D-R-A-M-A...

What a weekend. My citrus-aloe vera infusion helped me to make an appearance at two Halloween parties this weekend but I could have used a few more quarts to get myself to run on Sunday morning in Griffith Park. Instead, I let my body do the talking and it wanted to sleep!

I would call this experiment a success just not a miracle!

I did learn something significant this weekend. As I am becoming more conscious of where my thoughts are leading me these days, I am also very aware of the fact that a number of my friends attract a lot of drama into their lives. My challenge is to not reflexively fall into the drama myself. In truth, I have had to acknowledge that if a number of my friends are swimming in drama, then clearly I have been swimming in that same "pool" since they are in my life. The good thing about being "Awake" to this is knowing I have the power to eliminate the unneccessary drama from my life. How? Well, by realizing that no matter how much I may want to help my friends, I have no power to save anyone from their own drama. It is their issue to wrestle through not mine. Mine is to address my own life issues and let my friends enjoy their own growth.

I found myself slipping into frustration today with a friend and after a little while, I was able to see that this DRAMA had nothing to do with me. I got frustrated because it became clear to me that someone else's drama affected plans I was looking forward to today. But after a few moments I realized I had no interest in letting my day become filled with anything short of the fun I wanted and if that meant having fun on my own then great! Bring it own. As it turned out I found time to chat with family members back home in Philly and it made the morning frustration fall to insignificance.

It is a little weird to realize just how much time I have spent helping friends with unneccessary DRAMA that they have made into a larger life event than was ever necessary. Often I got sucked in to the moment and now, I have absolutely no interest in it whatsoever. Now, I still care about my friends but in the end this is just a diversion from my own issues I am not addressing and/or it usually ends up being a wasted effort. Why, because  more times than not if you are drawing in drama on a regular basis, talking about it over and over just perpetuates the problem and allows you to not actually face your issues.

The more I switch to focusing on being happy, the easier it is becoming to see when drama is approaching and shift away!!