A couple of weekends ago, my husband, Jerry and I decided to go for a scenic drive in the north Georgia mountains. As Jerry was driving, I heard a rumbling noise as our car went over the rumble strips in the center of the road. Because it happened a few times, I looked at Jerry, laughed and asked him if he enjoyed the sound the tires made on
the rumble strip. He just grinned at me.
The sound of the rumble strips made me think about how our feelings are like rumble strips. If we are feeling angry, hurt, annoyed, or any other emotion that is not pleasant, it is a warning signal. Like the rumble strips that wake us up to the fact that our driving requires our attention, feelings alert us that our thoughts are off track. Our feelings are not
telling us that we need to act, they are telling us that we might be thinking in a way that is not helpful.
I worked with someone I will call Jack, who had been let go by an employer. When they let Jack go, his boss cited reasons he had never discussed with Jack in the past. The reasons were fabricated and Jack felt humiliated and betrayed. Eventually, he found another job.
Everything was going well, but Jack started to worry that his new boss was going to do the same thing his former boss had done. Just thinking about that made Jack angry and defensive. I asked him what had occurred that led him to believe that what happened with the previous employer would happen at his current job. Jack said it was just a feeling he had. He was working in the same industry and he was worried that his former boss
would say derogatory things about him to the current employer.
I asked Jack if he was aware of any evidence that supported his concern. Jack admitted that there was no evidence. Some months later, Jack is still employed and his current boss thinks very highly of him. This is a good example of how Jack's angry feelings, were alerting him that his thoughts were unhelpful and needed to be questioned and ignored.
Another type of rumble strip goes all the way across the entire lane of a road. Those strips are there to remind drivers to slow down as they approach a traffic light or stop sign. There are times when our feelings are trying to tell us to slow down. We might be overthinking an issue in our life or ruminating on something from our past. When we slow down, it makes it easier to sort through which issues are real
and need to be addressed and which issues are imaginary.
The next time you’re feeling upset ask yourself what your feelings might be trying to tell you. Do you need to question the thoughts that are going through your mind? Do you need to slow down?
