Traffic Mind

Once a week I trek about 13 miles north to teach a 6 pm yoga class.  That means I'm moving with the early part of the evening rush hour.  The route has several spots where, if traffic is bad, I could get stuck with no way to get to an alternate route.  Because of that, I always check the traffic before I start, as one of the alternate routes requires a very early decision.

Tonight I knew the main route was a no-go, even before I got to the car.  Traffic in downtown Silver Spring was backing up onto side roads like I'd never seen.  The main problem, if Google maps was right, was within the first mile, so I headed east to a road that would take me around.  That was backed up too, so I went further east to the next route.  Also heavy, but I was out of options, so I took it and began following Waze instructions.   Everywhere I went traffic was heavy, and the app rerouted me several times.  Eventually I realized it was backtracking me a couple of miles to the west, and finally, after almost half an hour, I reached the beltway, about a mile from where I first started.  From there traffic was heavy but moving well, and I made it to the studio with some time to spare. 

An hour and a half later, the trip home was even more adventuresome.  It had begun to snow, and the untreated roads iced up.  They were slicker than I've seen in a long long time.  Traffic was slowed by numerous accidents, and even touching the brakes lightly would set off the anti-lock mechanism.  There are a couple of long hills on the route - not super steep - but steady gradients climbing up out of stream valleys.  On one, where I had to stop right at the bottom, I was barely able to get the car moving again up hill. At one point Waze routed me off the main road to go around an accident.  I'm not sure it was worth it, as the app brought me back to the main route facing a left hand turn across multiple lanes of traffic.  That's enough to keep me from using it regularly - I wonder if there's a preference setting that would avoid that.)

In the end, I made it home without mishap.  On both legs of the round trip, facing a lot of uncertainty and, on the way back, very treacherous conditions, I was, with just a couple of short lapses, calm.  Not impatient, not anxious, just calm.  When the traffic was must unsettled, my first instinct was "be calm, make space."  This is a remarkably different reaction than I would have had a few years ago.  While I likely wouldn't have completely freaked out in these circumstances, I certainly would have been frustrated, anxious and agitated.  

I believe that my mindfulness practices have had a significant effect on my state of mind - how I see things, how I react to events, and what choices I make.  All for the better.