{"id":75,"date":"2013-04-14T07:40:52","date_gmt":"2013-04-14T12:40:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/livingalldimensions.com\/blog\/?p=75"},"modified":"2013-04-14T07:40:52","modified_gmt":"2013-04-14T12:40:52","slug":"the-car-shopping-vortex-and-enjoying-the-ride-of-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/livingalldimensions.com\/blog\/?p=75","title":{"rendered":"The car shopping vortex and enjoying the ride of life!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
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As someone who struggles to attach to physical possessions in any meaningful way, you can imagine my angst when it\u2019s time to go car shopping.\u00a0 It\u2019s not the top of my priority list and although I try to get excited about the thought of a new car, it just doesn\u2019t resonate through me.\u00a0 I\u2019m not sure if it\u2019s because I just don\u2019t get vehicles in general or it\u2019s the process one must go through in obtaining one.\u00a0 It\u2019s something we all must do if we want a vehicle on the road and there really is no way around it.\u00a0 I\u2019ve owned many vehicles in my life and they\u2019ve all been practical purchases.\u00a0 I\u2019m at a time in my life where I no longer need a family sedan and I\u2019ve actually been thinking for the last year that I have outgrown my car. My boys, one in particular who is much more excited about cars, has encouraged me to dream a little\u2026colour, style, features\u2026I tried, but the reality is: a car is a car, no feelings attach to it, no matter how much I want to force it.<\/p>\n

The universe has a strange way of pulling us along.\u00a0 While I was in Nassau, I was in a car accident with the taxi taking me from the airport to the marina and at the same time, St\u00e9phan was in an accident totalling my car back at home. We both walked away unharmed but facing the inevitability of the path ahead of us. I came home to the news of needing a new car and thus begins the journey.\u00a0 I reviewed what had been important a year ago when I was dreaming a wee bit: a hatchback, room to throw a bike and travel gear in it, standard would be fun again, smaller than what I had and after this extended winter, seat warmers where a priority and oh yeah, I wanted a colour that I really liked, ideally an orange or brown car.\u00a0 So, off we went, to the dealership and as we pulled in I spotted this lime green Accent that seemed to be calling out to me.\u00a0 I ignored it though and focused on brown and orange\u2026nothing was grabbing me.\u00a0 Within the hour, I knew the car, colour and model that I wanted.\u00a0 There was just one problem, there was not that model on this lot or even a standard Accent for me to try.\u00a0 What seemed so simple suddenly became really complicated.\u00a0 We agree to take another day and drive to Burlington to test drive one there and then we learn Woodstock is where it\u2019s at.\u00a0 I took the night to discuss the options with the boys from a practical perspective and then sat with it in meditation and determined the number it should cost me.\u00a0 We drove to Woodstock, met a very respectful salesman who got me in to the car I was looking at and off we went.\u00a0 He did up some quick numbers and without any pressure we were on our way again. Unbeknownst to him, the numbers he gave me were $24 less than the number I had decided on the night before.\u00a0 I knew I had found my car.\u00a0 Out of loyalty to my local dealership, I went back to them to find out their price and was surprised to find the numbers almost $2000. more. And there I was, pulled in to the world of games in the car business.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know how you escape them.\u00a0 I thought I had been clear in my intent and doing the responsible thing, taking care of the information that I required and all of a sudden I was sucked in to this dark vortex of confusion, uncertainty, inauthenticity and they wanted me to play with them.\u00a0 It all felt too familiar when 6 years earlier I had purchased a vehicle there and felt like I had been had when it was all over and done with. I was determined that would never happen again. It was hard work to remove myself from the emotions of the experience that was presented to me and suddenly it hit me, \u201cthis is my opportunity to do it differently\u201d.\u00a0 Karma at its best!\u00a0 I stayed focused on the facts; I called the other salesman back in Woodstock and got everyone on the same page.\u00a0 The games stopped there.\u00a0 I was prepared to close the deal with either dealership at the price that I felt was right or walk out and understand that car was not mine after all.\u00a0 An hour later, the deal was done and I was the owner of a lime green Accent identical to the one that had caught my eye when we arrived the day earlier.<\/p>\n

Learning our lessons, practicing doing something differently is not easy.\u00a0 It is frustrating and exhausting.\u00a0 If we can realize that the experience is not about buying a car but rather seeing who we are in life and how we navigate the bumps that our thrown our way is really what it is all about. \u00a0Interestingly, the car salesman that closed the deal with me apologized saying this is not the way he likes to do business and there was a good lesson in it for him.\u00a0 Ahhh, karma again, giving us all the opportunity to learn and grow! I\u2019ve changed my mind about car shopping in the last 24hours, buying a car can be one of the greatest experiences ever.\u00a0 Perhaps, I\u2019ve learned to appreciate car shopping a little bit more and just maybe this time, I\u2019ll be excited when my new 6 speed green Accent is on its way home!<\/p>\n

The frustration came through the idea of attachment and ownership.\u00a0 The pressure comes from the dealership having what the customer wants (that specific car that the customer now feels emotionally attached to), the customer having the money (that the salesman also is emotionally attached to). Let\u2019s be fair, most of us are attached emotionally somehow, even if it\u2019s in the form of resistance to money. The dealerships fight out deals amongst themselves as they have what another wants.\u00a0 The competition is fierce and the fight is on, the customer in the least knowledgeable and smallest position having to hold their own in this big unknown world.\u00a0 My challenge in buying this car was to stay out of the fight, for ownership, the stories of gaining and losing, having and not having, mine and yours and stay true to my belief system that having is connected together and when we stay out of the stories it can land effortlessly.<\/p>\n

The story of buying a car is really quite simple.\u00a0 I want a particular car that will serve my needs and support my life journey; it is in existence and there is a price (dollar amount) that I must pay.\u00a0 Where it is and what that amount is does not need to be difficult.\u00a0 It\u2019s only in the connection with the chaos, the stories that are spinning around us that make it difficult.\u00a0 If we stay centred and true to what we know then it lines up, all in universal order.\u00a0 There is no need for us to control anything or force anything.\u00a0 We just need to do what feels easy and desirable in that moment.\u00a0 When we find our self not in that joyful moment, caught in the chaos it is our responsibility to stop what we are doing and find our way back before we engage further.\u00a0 This is the practice of life!\u00a0 Let\u2019s enjoy the ride\u2026and for me, it will be in a sporty little green Accent bombing around town.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As someone who struggles to attach to physical possessions in any meaningful way, you can imagine my angst when it\u2019s time to go car shopping.\u00a0 It\u2019s not the top of my priority list and although I try to get excited about the thought of a new car, it just doesn\u2019t resonate through me.\u00a0 I\u2019m not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[13,14],"tags":[11,27,20,36,29,32,5,21,38,37,34],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/livingalldimensions.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/livingalldimensions.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/livingalldimensions.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/livingalldimensions.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/livingalldimensions.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=75"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/livingalldimensions.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/livingalldimensions.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=75"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/livingalldimensions.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=75"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/livingalldimensions.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=75"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}