3 Tips to Avoid Being Caught Up In Drama

Currently there is so much going on in the world that seems insane.  Yet when I look back through history at least for the last fifty years, nothing seems to have changed.  There are still wars and rumours of wars, hostage dramas and indiscriminate killing from all sides.  The Dollar, the Pound and now the Euro all seem to fluctuate on a whim.  There is the fuel crisis, a food crisis and innumerable other crises.

Some days I feel like a puppet on a string.  Heavily influenced by the media, brainwashed by war hungry politicians, I often wonder if I am living in a parallel universe that never seems to change and is constantly on the brink of madness.

There are days when I feel like Macbeth in Shakespeare’s drama, a poor player who is strutting and fretting this hour upon a stage.  It feels like the events happening around me is a gigantic drama production in which I neither believe nor want to participate in.

Have you ever felt this way?

So how do we avoid being caught up in the drama and remain centred within ourselves but not cut off from the world?

Control Your Thoughts

The madness always starts in the mind.  We begin by thinking a certain way, have repetitive ongoing conversations in our minds and become caught up in the convincing arguments we formulate.  These thoughts then become beliefs and before we know it we have entrapped ourselves in a new belief that is not always beneficial to us as individuals or collectively. How does one control one’s thoughts, you may ask? Well an important place to start is to look at what you are focusing on.  Don’t tell yourself not to think about xy or z because then you start the war of your mind. Rather direct your thoughts and attention to things that you find uplifting or encouraging or that bring you joy.  This is how you control your thoughts – by controlling your focus.

Think about when you have a tooth extracted or have a small wound on your hand which is developing a scar.  Unconsciously your tongue is always seeking out that hole or your fingers are always touching the scab.  Your mind does the same.  It looks for the point of “weakness” and wants to focus there, so strengthen your mind with things that make you stronger not weaker.

Control Your Tongue

One of the smallest muscles in the human body, yet also responsible for so much inflicted damage.  What separates us from the birds and the beasts is our ability to communicate through the medium we understand as language.  People often act as if they have no control over the things that emanate from their mouths; and in a minority of cases this is true due to illness; but the rest of us are fully capable of controlling what we speak of and how we speak of them.

If you want to stay in the drama of a situation, keep talking about it.  However, if you wish to distance yourself from it speak about things that bring you joy.  Now I am NOT saying that issues should not be discussed or debated in order to resolve them and move on, but idle talk that focuses on the gossip, drama, anger, resentment, hatred, bitterness – this only helps to create more of the same in the world.

So control your thoughts and then control your tongue because what you allow into your mind and heart will come out of your mouth.  It’s your choice.

Create Peace

There is a simple spiritual principle that says, “Peace is created around peaceful people.”  We all know this to be true as when we have been in the presence of people who are very centred and peaceful within themselves, we too feel at peace.

How can you create peace? I believe it starts with the choices we make. Are we going to be at war with the world in our heads, will this overflow to our hearts and through our mouths or will we live mindfully, taking time to centre ourselves each day through meditation or prayer or stillness.

Peace does not lie in the hands of political parties, their leaders and other nations. Peace lays within each of us if we choose to exercise it and share it.

So practice those things that bring you peace and resolve to focus on them and spread your inner peace around. It’s your choice.

The Whirlpool

Let me leave you with this simple example.  Imagine you are walking along a river bank of a large fast flowing river.  There are all sorts of water activities on the water and you can imagine spending time on the river on a warm summers day.  Suddenly a whirlpool appears in the middle of the river and profusely begins sucking everything towards and into itself.  No sane minded observer (meaning you) would willing jump into the river to experience the pull and the danger of that whirlpool.  In fact you would make a concerted, urgent effort to escape.

It’s exactly the same with our thoughts, words and state of being.  We can be sucked into the whirlpools of drama that develop suddenly and unexpectedly around us, or we can choose to avoid them. It’s our choice.