Thanks for making your way back here.

Please update me on your progress on making your vehicle feel like a safe sanctuary – I really want to know how you do.

There is one book that I recommend more than any other book on the planet – “A New Earth” by Eckhart Tolle.

I believe the teachings of Tolle are more valuable than any other spiritual teachings every written. For me anyway, when I read his books or listen to his voice, I somehow begin to undertand the truth of OUR world and not the fictions of MY world. He helps me stop obessing about “little me” (my ego) and see the truth that is ALL of US, ALL of NATURE, and ALL of the universe.

“A great silence space holds all of nature in it’s embrace. It also holds you.” – Tolle

He can truly change your life for the better, and he is not one of these writers (marketers) who simply churning out flowery language for profit.
He spent years as a so-called “bum” on park benches, and he has so much to teach you.

Enjoy

I think anxiety disorders are more common than most people realize. I hope some day soon I can realize the gift that it can be. I have suffered emmensely from it and it is my hope that I can make peace with it.

I love your website and your words are very comforting! Thank you, again.

Try this – get a map out and re-map a completely different route to where you usually drive. Find a route that takes longer and gets you away from the high speed congested roads and highways. Take some time to plan a route that is MUCH less stressful. Even if you have to get up an hour earlier and go to bed an hour earlier – it’s worth it.

When you have re-mapped your routes, go and drive them on a day when there is VERY LITTLE traffic. Get used to the new routes when there is little traffic and try and enjoy your drive.

Take things with you that make it less stressful – take relaxation music to put in the CD player. Take a familiar object that gives a sense of peace and safety. Clean up the inside of your vehicle so that is a place of relaxation and order – not a messy place of hell.

Consider using scented objects to give the inside of your vehicle and comforting aroma.

Make the inside of your vehicle a sanctuary of sorts. Make sure you have powerful sunglasses to stop the sun from adding more stress to the drive. Makes sure you have good windshield wipers and fluid sprayers so you are always ready for anything that can cause visibilty problems.

Accept your problem with driving and make a concerted effort to make some changes like I am describing – take the issue head-one and before you know it, you will be doing much better.

Unfortunately when we have a list of high stressors (like you have described above) then our anxiety spools up and then the smallest things can cause great stress – once you sort out the stressors (one by one) you will find the little things no longer effect you the same way.

I know some people who fear driving so much they moved to place where they didn’t have to drive!! That is taking action to the extreme, and I’m not suggesting you move, but you could maybe find a way to get rid of the car and pay someone to pick you up for work and back. What about car pooling?? Even people who have NO real stress in life, can find driving to be very stressful. Whatever you do, don’t beat yourself up over this, and don’t get mad at yourself for feeling this stress.

You are another walking and talking miracle on this earth and you can’t forget that you are actually living in a bubble of love. If you turn of the television and the news, you will soon realize that 99% of people have nothing but good to give you, and nothing but love to send your way. They want to help you. Just open your heart and accept help and ask for help. Just like you did on Saneadvice. The healthiest thing you can do is accept your temporary anxiety and ask for help from other people.

When we can wake up each morning and simply FEEL the gratitude of just “being” then we are starting to “get there”.

When we are truly grateful for JUST being alive and enjoying our natural presence and connection to all life, then we are beginning to understand that there is nothing to fear – quite the opposite in fact – it’s pure bliss.

This is why Eckart Tolle said that the two most blissful years of his life he spent penniless and homeless with no traditional attachments to anybody in particular, but feeling attached to all the lives.

I have had a rough go last year with job loss, house in limbo, isolation, little support network and now starting a new job. WOW! Talk about stress – as you can imagine my anxiety went through the roof.

I have been suffering immensely these past several months. I have tried natural supplements like Magnesium, GABA, Taurine, Tyramine, etc., to no avail.

My anxiety hits when I drive. I upped my paxil to 30 mgs. Yesterday was so good getting to work but this morning was very, very hard. I hate beening in bondage with this disorder. I want my freedom back. But it’s been a long, tiring struggle. Do you have any suggests for reducing anxiety while driving? I just cannot relax in my car. I feel like such a mental defective.