Traffic. Yikes!
Just the thought of it can bring up stress. We all have stories of how particularly bad traffic messed up our day.
Rushing and traffic is a terrible combination. Commuter traffic, no one’s favorite.
Here’s the thing, traffic is just another experience in life. It means whatever we make it mean. I’ll not say you can make it pleasant, but I will say you can make your own personal experience of it better or worse. I frankly, love knowing this.
I used to believe that life was always throwing itself at me and I, like a dodgeball player was either getting bombarded or running, always running, trying not to be ‘out’. I would see others sailing through and wonder what I was doing wrong.
It turns out, it was all in the chatter in my head. What I say to myself about things like traffic, is what I now notice. I can always frame anything to make it sound better to ME. I’m the only one who needs to hear my better self talk. I guess that’s why they call it self talk. If I can distract myself with some positive thoughts or just find something absurd or funny, I can shift the way I feel, if only slightly.
On the way to yoga I sometimes find myself rushing. It is a bit of irony and if I think about it, silly. I could leave earlier, but if I’m going to be late, I CAN relax about it. Traffic on the way to me rushing to yoga is one big cosmic joke if I can see it. I now just try to yoga-breathe through the traffic and red lights. Also a bit funny…
One day I was not rushing home AFTER yoga and a guy hurrying through the already red light from a different direction hit me. My bumper and front wheel well were ripped off but I was fine. If I had been rushing I would have been T-boned because I would have been further into the intersection. Here I was putting through the green light, feeling calm and regulated and though it was inconvenient, I and everyone else walked away without a scratch. Our cars were fixed and life moved on…
I easily could have thought my way in many directions. I’m glad I didn’t.
Peace Kit 