For those who live in the suburbs but work in the city centers or the hubs of all the traffic, we spend alot of time stuck in traffic jams. 2 hours in a car to get to work? 2 hours in a car to get back from work. That’s a long time to spend in a car.

Some people take it in their stride, telling themselves that it’s the nature of city life, that this it’s not happening only to me, but also to the guy in the car next to me and the lady in the car in front of me. So why get so worked up?

But others can’t. The anger slowly starts to build up, to bubble over. The stress levels rise, the ease of losing their temper becomes so low that even being overtaken by an old lady in a beat up car is too much.

And they lose it. But there are plenty of ways to keep your anger in check. Below I’ve listed a few that could be easily done in the car.

Listen To Some Mood Lifting Music

Let’s face it, there’s not much you can do in the car. You can’t read a book (unless you want to have an accident). You can’t really talk on the phone for the whole traffic jam either (unless you want a massive phone bill and you still might have an accident) so what else is there to do?

Well listening to music might be a good option. You can listen to the radio, just switch to your favorite station and you’re good to go for the next 2 hours. But the problem with radio is there are a lot of adverts that play on the radio stations (it’s how they make their money after all) and sometimes there’s a lot of talking between songs (they hire DJs to keep people entertained, not just to press ‘next’ on the CD player).

This may or may not keep you in a positive, relaxed mood.

So my suggestion would be to burn yourself a CD or load up your car with a huge list of MP3s. And not just any old MP3s but a list of songs that make you feel happy, relaxed, uplifted, or all of the above.

Each person has their own tastes in uplifting music so I can’t tell you what to put on your song list. You may feel happy when listening to the Spice Girls, Metallica or even Michael Jackson. Anything will do.

My personal choice? I feel relaxed when listening to ‘Michael Buble – Kissing a fool’.

No Music? Then Make Some

Know the lyrics to a song that you really love to hear? Does it make you feel happy? Uplifted? But you forgot to bring that CD?

Then just let loose and sing!

Do you really care about the stranger in the car next to yours giving you a funny look as you sing along to Mariah Carey? Who cares? He/she will be gone in the next few minutes and you probably won’t ever see them again.

Take my advice, doing something to relieve your stress or curb your anger is much more valuable to your mental health than caring about what you look like singing in the car.

So whether you are listening to music, or even making your own music, choose positive, uplifting songs. They’ll keep your stress levels low, your anger in check and that jam will pass by in no time at all.

Heck, you may even look forward to driving to work in the morning! Give it a try and see.