Years ago – before I married my husband and my son was very little – I spent many weekends driving in the North Georgia Mountains. Most of the time, I had no destination in mind, I just really enjoyed the driving. I could tune out the world by rolling the windows down, turning the music up, and concentrating on the next curve in the road. When my son was with me, I would often make unexpected stops. Adventures we called them. Sometimes we might go horse back riding, other times fishing, and there were times when we only stopped long enough to grab a bag of boiled peanuts. That aimless driving was a way for me to relieve my stress and refresh my mind.

When my grandmother and I moved to the mountains – after my grandfather passed away – I kept up my habit of aimless driving. In some ways it was better, because by then I was more familiar with the roads in the area. Even from my car I got to see all kinds of wonderful things. A mother bear and her cub, loads of deer, ground hogs, and wild turkeys. After I got married and had a baby, I did not have the time for my drives anymore. At first I missed them, after a while I forgot about them. Once my anxiety and depression kicked in, I could not have made those drives even if I had wanted to. Instead of relaxing, they would have been fear laden trips- due to “safety zone” issues.

Yesterday, I rekindled my love of aimless driving. I was feeling stressed, and needed some time to myself. With so many people in the house right now, I knew that I would probably not get the alone time I was craving. Without really thinking about it, I got the keys to my dad’s car and went for a drive. I am not sure where I drove, or even what the names of the roads were, nor do I care. It was nice to just be able to aimlessly drive. I did not even have to worry about getting lost and not being able to find my way back home. I just plugged in my dad’s GPS and set it so that no matter where I was, it would give me directions back to the house.

Even though there was quite a bit of traffic, I thoroughly enjoyed my mental health motoring. Zoning out and just concentrating on the road in front of me, emptied my brain of stressful thoughts and worries. I did not even turn the radio on, I just listened to the mindless hum of the car engine. When I got back to the house, I was much more relaxed and able to manage the rest of the evening without feeling stressed out.

I am glad I thought to take off like that. The short, aimless ride I took did me a world of good. I am going to add mental health motoring to my tool box of mental health coping skills. It is not something I should do every time, but it is nice to have it as just one of my options.