Life Beyond Drama

Drama, drama, drama ... Is there drama in your life? Are you around a lot of drama in your significant relationship(s) or family? Has the drama in your life suddenly or slowly over time increased since you got married and have children? ... Have to be around your in-laws much more than you’d like? ... Are about to divorce? ... Or since your divorce? ... Or now that your new family has come together since you are remarried with children and step-children? Are you single and surrounded by dramas in your social circles? How about drama in the workplace? In the neighbourhood ... in your classes ... on spiritual paths with teachers or other group members ... your peer group ... social club ... friendships? Drama is not age or gender related; it can be found in any culture, social and economic level. It's in you and around you. Any of these things ring a bell? One main focus of this book is exposing the unnecessary & unconscious dramas we engage in (which often come with huge energy drains); we also look at how to exit the negative energy-draining dramas and transform our lives. This book can be used as a reference tool with which you can remind yourself of dramas you may be engaging in, gain awareness of how you may be playing a key role in them, identify and then cope with or alter them. In doing so, your life can move into a more balanced state; you can master your mental/emotional actions and reactions and have more harmony, peace, personal satisfaction and excellence. Without the draining effects of dramas, we can use more of our energy to discover our own meaning in life and feel the freedom to pursue it. Learning to first expose and then alter our unconscious dramas, we can then fully engage with life and live it according to who we are and how we truly feel to be according to our own essential nature. It has been my experience as a teacher, counsellor and spiritual guide that most people can grasp the concepts in this book quite easily; however, they tend to forget to apply them consistently over time. Isn’t that the case with most things? This is because we are truly creatures of pattern and habit. I have been asked to repeat these things so many times that I decided to write these principles and tools down for easy access and reference. I genuinely desire to share this with you with the hope that it brings more light to the darker places in life – and especially in drama patterns. If I told you that the majority of people I have worked with over the years have presented most of the same challenges that can be found in the stories in this book, would you be surprised? To this day, I continue to hear the same basic things from people over and over again. Drama is everywhere. Let’s take a closer look at it. Effects of Drama Let’s face it: The drama we experience in relationships involves emotional and mental ups and downs. Even if the dramas we engage in do not feel negative to us, they can lead to an inner state that throws us off balance and harmony inwardly, which also can impact our well-being and create energy drains. This is not conducive to inner peace, happiness or an ability to soar to the heights of our personal and spiritual potentials. In fact, engaging in drama creates more drama and further mental and emotional stress. It also takes a great deal of our precious energy to engage in dramas ... energy we could be using for other things in life. Want more energy? There are many ways to gain more energy. One way is to get rid of the unnecessary drama in your life ... and lifestyle. We know from body, mind and spirit therapies (such as different systems of energy work, Naturopathy, Traditional Chinese Medicine, Acupressure etc.) and certain styles of movement Arts such as Kung fu, Chi Kung, Tai Chi, and Yoga, that our various mental/emotional states affect our body directly. Over time, if not balanced and harmonious, these states can lead to chronic stress-related illnesses and disharmonies within our entire being. Negative energy-draining dramas involve and affect our mental and emotional states directly. Engaging in this kind of drama, with its negative consequences, is what we are speaking of – the kind that impacts us on all levels of our being. These negative mental/emotional inner states can influence the quality of our health, happiness, personal potential in life, and quality of relationships. Many people are unaware of the direct relationship between drama and these negative inner states. In other words, people can be involved in dramas and either deny it, justify it, or consider it as acceptable or unavoidable human interaction. Some of us are quite aware of the effects of drama in our lives and feel stuck in these states even though we desire to be free. The truth is that many people have learned to release themselves from dramas and have gained inner freedom from the chronic ups and downs of mood swings; stress resulting from poor lifestyle choices; chronic stress-related illnesses; distressing lingering emotions; mental cycling and the low energy levels that go with these things. While the tools in this book are not suggesting that we cease to feel what we feel (a trap in itself, for sure!), we definitely do have the ability to learn to acknowledge what we truly feel in the moment and then choose our responses ... breaking the unconscious habitual patterns of responses and behaviors (within ourselves and towards others) that lead us nowhere: ‘drama’.