The practical test, theory test and hazard perception test can be stressful experiences for learner drivers; there’s something at stake and money has been spent to get there. The practical test has a huge number of situations that can unfold in unpredictable ways and that can make the test challenging.
To help you keep calm and prepare your mind for learning to drive, you can use meditation. Meditation comes in many different forms, from affirmations and visualisation through to yoga and mindfulness. Not every type of meditation will appeal to you – research a few of them as some involve sitting down, some involve activity. However, meditation is designed to improve your concentration, memory and ability to deal with new information. Exercising your ‘meditation muscle’ improves it over time and increases your endurance, i.e. your ability to concentrate for longer.
Meditation improves self-awareness and your ability to control your reactions to your feelings. This is important when you are feeling anxious about taking a test. Meditation gives you tools to observe how you are feeling and choose a different experience. Meditation boosts your confidence by giving you more acceptance of who you are.
When driving, you are exposed to all kinds of random situations and reactions from other drivers. Other drivers’ anger can affect your driving, but only if you let it. Scenarios on the road can make you angry, stressed, anxious or nervous. All these emotions are the ones that can cause you to make silly mistakes on the road; they can be controlled more effectively with meditation.
Mindfulness meditation decreases inflammation and improves immune response according to some studies. This means your body is more adept at dealing with stress that could cause you to become ill.
To learn how to meditate, you can search how to meditate on YouTube, take classes at your local community centre, engage a professional for a one-on-one session, or read a book about how to meditate.
Darren has owned several companies in the automotive, advertising and education industries. He has run driving theory educational websites since 2010.