Okay, so I think we've covered that one nicely. Now, the other part of that that I mentioned at the beginning was that when they make a mistake, their anxiety starts to spiral. So they start to make more mistakes and then make more mistakes and feel more anxious.

So let's, let's think about, um, first off for me is as, as an instructor, I put my instructor head on at the moment, but think about what is that mistake? You know, and another example might be someone, Oh, I didn't signal at that junction. What's happening now is the thought yes you didn't signal that junction, did it affect anyone? Not really. So, you know, we got away with it, for want of a better word, we got away with it. Um, but what happens is, we're still thinking about that thought yep when we need to be thinking about our driving so what happens is your driving down the road, parked cars. car coming towards you, we're still thinking about that signal that we haven't put on and then we pull out to go around the car and all of a sudden there's a car coming towards us we've nowhere to go because we're not thinking.

Yeah, we're not paying attention to our driving in the moment. We're still thinking about our mistake. That's why it leads to us making another silly mistake. And then no wonder we start to feel anxious.

And I suppose what I'm, in my head, what I think when that happens is it's a snowball. Yeah. Running down a, rolling down a hill. It's just getting bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger until it's, it's, it's massive.

Yeah. And actually, we've all experienced that sensation in all sorts of different scenarios. So not just driving, but those things. For example, when you're running late and so you're running late, so you rush and then you drop that and then you can't find that, and then you, because you can't think straight. And those snowballs happen in life. All the time, don't they?

Yeah, exactly. But it's... Okay, that's happened. Thanks for telling me. What I need to do now is this.

So there is a thing there of going, yep, I made a mistake, but we survived, let's focus on the drive in right now.

If it's a serious mistake though, you know, something that's, oh, and you, the option is just to pull over,

Yes.

stop.

Yep.

You know, that's, a lot of people when they're driving, don't do that.

Yep. When it's safe to do so, pull over, stop, calm yourself down in, you know, think it over. What did you do? What do you need to do? Is there anything you need to do next? Pause, reset before carrying on with your journey.

Yeah, because you don't want to become a snowball. So that is one way of doing it, isn't it? You know, one mistake leads to more anxiety. Well, instead of dealing with one mistake, you're now dealing with four or five. No wonder why your anxiety levels go high. So if we can reduce that, one of the reasons you reduce it by is pausing. Or, that's happened, I need to do, move

Yeah, I mean that reminds me of that time when that tractor nearly hit me on a roundabout. It didn't stop. I was on a roundabout and I looked to my left and thought, God, that tractor's going fast, and it never stopped and I had to Um, and it, it, it missed me by inches and yeah, it was horrible and I did, I was shaking and I had to go and find somewhere to pull over because my driving would have been appalling

But you wouldn't have been concentrating on the driving, would you?

been, no, I would have been replaying the incident. I would have been going over, I would have been thinking of the what ifs, you know, I would have. Probably imagined all sorts of awful things, but instead, as soon as I could, I pulled over and I just gave myself some time and actually used every trick I know. Which is

Which, which is probably quite a long

Yeah. Because we

'cause we do know quite a few tricks, but it's, it's the most important thing is to realize how you're feeling.

Yes.

You know, that is one of the, the, the, the key elements there, isn't it? Notice And for that person that says their anxiety, One mistake leads to more, and then get higher anxiety. Great, you've noticed it. Now you need to deal with it. And how do I deal with that? It might well be stopping.

Yeah, it might be taking a reset and using one of the tips that we've put on all the other episodes. So, you know, some breathing or a mindfulness reset where you're noticing what you can see, what you can hear, what you can feel, humming, singing. All of those things. Now the other thing I thought about with this one was that to take your mind off the mistake and keep your attention on your driving is to move into talking to yourself, talking through your driving and what you need to do next.

Yeah, and I suppose what we're doing there is, okay, you've made a mistake. Then talk yourself through what you need to do. It's like think back and again you've probably practiced this hopefully in your lessons or a previous time when your driving's been good, you talk to yourself. We'll do the same again because again we go back to the brain, the brain's got that memory there, it can use it again can't it? And that's what you're doing, you're just using those good examples of what you've done before to tell yourself to How to do it.

Yeah, definitely. It keeps you focused, keeps your attention on your driving, so you're less likely to make mistakes. You're instructing yourself, you're calming yourself down, and you're not leaving room to replay that mistake that you made.

you made. Yeah, you're giving yourself time to concentrate on the task rather than the thought.

Rather than the thought and the past.