Driving




Here's what I got for 1,200 bucks in 1987

Years ago, as a newly-single mom as well as a full time college student with a low-paying, part-time job, I found myself suddenly needing a replacement for my clunker of a car. My friend Wanda helped me make phone calls and, eventually, we found a $1,200 car—the exact amount in my bank account.

It seemed like a small miracle except for one thing. It was manual drive and I’d only ever driven automatic. Oh, well, I’d cross that bridge when I got to it, I thought. It was the only half-decent car in three counties for that price. I bought it.

The day I went to pick it up, my young sons came along for the ride from Lebanon to Berks County. As they will tell you to this day, they lived to regret it. I insouciantly hopped behind the wheel, studied the stick in the center console and the three pedals—gas, brake, clutch—and told the kids, “Don’t worry. I’ll figure it out.” Twenty minutes later, still in the parking lot, wildly stamping on this pedal and that one, and jerking the car back and forth while regularly stalling it out, I felt the first wave of doubt.

A 25 minute drive home lasted nearly three hours. At one point, the boys lay down on the back seat so the other drivers who were cursing at me couldn’t see them. The youngest begged me to call someone. Somehow, I got us all back home, but my new car was moaning and whining by the time I pulled into the driveway. And so were we.


I thought about that day yesterday when I read an article by Milton Z. Brown, Ph.D. (www.dbtsandiego.com) on the importance of slow, deep, and regular breathing. Brown explained two complementary body systems that help regulate my reactions to the world. The sympathetic nervous system revs me up to react to stressful events, emergencies, and threats by cranking up my heart rate, blood pressure, and breathing. The parasympathetic applies the brakes to return my body functions to normal when the threat has passed.

Heart rates vary with emotional states

Sometimes the system that is intended to speed me up and the one intended to slow me down do not work smoothly, timely, and efficiently. Brown says this is “just like driving a car with one foot on the gas pedal (the sympathetic system) and the other on the brake (the parasympathetic system) at the same time, which creates a jerky ride, uses more fuel, and harms the car.”

However, he goes on to explain that the rate and way in which I breathe helps regulate my “gas” and “brake” systems. Practicing slow, deep, relaxed breathing for at least 20 minutes a day strengthens my body’s brakes and slows down my body’s acceleration—all adding up to a smoother ride through my day with increased tranquility and a greater sense of well-being.

My sons are grown up now with kids of their own. In fact, two of the kids turned 16 recently and are going to be learning to drive. I know the driver education teacher and their parents will do a good job of teaching them to navigate the roads—but I plan to add some grandmotherly words of wisdom about deep breathing to help them navigate their way through life.