Tonight at the Lake Julian Drive-Thru Light Festival, I experienced one of those “surprise teaching moments” that mirrors my journey toward emotional freedom and self-acceptance.
The Unexpected Challenge
Picture this: a beautiful evening at a holiday light festival, where everyone is kindly asked to turn off their headlights. Simple enough, right? Yet my car had other ideas. Despite setting the lights to “off,” they stubbornly kept turning back on every time we moved forward. As someone who deeply values being considerate of others, this triggered a familiar discomfort - that feeling when we want to do the right thing but circumstances seem to work against us.
The Mirror of Our Inner World
This experience beautifully reflects how our nervous system sometimes operates. Just like my car’s automated safety feature that wouldn’t let the lights stay off, our nervous system occasionally keeps our “lights on” - staying activated even when we consciously want to calm down and regulate.
Finding Peace in the Present
What transformed this potentially frustrating experience was a conscious shift in perspective. Instead of remaining caught in the discomfort, I chose to ground myself during that first loop through the festival. By our second time around, something magical happened - Adira was cuddled in Jem’s lap up front, Emerald had his window down capturing photos, and we were all more present in the joy of the moment.
The Deeper Teaching
This experience reminds us that we don’t always know what’s happening in someone else’s world. Whether it’s the person cutting across traffic (perhaps racing to avoid being fired) or someone whose behavior seems inconsiderate, there’s usually more to the story than meets the eye.
The Gift of Acceptance
Through my work with EFT tapping and emotional freedom coaching, I’ve learned that accepting unwanted realities - rather than fighting against them - often leads to unexpected peace. It’s not about giving up or giving in, but about choosing where to focus our energy.
Sometimes our inner lights stay on when we’d rather dim them. Sometimes our nervous system remains activated despite our best efforts to calm down. And that’s okay. By accepting these moments rather than fighting them, we create space for joy to find its way in.
The real victory isn’t in forcing our lights to turn off - it’s in finding ways to thrive even when things aren’t exactly as we’d like them to be. That’s what building a truly thriving lifestyle is all about: working with what is, rather than exhausting ourselves fighting against it.
Remember, you’re allowed to take second loops around life’s challenges. You’re allowed to ground yourself, to regulate at your own pace, and to find your way to acceptance in your own time. That’s not just okay - it’s exactly what healing looks like.