I thought I would end my series of posts on living car-free with a more positive note. I’ve found a lot of joy and happiness along the way! There are so many other paths that a person can take to experience life, and my walking out of car culture helped me to see and feel a richness that I couldn’t have experienced in an automobile.
As an introduction of sorts, here is a video by the Swapathgami Network in Udaipur, India. Many thanks to Manish Jain and Shikshantar for producing wonderful films like this! While this video addresses more of the system of Education, I believe it applies to our very thought processes and lives. We can close the book on what everyone expects us to do or be, and truly live!
This is my second post in a series about living car-free.
So, another reason why I think I embraced a car-free life initially, was because of a whiplash accident I experienced in 2007. It’s probably still ongoing at this point, but in the initial stages, I had major driving-anxiety after the accident. I had to challenge myself to drive for one hour at times. Driving for 5 or 6 hours on a long trip just wasn’t going to happen. Psychologically, this injury stayed with me.
It also stayed with me physically. I spent a good six months at first going to chiropractor appointments, massage appointments, acupuncture appointments, meditation classes, etc. These all helped a lot. My problem was that I didn’t stick with them, and 18 months later, I had a major relapse of pain in my body, with the same psychological symptoms as well.
My chiropractor (for the second round) told me that, “50% of all accident and trauma victims have pain symptoms that they have to manage for years to the rest of their life.”
(This is the first of a multi-part series of blog posts)
Today marks two full years of living without a car for me!
Today I feel really great, because I have been able to have a great life these last two years, and life just keeps getting better. I take transit everywhere now in the Twin Cities, belong to a car-sharing organization, and also now a bike-sharing one as well. I’m looking forward to the beginnings of year three of car-free living!
It wasn’t always this easy though, I will have to tell you. Going car-free for me was a mix of personal conviction, personal challenge, and a final push of financial need to unload my vehicle. In 2009 I was living in Duluth, MN after going through a foreclosure on my condo in Northfield, afterward living in a toxic intentional community, not working very much as a massage therapist due to pain still lingering from an auto accident in 2007, and to boot – I was financially depleted. So in 2009, financially, I had to make the choice to no longer own my car. I needed the money I was spending on car payments, car insurance, and gas to continue to support myself. Financially, I chose to let go of my car. Continue Reading »
This is my second post in a series about living car-free.
Scott Schumacher is a Reiki Master Teacher, Reformed Druid, Web Designer, Energy Healing Practitioner, and Person living in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
