For the rookies...Dealing with stress

I like to cut up whenever I get the chance - on the radio, at the counter in the restaurant, or wherever.

Laughter is a GREAT stress reliever.

 

Petey I get what your saying,but there is so much that can be done its difficult to list. One thing I didn't mention tho. While doing a reset do a little exploring of the area your in. Also Geocaching is a fairly new activtiy. That's using a handheld GPS to find small caches of stuff. From what I understand is you take and leave something at the Cache. This will get a driver out of the truck and get some excerise.

 

get home every other day....

 

This is the best one. Don't stress about what you can't change. You will be delayed at the shipper sometimes. You will hook to trailers with flat tires. You will have contact with rude nasty people. You will drive in snow and wind and storms. You will get to the truck stop too late to find a parking space. Etc, etc. If you let these things get to you, you will be stressed and frazzled and won't enjoy your job at all. Let the bad stuff go, and focus on the good. Like that rainbow out there, or the herd of grazing antelope, or the little boy in backseat grinning and pumping his fist for the air horn, or that old timer you met telling stories about his days as a bull hauler.

 

Disclaimer: I am not pushing any religious belief on anyone. This is something I found after high school and found it useful when trying to figure out "why is all this x##X happening to me now"?

[FONT=Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif]God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference. [/FONT]
[FONT=Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif]---What [/FONT]1nonly said.
WISDOM, wish I had listened to the "wise ones" when I was younger. Point for folks like me on the forum.

Living one day at a time; Enjoying one moment at a time; Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace; ----Sounds like a truckers life.

Taking, as He did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it; Trusting that He will make all things rightif I surrender to His Will; That I may be reasonably happy in this life
and supremely happy with Him Forever in the next.
Amen. [FONT=Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif][SIZE=-1]--Reinhold Niebuhr[/SIZE][/FONT] -----left this last part in to give credit to original author.

 

Most Drivers have been in some very stressful situations. Sometimes stress can be a motivation. How? Simply put stress is a natural part of everyday life. It can be caused by Relationships, Money, Career, Health and Mental Attitude. The Motivation that comes from stress is the desire to do something to cope with the people, places or things that are causing us to become s t r e s s e d o u t. Some turn to Drugs and or Alcohol which offers only a temporary reprieve from the symptoms and does not address the root cause. Hence, the motivation is to target the source of the stress and learn how to overcome the effects. Some of the methods mentioned above work for relieving stress. Everyone has their own level of tolerance to stress and situations surrounding the individual. Stress can also be both physically and mentally painful. When the pain out paces the pleasure, we need to become motivated. We need to stop the pain. When stress manifest itself like the old cliché, '" Got a monkey on your back" what do you do? Get Motivated, walking, running, relaxing, reading, listening to quiet relaxing music during for a short break in the sleeper. If possible recognize what exactly is creating these negative feelings and then apply some positive coping measures. I would avoid things like caffeine and other stimulants like Red Bull and Monster during these episodes, for that can actually be detrimental to our natural mental and physical coping mechanism which is to rest and sleep.

I am sure there are other ways that drivers deal with stress, like psycho-therapy or relaxation meditation, spa's, message therapy, etc..especially since it is a FMCSA violation to use psycho-tropic medication or prescription pain killers and sleeping pills when not on home-time, except by a waiver if allowed by the Medical Review Committee.

 

Yeah. NewNashGuy. I agree totally. It's all that you make it. Just like yourself..I look forward to getting out there and doing my thing. I was into the moving business before I got my own authority. First, you had to get to the job site, then hours to move the furniture off the truck, then you had to drive back home. Many days, I worked 18-22 hrs. per day. Dead tired when I got home, just to get up @ 5 am to do it all over again. Yeah. This trucking thing is a breeze compared to what I used to do.

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