Are you your car? Does the car you drive represent your worth as a human being?
Last weekend I had an experience regarding my car that brought up some hidden beliefs in me. My eleven year old car needed some repair. The repair person (friend of friend) wanted to save me some money and he offered to loan me one of his cars. I said yes without seeing the car. He drove me to his car. The car looked like it had been in a war zone; paint washed off; hood was damaged as result of an accident; the driver side handle was broken and it had no AC. I was grateful of his kindness and I reluctantly took the loaner car.
I drove the car for three days and during this time, many of my unconscious thoughts and beliefs came to surface. It surprised me how much I judge things by appearance and expected others do the same.
While I was driving the car, I was expecting police to stop me and harass me because the car did not look like the other cars on the road. Whenever any car cut me off on highway I attributed that to lack of respect for the car that I was driving!
On Sunday, I decided to go to Unity church for meditation service. I originally wanted to park the car far away and walk so people would not see me with the car. I decided to drive and park the car in front of Unity. I really felt good challenging my fear and shame.
The next day I drove the car to work. At first I wanted to park it far away so my co-workers do not see me and judge me. Then I questioned merit of my concern and overcame it. For two days, I parked the car in front of the building that I worked. I need to confess that was not easy thing to do.
On the day that I was going to return the car, I received an email from my landlord asking me about a “strange” car in the drive way. She was asking me if someone has taken my spot! She later admitted that she thought the car was ugly. She also said that she would never imagined I would drive such a car.
You see, we judge the book by its cover more than we acknowledge.
This experience really helped me to know more about my buried beliefs. It also helped me to appreciate and enjoy more my car when I drive it.
My question to you is who would you be without your nice car, job or nice house? How would you feel about yourself? What beliefs buried in your subconscious may come to surface?
Copyright .2015 by Shervin Hojat
