Frequently, when I get in my car first thing in the morning, and I turn on the engine, a voice my head says "let it warm up before putting it in gear.”. This voice came from something I was told years ago regarding car maintenance, and the statistic that the most damage that occurs to your engine occurs when the car is driven with being allowed time to warm up. So I try to be patient, regardless of how late I might be or who is waiting for me, and allow the car to idle and warm up for 60 seconds or so.
When your engine is cold, the fluids are not flowing freely, and things are not well lubricated for being engaged and in gear. You can't expect to be performing at your peak, and just like the runner who starts a full sprint from a cold start without having stretched or warmed up, you're going to do some sort of damage. You're going to affect your overall engine and long-term capabilities.
I can't help but recognized about how this applies this to my daily life and personal interactions. In the realm of “Mindfulness”, one of the practices I am trying to adopt is to allow myself to awaken in the morning without grabbing my phone and checking mail or jumping out of bed and hurrying off to start some daily routine. Instead, I'm trying to lie in bed and just “be” for a minute or two. I'm trying to breathe a little, recognize the air going in and out of my lungs, and be mindful of the moment and my surroundings. The temperature of the room, the weight of the blankets. I'm trying to do moderate stretches in bed that I was taught to do while in the hospital. Not only do they help my recovery but they allow me to stretch and prepared to start my day without jumping out of bed and landing on legs with tense muscles, unprepared to bear the weight and motion of that moment.
Mindfulness of this nature and taking "time to warm up" have been topics I've heard and read a great deal about for many years. Much of it in the realm of parenting. In parenting you're told that your reactions set the tone and teach a great deal, so taking time to breathe and think before acting is critical. Just like anger management courses teach you to count, parenting classes (which I think are pretty much akin to anger management classes at times) teach the same. They want you to take time to think about the child, to think about their intentions, but think about your reactions and what those reactions are teaching them.
In relation to the car, to starting my day, to interacting with the world around me…. it all makes perfect sense. Outside of the instinctual legacy for me to know i should run like crazy if a lion jumps out at me from behind the brush with the intention of making me it's dinner, I really am not living in an environment that requires me to be in a constant fight or flight state. Yes, there's bad people and bad situations and things that we should be on guard for and ready to take on, but in general, business and social interactions don't require impulse response without thoughtful consideration, and we should be encouraged to stretch and warm up in order to be primed for whatever comes our way and to maintain our "vehicles" for their optimal performance and lifetime.