Road Rage Transformed
Have you ever been angry while you’re driving? I used to be in a race against other cars. That was the stance that I had. I would move from lane to lane and weave in and out of cars, speed up and brake hard. I was trying to get work or to the store or wherever, fast. I was in a race to get there (not sure why) and if anyone got in my way, I was pissed.
I felt like they were stopping me and controlling what I was trying to accomplish, which created a lot of irritation in me and I would get really angry. I would yell out load in my car and swear at people, call them names and toss up the dreaded middle finger. I carried so much anxiety and tension while I drove around because I felt like other people were stopping me from what I was trying to do.
It’s no wonder I had struggles in my life back then. I was living my life in a way that didn’t support having an abundance of joy, fun and love. I was not committed to vision I had for my life, in fact, I didn’t have an intentional vision for my life back then, Key #4 Another Way to Empower.
When we assign a meaning like, “people are stopping us from getting things done” or “someone is controlling us or competing with us”, when we have that mindset in place, everything we come in contact with bleeds out from that. That’s how it was for me. It’s like I had angry sunglasses on my face. When we look at the world through that particular lens it affects how we feel, how we act, how we experience the world. It is a choice to see the world through that lens, Key #1 Another Way to See.
When I looked at the world as if people were stopping me, it was out of my control and I resisted it. We can’t control other people and how they drive or behave or show up in our life, it’s an external circumstance. When we resist anything, tension and anxiety are created. By resisting a red light or a slow driver or a train crossing, we build up tension in our bodies which translates to stress, stress leads to health issues which can lead to an unfulfilled life.
But we can do life differently, we can empower ourselves by taking 100% responsibility for how we feel and how we do life.
I changed things up in my life. That belief no longer served me or other people in my life, including my kids, who were a big motivator for me to make some very necessary shifts in my life. I didn’t want to teach them how to do life the way I was doing it. I was good at creating anxiety and struggle, and without an intentional focus I would have taught them to do the same.
On the road I began to see other people as other humans who may be someone’s mom or someone’s sister, dad or child. I dropped the enemy lens and saw them as fellow companions in this world. Perhaps they had someone at home who cared about them and needed them to come home safely.
Making that kind of shift can happen in the blink of an eye. It doesn’t have to take a long time to execute, it’s choosing intentionally to see the world through a different lens and being committed to the vision we have for our lives.
When we choose to Live Another Way, through this 7 Key system, we discover where we are blocking our joy and how to see life differently, to see circumstances through different lenses and choose to see things in a way that line up with the vision we REALLY want to create in our life.