Ease the Clutch On Stammer

     One quick left swish on my steering wheel  to avoid a gypsy man consuming the center road and I hear a deep cold thud ..my new car had careened off the dusty makeshift uphill road..and what I could see from my corner of my now squinty eyes was bad...my front bumper was airbrushing the corners of a mud hut..the next thought that came to my mind was people barging out of it and taking me to task..i could imagine  see myself behind bars…people grouped together discussing how the rich man is by default  not empathetic to the poor .and how careless we are by nature.. .with no value for others safety or life ..

Its beautiful how ones mind can conjure up stories at such panic  situations ..even in those few milliseconds and then  we decide on two things ..Fight or Flight ..!!!  …the dusty narrow  road with huts on both sides had planned better strategies to checkmate me  …Its next move was to make appear a bus coming from the front and  a bigger car from behind.. playing the surround system  honking orchestra . I wish I could just vanish from that spot ..wish in future cars come equipped with a “Vanish gear “ ….for us with the Learners Tag … :)

  I abruptly was forced to take stock of the situation ..

A)     Flight Mode

·         Turn off the car and stay still inside or

·         Turn off the car and come out , put my hands up and plead guilty or

·         Turn off the car , come out , hands up, plead guilty and seek help at the cost of my pride or.

·         Turn off the car , leave the key inside and run away and hide till some one parks it at a safer place.

B)     Fight Mode

·         Try to engage the hand brake on the slope (Which I had never done)  , engage  reverse ..go back trying not to hit the car centimeters behind me..align back  to the road..engage first gear and negotiate the uphill from start positition( Which I had never executed before)…

·         While doing the above take off my right hand and signal to the bus ahead that I am stuck ,and I am trying to get out of the situation , point towards the L symbol on my wind screen, and signal for few extra seconds with a sly smile :).   

  And I did fight , and came out of that glitch like a butter..a wee bit sour though :) ..and i remember  the bus driver giving  me a thumbs up while passing by ..and topped that with a smile…now gentlemen that was a victory , it may seem very negligible for the readers and may sound quite whimsical to be even written about and much worse and atrocious to even share it with you over the bandwidth.. :)  ..but sir, I celebrate every victory and for choosing Fight over flight.

    I found relevance between the  above incident and my  stutter and stammer too…Now.. how often have we not been  through the same while we speak..getting stuck at talking situations  which seem like unmountable claustrophobic  uphills glaring down at us , with few people cringing ..impatiently waiting for us to respond ..while we are stuck at the wrong gear.. our mind paniky … confused…pressing the wrong pedals..our minds hallucinating..blank..stuck…in an infinite loop..

   Now their..exactly their..right their you must  pop  on the Fight mode..start with accepting  the scenario ...and to engage the think and react- on- the- feet mode..to quickly think of other ways to fight and address the situation..to calm down and  think about the basics…to slow down..and take every step consciously  and execute them with utter confidence and faith. And most importantly not to isolate  yourself from the others who are sharing the time and space with you at the moment , confide in them and communicate with them that you are trying your best  to counter the unfavorable situation ,and I am sure the world is fair enough to  give you that much time , and once you have checkmated the situation do not forget to convey your genuine gratitude for their faith they put on you, and most importantly dont forget to pat your back yourself and lodge that moment of triumph in your brains RAM -  ready to be retrived at future situations to motivate yourself and bring out the hero in yourself :)  

   Equating it to the scenario of getting stuck in the chaotic maze of stutter , slow down your anxiety, take deep breath and slow down ( Brake), use Confidence/Knowledge/Humor/presence of mind ( Clutch ) to disengage from Fear/negative thoughts ( Wrong gear) , engage Clutch to engage Positive actions ,invoke correct judgment (Correct gear), zoom through confidently with a smile ( Accelerator) ..and most importantly perpetually learn and unlearn from your past experiences (Use the mirrors) .

“Low self-esteem is like driving through life with your hand-break on. “ - Maxwell Maltz

 Cheers !!