Drama is all around us. All one has to do is open the paper, turn on the news or go online to hear about the latest conflicts. I can’t lie, my Facebook news feed has seen it’s fair share of drama. So what can be done to stop all this drama? I think mediation can be a huge factor in calming everyone down, think of meditation as your own personal Détente! (Sorry I am a US history teacher and I had to get my nerd on!)

A few weeks ago my wife and I get into an argument about finances. It was the end of the month and it looked like we were going to come up short on some bills. My wife blamed my frivolous spending, while I blamed it on her refusal to live somewhere cheaper. This was starting to become a common fight for us. To make matters worse the argument took place on Monday morning at 7am, right before work.

As I left my apartment, I went to my meditation spot. I sat down and attempted to meditate. Nothing special, just repeatedly counting my breaths from 1-10. At first all I thought was “I should’ve said this, I cant believe she said that, why doesn’t she realize I’m right.” However, as I kept breathing the thoughts had less steam and were finally starting to slow down. It took a while, but I was finally in a calm spot. When I had come out of the meditation I felt relaxed and was ready to start my day with a clear head.

Later in the day my wife called. I don’t know if it was the way I answered the phone or maybe she sensed my calmness, but we had a cordial conversation. When I got home we talked and made up. Although we did not find a solution to our financial problems, we had a positive conversation about our finances, the first one in a long time.

I believe this breakthrough was made possible because of my meditation session. If I hadn’t had meditated, the angry thoughts would have snowballed all day, probably causing me to have a rotten day in other areas as well. When I got home I probably would have gotten into another argument with my wife. Instead meditation cleared my mind and there was no angry build up, just clear thoughts and a soothing feeling that many refer to these days as flow.

I often think about the role meditation can play in situations when I read the news. It seems like the Jay-Z and Solange elevator incident had been building up for a while. It’s hard in situations like that to take a step back and take a breath. However, some nice slow conscious breaths probably would have avoided an embarrassing and unfortunate situation. Maybe Jay-Z should walk around with a meditation coach instead of or in addition to his bodyguard!