Lessons from the Heart 1.0

"BE THE CHANGE THAT YOU WANT TO SEE IN THE WORLD"

I drive a lot for work and that usually means that 3 out of 5 days I am driving on the 401 or any given expressway in Ontario. Yesterday in particular was an interesting driving day for me. The roads were completely bare and in Toronto it sure felt like Spring.

So with that, the cautious winter drivers are gone and here arrive the new spring drivers or should I say 'new personalities and attitudes' on the road. These personalities and attitudes being people with much more road rage.

We have a choice of what kind of driver we want to be. And despite the fact that I believe that if you don't know how to drive on an expressway you should not be there, I do not support road rage or simply put, a lack of courtesy on the road. Now having said that, everyone of us has experienced road rage and has demonstrated it. I certainly have and I have to admit that after I expressed myself I didn't feel good about it. It is a rage that creeps up from the bottom of our foot as it presses on the gas petal and quickly manifests itself in our thoughts and through our voices and our fist.

Yesterday as I spent about 7 hours driving on the 401, 400, 404, and 407, I made a conscious decision to eliminate road rage in my life and "BE THE CHANGE THAT I WANT TO SEE IN THE WORLD." Something I once read came back to me as I watched the spring drivers. It stated that we never really know why that person is in a hurry and instead of adding to the negativity in the Universe, I should reverse it. (Now I understand that is pretty deep and if you are not ready to get deep, you may stop reading here. And I am pretty ok with that but in order to be part of the change, you have to get deep.) Perhaps they just received bad news and are rushing to a hospital. Perhaps they are late for their children. And yes perhaps they are just self centered people who believe it is really all about them. But nevertheless, don't add to the negativity and don't judge.

Yesterday I counted 5 incidents just with myself where there was some road rage or a lack of courtesy on the road. Five times there were incidents where other people needed to be where I was or where I needed to be where they were on the expressway. (commonly known as trying to merge into another lane lol). So let me share with you on how I dealt with each of them.

1. I had one guy honk his horn at me when I was trying to merge left. It was like - lady you are not going to get in here. I am here first and who cares about you... What did I do?...I paused and quietly smiled saying - "this will happen to you soon to but go ahead" -and I sent him a little be safe blessing.

2. Then I had one guy who absolutely wouldn't let me get off at my exit and forced me to go to the next exit. (remember this is rush hour bumper to bumper traffic) He pretended to ignore me as I was face to face with him side by side in our cars. Too funny. So I passed my exit and stated - "ok there must be a reason why I am not to go on the ramp today-thank you"

3. All the other times were times when people needed to be exactly where I was, so I said, "go ahead". I braked and let them in. They didn't wave nor showed any kind of appreciation but I knew that this was a good thing.

So kids, Lessons from the Heart 1.0.

"Be the change that you want to see in the world today"

This can be hard to do as we all have so much going on in our lives and we are all so busy but what would it be like if everyone demonstrated kindness and thoughtfulness?

Smile, say thank you, hold the elevator door open for someone, let someone in while driving, hold the door open for someone who is right behind you, pick up that garbage on the floor and put it away. The list goes on.

I know I felt good at the end of the day After all of those hours on the road, I came home feeling quite peaceful. No stress nothing. This could be a key to my success of driving on the road from now on!!!

From me to you with Love...

"the MOM"