Why getting behind the wheel could be the ultimate mood-booster

Driving a car – and arguably even more so riding a motorcycle – is a fundamentally intimate, involving experience. Mazda – maker of the MX-5, a great driver’s car – instinctively knows this. It calls its design and engineering philosophy jinba ittai. Roughly translated, the Japanese phrase means the ‘sense of horse and rider as one’. 

And it’s this sense of connection that sits at the heart of any journey – the very act of controlling a vehicle connects you with it. It responds to your inputs and requests, and gives feedback as it does, creating a conversation between you and the vehicle: you asking it where to go and at what speed, and it feeding back information about the road surface, the state of the brakes, how much grip the tyres have.

This same close-knit relationship of horse and rider (jinba ittai again) can be found with an artist and a brush, or a musician and an instrument. There is reward in expertise. Much of the time the actions required are almost subconscious, but that doesn’t mean we aren’t executing an extremely complex task.

Try to drive mindfully

Driving mindfully can help us stay in the present moment/Credit: Getty Images

We can gain a lot in mental wellbeing simply by approaching driving mindfully. The idea is to concentrate on the present, our physical sensations and the world immediately around us. It’s about making a deliberate decision to park stressful external matters for the duration of the journey.

“Driving is one of the most complex everyday tasks we do, but it also frees up parts of the brain to think productively” Richard Gladman, chief examiner at road safety charity IAM RoadSmart, which runs advanced driving and riding training courses, points out that the techniques used in training advanced-level motorists also promote a calmer mindset.

“A cornerstone of our teaching is planning,” he says. “For any given situation on the road, we teach people to look at all the possible consequences and to prepare for the possibility of them happening well in advance. That means fewer surprises on the road: safer drivers are calmer drivers, and calmer drivers are safer drivers.”

Drive in the moment

So when driving or riding, being present in the moment doesn’t only make us safer, but also our feeling of the machine and our interaction with it is itself a way of de-stressing. Indeed the NHS’s mindfulness guide recommends practising mindfulness at a regular time – such as while on a commute to work.“Since the early days of motoring, psychologists have been interested in the fact that driving is one of the most complex everyday tasks we do, but it also frees up parts of the brain to think productively,” says Lancaster University’s Professor Lynne Pearce, in an interview with Porsche’s Newsroom website.

“It’s now widely understood that the reason we can safely daydream, work through our thoughts, or have a conversation at the wheel is because the brain’s central executive remains alert throughout.” 

When a clear country road opens up and we’re in a car or on a bike, it will release beneficial hormones. Hormones are the body’s messenger chemicals that control not just how your organs react but how you feel. The ‘happy hormones’ – dopamine, serotonin, endorphins and oxytocin – are released in response to activities that benefit our health and longevity. 

Release those 'happy hormones'

Let the good times roll/Credit: Getty Images

Endorphins are released when we exercise, dance or play rhythmic music, but that also means through the muscular response and physical sensations of accelerating, braking and cornering. It might recall the carefree whizz of being on a fairground ride as a child, but now we’re experiencing it in the context of control. 

Just don’t let the speed become extreme, because then we release adrenaline, a fight-or-flight chemical that speeds up heart rate and can cause us to become aggressive and disproportionate in our responses.

Set the mood with music or a podcast

And, of course, with podcasts and streaming music, there’s no need to be bound by radio programming. Select whatever keeps you calm or joyful. Your vehicle’s sound system is perhaps the only source of music you can listen to with no interruptions – or the neighbours banging on the wall. 

Other comforts available to drivers of modern cars include massage seats or ambient lighting that you can tune to suit your mood. Some car makers even control the air quality in a car’s cabin. Volvo’s CleanZone ensures toxic particulates don’t get into your car, and will even purge the interior of potential allergens produced by the car’s own cabin materials. Mercedes’ Air Balance system goes even further, with an optional fragrance atomiser that comes with a choice of four aromas.

Korean car brands Hyundai, Kia and Genesis have introduced relaxing audio, too, with their Sounds of Nature function, which plays soothing soundscapes, including the patter of rain or crash of waves.

Appreciate your surroundings

Take in the views and smells of the countryside/Credit: Getty Images

If you’re in the countryside, though, the best aromas come from outside: fresh grass and forests, dew on hedges, the tang of earth. Bikers are particularly alert to sharpened smells that come with damp surfaces, or indeed from livestock – which could be a warning of newly laid ‘organic surface lubricant’.

Look around. Roads can take us into the most epic scenery. No wonder coastal routes and mountain passes reside on the bucket lists of many holiday destinations. But you can also be stuck in jams in cities such as London, Barcelona or Paris and revel in the extraordinary architecture around you. 

Connect with your passengers

Build connections during long journeys/Credit: Getty Images

Yet maybe the best mood-lifter on a journey is the people you travel with. In-car conversations can get surprisingly deep, as there’s something about everyone knowing they’re going to be together for a while, and no one will be looking anyone in the eye, so no one will feel interrogated.

Social workers often use car journeys with vulnerable children to form a trusting connection with them so they open up: it’s a true therapeutic space.

“It’s been a journey” is a hugely over-used phrase, but if it weren’t such a cliché it would be apt. A true journey is where we learn not just about ourselves but the world. From the moment we buckle the seatbelt or secure the crash helmet, driving and riding can take us – metaphorically perhaps even more than literally – to another place. 

Your expert

Paul Horrell is a long-term Top Gear contributor and international car journalist. He’s also a juror on Car of the Year and was 2023’s Road Tester of the Year at the Newspress Awards.

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