank focus on things they actually should pay little attention to? This bothered me for a long, long time and I went out on a quest to have more tools in my arsenal to help them learn faster, understand the details of what they are going through while driving, in order that they may adapt sooner into better adjusted drivers.
The University of Toronto has recently released research showing how our mood and how we feel actually affects what we see. This clinched the deal for me – evidence!
On the one hand, a negative mood, such as being overwrought by sadness, fear, anxiety and such has a negative impact on our peripheral vision’s processing. We give attention to, and focus on very specific details in an emotionally laden situation and everything else becomes minor and trivial in comparison. This happens to such an extent that when your mind processes the emotion together with the visual, the negative emotional content actually sharpens the pin-point focus area and the rest of the detail is actually filtered and suppressed.
Often, when learning to drive, specially in the beginning, you’re nervous and scared as hell, you approach the intersection….and all you can see is the sea of cars around you….or that is what it feels like. Your heart starts beating faster, your palms get sweaty, your mouth is dry, your brain seems fried…. You stare point-blank at what looks like the nearest, biggest threat and everything else goes out the window as’t were or you approach an intersection and don’t even notice the stop sign because your attention is so focussed on another vehicle. A negative mood actually narrows your Field of View.
That’s the negative side of things.
From a positive point of view the picture changes quite dramatically. This, you start noticing as you get to grips with driving and you start chilling a bit. THIS is when you start feeling like a real driver.
What now happens is an “eye opener” or “seeing with a different eye”, literally. Actually it is not an improvement in eyesight but rather an improvement in emotional state that allows unfiltered information to be processed as it should be; information that was there all along but that could not be accessed in a negative emotional or anxious state. Positive emotion is what you need for driving – it brings so much more into your awareness, you can start managing instead of just trying to cope; you can start enjoying your driving and your behaviour no longer will feel like it’s forced, but rather it will feel more flowing and more natural. Here, your improved mood actually widens your scope and Field of View.
Positive, enjoyable learning experiences is the reason that I am a strong believer in the broaden-and-build psychology theory, because one size DOES NOT fit all and contrary to some parents’ popular belief that being thrown into the deep end will get you driving, I believe that your soul, psyche and sanity do not have to be crushed to get results.
Technically, what does this mean in my world of driving instruction?
This means that, regrettably, among others, I get a vast number of clients in a range of petrified Post Traumatic Stress Disorder states to reasonable emotional wrecks that I need to teach to drive. The process is always simple. Create a safe learning environment without pressure. Remove anxiety and stressors while explaining which actions, while driving, trigger the negative emotion. Highlight positive successes, however small….and build, build, build….one engine revolution at a time.
Sooner than later the positives start outnumbering the negatives and even if a negative occurs once in a while, there’s always a positive as a reminder that you can do it – you have proof, after all.
Be gentle with yourself and NEVER give up.
