Picture this: You are running late and hit unexpected traffic. Everyone on the road seems to be over 80 years old or fresh out of Drivers Ed class. How do you react? Does all the frustration manifest into driving more aggressively and critiquing aloud your fellow drivers? Are you guilty of road rage? I will admit that sometimes the kind, giving, and patient Christine is replaced by an aggressive, short-fused and territorial Christine behind the wheel. I laughed the other day after I observed myself becoming totally offended when someone cut me off in traffic. I actually took it personally as I honked my horn hoping to make my point. How ridiculous! And I’ve had the habit of being in a hurry, trying to choose the fastest lanes and racing to make it through the green lights. Lately I’ve been more conscious of my driving as I realized that any time I engaged in the slightest form of road rage or rushing, I suffered. Now I use my time behind the wheel as time to practice patience, generosity and presence.

This week, I invite you to become more conscious of who you are and how you are behind the wheel. If the Tasmanian Devil starts to drive, take a deep breath and embrace your inner road angel. Use your car as a training ground to cultivate peace and calm regardless of what your external circumstances may be. Practice patience. Be generous and kind to your fellow drivers – allow them in. SLOW down on your road of life so that you do not speed by opportunities. Your destination is not going anywhere, enjoy the views along the way.

Life is a Highway. You are the driver and who and how you are behind the wheel determines how bumpy the road will be.

Fondly,
Christine

“The road of life twists and turns and no two directions are ever the
same. Yet our lessons come from the journey, not the destination.”
– Don Williams, Jr.
UPlifted
I like to share stories of UPliftment. This one comes from Anne who responded to my UPdate from last week about Jumping In:

You totally inspired me to jump in my pool. I have been embarrassed to get in a swimsuit because my body is, in my mind, “less than ideal.” But my apartment window looks out over the beautiful pool in my complex and every day I see families and people my age laughing and playing and “jumping in.”

I am a student of Laura Day, who wrote a book called The Circle. She does intuition training and teaches people to create “new realities” in which they focus on a single wish and stay focused on it until it manifests itself. She calls this practice “being inside the circle.

“The new reality I created for myself was Perfect Health, and one of the goals I set was to be able to run 5 miles with ease. Even though I’ve been an athlete all my life, and even did track in high school, long distance running has never been my thing.

As I was running yesterday I got pretty tired and discouraged because my body didn’t seem very pleased about my efforts to get healthier. I was having trouble keeping the pace I started with. Also, it was really hot outside. It got to the point where I had to start walking because I simply wasn’t in great condition. But then a funny thing happened. As soon as i started walking, the “perfectly healthy” version of me kept on going. She ran right in front of me the entire way, encouraging me and clapping for me and laughing. I got the message that she was showing me the way to my New Reality and all I had to do was follow her because it was already happening and I was already “there.” So even though a part of me was hot, tired, and walking, I just fixed my mind on that amazing healthy woman in front of me who was running her little heart out and a total running rockstar. Needless to say, it was a pretty fun adventure, and I carried that image of my healthier self for the rest of the day. I think the coolest thing about it was that it didn’t feel like I was “making her up” – I could actually see myself in a parallel universe running happily and easily in Perfect Health.

Anyway, this kind of goes along with what you were saying about “Jumping In.” But what I might add to your message is that if you simply can’t “Jump In” at that very moment, for whatever reason, there is a PART of you that can and it’s a great idea to just envision that part of you going for it and having a great time. For me, it made the whole experience of actually not being able to run the whole way much more enjoyable, and I didn’t beat myself up about it because I could feel the part of me that was already there.