Tip #2 Mindfulness and Smiling

Hi! Welcome back to this series on stress management, I’m Stephanie McCannon and I have you in my car today. I actually wanted to share two stress management tips with you but they go hand in hand and they’re two things that I actually do when I’m driving around to reduce my stress. One of them is being mindful, is practicing mindfulness and I do that when driving by noticing my steering wheel. I actually start focusing on the placement of my hands, how my hand feel around the steering wheel and am I gripping the steering wheel tightly or loosely, are my fingernails digging into the palm of my hands? What’s the temperature of steering wheel, how does it feel to hold it? All of these detailed things I start focusing on.

The other thing that I wanted to share with you is smiling. When you’re driving around town and when you’re participating in a maybe unwanted stressful driving situation. Try to smile a real smile, I call it a real deal smile when you get your mouth and your eyes involved. It instantly relaxes you. You notice that your shoulders drop down; your breathing becomes more regulated. You will feel instantly calmer when you start smiling, and plus the other drivers might wonder what you’re up to but that’s their deal.

So I’d like for you to start implementing mindfulness when you’re driving and smiling when you’re driving. These two positive practices will help reduce the stress in your life. I can’t wait to share with you what I have in the next video. So I’ll see you in a little bit. Here’s to stress reduction.