Drama, drama, drama. It’s EVERYWHERE. It’s on our televisions, in our schools and FILLS our Facebook feed.

I’ll confess that I enjoy losing myself in a good drama occasionally. Tuning in to watch Keifer Sutherland play President Kirkman on the TV show Designated Survivor is something that I look forward to every week—it makes my life seem so much more sane compared to espionage, terror attacks and finding out that your teenage son may (or may not) have been fathered by another man. A little bit of drama as a means of finding entertainment can certainly have its place in our life. It’s an entirely different story however, when the drama isn’t just on the TV or movie screen and instead is a prevalent component of our everyday existence.

Drama manifests itself in our life as a reactive response to what’s going on around us. While our emotions are neither good nor bad—they’re just feelings that emerge within our bodies in response to circumstances—drama is what occurs when we allow our emotions to overwhelm us, causing us to blame and oppress others or to victimize ourselves. Sometimes we perpetuate drama by lashing out at someone on Facebook who voices an opinion that we don’t agree with or by stirring up trouble amongst a group of friends when we feel as though we’ve been slighted. Other times, the drama is more subtle and passive-aggressive in nature. Regardless of its expression however; drama is nearly always damaging to our sense of well-being and prevents us from living in the fullness of our personal power and FabYOUlousness.

How then do we break our addiction to the chaos and stress brought about by drama? How do we detach from the insanity and rise above the mud-slinging? It’s not always easy, but the more we make a concentrated effort to do so, the happier we’ll be. We need to learn to move the needle from the low energy, low vibe, drama side of the scale to the joyful, centered and purpose filled dharma side.

This then begs the question, what exactly is dharma? Well, on the insanity spectrum, it is about as far away from drama as one can get. It is an ancient Sanskrit word that (despite not having an exact English translation) means “the path” and can be understood as one’s personal life path or calling. Most traditional spiritual teachers agree that dharma is connected to the underlying order of the universe, so one clue to discovering whether or not you’re following your dharma might be to ask yourself if you feel that the universe is supporting you in what you do. To follow your dharma means to align yourself with the most evolved level of your own consciousness in a way that is supported by and connected to Universal truth.

In simpler terms—living your dharma means consciously living the life that you were created to live in a way that nourishes your spirit, expresses your gifts, supports others and connects to the Universe.

Making the transition from living a life of drama to a life of dharma isn’t easy but it can be done, and it is a shift that will bring more mindfulness, connection, expansion and meaning to your life than you ever thought possible. Fortunately, there are some steps that us mere mortals can take in order to help ease the transition from drama to dharma…

Simple Steps to Ditch the Drama and Find Your Dharma

1.) Bring attention to your awareness. Often, when we are experiencing drama in our lives, the drama is really serving as a wall behind which feelings of pain and rejection are hiding. Dharma is experienced when we are able to stand outside and witness our emotions with less attachment. This doesn’t mean that we don’t still feel the feelings—it just means that we don’t become overwhelmed by them, thereby perpetuating negative reactions. Instead, living in dharma means understanding that we have the power to choose how we want to feel in any given moment, thus, we have the power to choose our behavior in response to our feelings.

2.) Get out of your head and into your body. Drama requires a lot of over-thinking, mind twisting, second guessing and manipulation—all things that happen in our heads. When you are ready to move from drama to dharma, try pressing the mute button on your thoughts for a while and instead, try shifting your focus to the sensations happening within your body. Take a deep breath and feel the air enter your lungs. Stretch and feel the tension in your muscles release. Despite whatever is going on around you, you have the ability to control what is going on within you.

3.) Ask for divine guidance. Often, we get so caught up in trying to figure out how to make our lives work that we end up forcing solutions that aren’t really solutions or trying to manipulate outcomes that end up taking us further off course. Rather than always thinking that we know what’s best (which inevitably leads to more self-inflicted drama), it’s time that we learn to humble ourselves and ask for divine guidance from that which is greater than us. Whether you prefer the term God, Spirit, Universe, Angels or some other identifier doesn’t matter. What does matter is the recognition that there is a power greater than us and that that power is available for any of us to tap into at any time for guidance, connection and serenity.

4.) Meditate. We’ve already committed a post to the physical and mental health benefits of meditation (read it here), and another post to the how-to’s of meditation  (read it here), but, meditation gets mentioned again here because it is so, so vital when it comes to living a life of dharma. Stillness is a gift and silence allows us to tune into the frequency of divine guidance. When we are still, we are better able to sense the Universe’s guidance and thereby live in a state of dharma rather than drama.

5.) Pursue passion and purpose. When children are bored or stuck doing something that they don’t want to do, they cause drama (picture a three year old who does NOT want to be drug through one more store and the fit that inevitably ensues when she is forced to comply). As adults, we like to think that we are more mature than that, but sadly, that often isn’t the case. We may not throw ourselves onto the floor in a wailing, red faced fit (though some of us might!) but still, we have a tendency to create drama and chaos in our lives when we are not able to express our true desires and follow our passions. This is why, it is so crucial that we take the steps necessary to find our FabYOUlousness and to release it into the world to do its work. When we are living in the fullest expression of our FabYOUlousness, we are living our dharma.

6.) Make a commitment to yourself—and keep it. Once we commit wholeheartedly to finding our FabYOUlousness and letting it be the guiding force in our life, we open ourselves up to all of the power and abundance of the universe. As we honor the commitment that we make to living a life of dharma, we will naturally rise above all of the drama around us because we will be able to see it for what it is—a distraction from our higher purpose. Honoring our commitment to ourselves allows us to recognize and avoid the quicksand pit of drama that threatens to pull us down and suffocate us.

“ As we honor the commitment that we make to living a life of dharma, we will naturally rise above all of the drama around us —MELISSA VENABLE

7.) Walk it out. Living a life of dharma means understanding that we are all physical bodies inhabited by a divine essence. Whether or not we allow that essence to be the guiding force in our life is up to us. Once we say that we want to ditch the drama and live out our FabYOUlous dharma, we must take the appropriate actions to do so. This may mean distancing ourselves from toxic “friends” or replacing unhealthy habits with new, life-affirming behaviors. While some of these shifts might seem difficult at first, the more we start to move closer to our life of dharma, the more we will find ourselves wanting to make these positive changes. The ability to harness our self-discipline and “walk our talk” when it comes to moving from a life of drama to one of dharma is what will set us apart and help us to rise above the drama of the masses, and in so doing, experience our most FabYOUlous life.

When it comes right down to it, living your dharma simply means knowing the inner truth of your FabYOUlousness and fully living into that truth. The more we make this our aim in life, the less inclined we will be to put up with or engage in any drama that threatens to overtake us.