No: this post it’s not about the amazing Nicolas Winding Refn film although that soundtrack is part of my favourite tracks. This post it’s about my passion for driving and how we drive ourselves through life.
After reading The Sacred Science: A Natural Healing Path for the Modern World by Nick Polizzi and The Order of Time by Carlo Rovelli (which I will be mentioning in detail in the upcoming posts), I am currently reading Slipstream Time Hacking by Benjamin P. Hardy. One of the most interesting and clarifying things that Hardy mentions in the book is how having a wide variety of choices does more harm than good when it comes to living the life we want, since we can’t truly choose one route and stick to it, as we tend to have our feet divided trying to take baby steps in every direction.
Driving is one of my favourite activities. I love the way you feel the car: the sound of the motor, the right vibration when you lift the foot from the clutch (I only truly enjoy driving manual cars!), the way you take the car further and further as the speed raises and how you seem to become one with it as the road unfolds in front of you. Up until one month ago, I could have never imagined that I would ever enjoy riding as much as I love driving, but now that I’ve been riding around the scooter, I must say my passion is growing more and more. Sure: it’s not a car and nothing can replace that sensation, but feeling the wind on your hair and the breeze on your skin while you are not only one with the motorbike but actually with the entire route is more appealing than I thought. The scooter is perfect for small summerish towns and you really get a full connection with nature when you’re riding amongst beautiful landscapes.
So how does driving/riding and the choices we make are related?
As we drive ourselves through life, we have to be ready to embrace the unknown (as Dr. Joe Dispenza so vividly insists in Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself), we have to be ready to remember that we only have a small rearview mirror that we may glance at occasionally, but our eyes – and in fact our whole focus – should be in the wide road in front of us rather than the asphalt behind and – above all – we have to make choices. We have to take turns, we have to choose a path and we may have to rearrange it from time to time as we navigate to a certain road. For example, in a way it’s as when we go to the movies and then we realize half way through that we’re not really enjoying the film and we don’t want to be there anymore. At first, we may be so attached to the price we have paid for the ticket that we will commit to it to the end. But is it worth it? Won’t we be choosing time and therefore choosing life in case we decide to save ourselves the wasted time? Another similar situation is when we’ve been in a long relationship that it’s coming to an end and then we keep thinking about all the time that we have invested on it or how we really thought that was the right person for us. Sometimes it’s more the idea we have in our head and this attachment to the expectations we had rather than the situation itself. In moments like this, we really have to call up on all of our awareness and take the leap of faith it takes to choose life! Sure: it’s hard to give up on a road when we’ve invested time, effort, energy, faith, even money sometimes. It’s extremely challenging! But by choosing life, by reestablishing priorities and readapting the route, we’re actually taking further steps along the journey rather than keep on driving to a dead end. And this is why sitting in the driver’s seat is simultaneously exciting and challenging, because with the freedom to choose comes responsibility, comes the need to have the courage and (hopefully) the wisdom to be own our path and be able to navigate it in the best possible way. And I’ve been finding out that the best possible way translates in two ways: 1 – a strong sensation on what we call lower Dan Tien in Qigong (closer to the Sacral Chakra for Yoga), but basically that place in the abdomen where we feel fire and ice, the location where we get a profound feeling that we are doing what’s right when we truly listen to our body and 2 – a sense of accomplishment that comes from the joy we feel as we take each step of the way, even the hardest ones, which makes us be sure that this is our journey!
So: listen to your body and choose life! It will be the best possible choice and, honestly, the only one worth making!
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