In this day and age of distraction, ongoing change and intensity, we’ve been advised to remind ourselves to be present in the moment. But what if our present moment is uncomfortable or overwhelming? Who wants to be in the present moment when you are hating it? That is where the art of distraction comes in very handy.

Let’s take love for instance. Amy Winehouse phrased it quite interestingly when she sang “Love is a fate resigned.” 

Love, as she suggests, can feel like an inevitable destiny—one we must embrace, no matter how volatile its nature. Love has its moments where it can feel more like “strangelove.” Although we may have consciously plucked this person from billions—nominating them as our lifelong lesson-bearer—we may feel we’ve “committed” ourselves in both senses of the word. And so, the ticking bomb is our cue. To refrain. Recede. Refocus. And redirect our attention. 

Love is about self-preservation. Love is here to teach us to step out and go hug a tree. To get out of the blast zone, and GET OUT OF OUR HEAD. Being IN our head means we play the story over and over until next Tuesday. But the Love Bomb is here to teach us otherwise. It ticks and ticks, a reminder each time that spiraling out of control is not the answer.

Enter Dr. Strangelove, offering a simple 2-step, and luckily non-medicated but highly effective prescription plan:

Step 1: Bring awareness into your feet, into your seat, or into the ground beneath you as you lay out on the grass searching for a grounding. Find ways to get within your body. Whatever hot and messy situations you might be in, get the heck out of your head and into your body. If you go for a walk, don’t perpetuate the internal drama. Focus on your feet touching the earth. And this, my frazzled Lover, is not a suggestion. It’s an order.

Step 2: Bring awareness into your breath. Find a way to step away and take a breath. Breathe into your whole body and not just into your sternum. Feel the air throughout your face. From your lips to your hips. From your nose to your toes. So that when you return, you come back refreshed, oxygenated, level-headed, and with your feet solid on the ground. (ENYA ALSO HELPS).

The world will pull us out, constantly. But with these basic steps we can bring ourselves back into our center. And when we recenter, things suddenly seem to happen easier. We forgive easier. We let go easier. We notice things like chirping birds and forget about the drama. Peace finally is ours. We finally realize our sanity is infinitely more important than being right. When we go back to our center, we feel light but solid. Like floating yet grounded. Softer but tougher. Wiser yet innocent once again. Nice, no?

Fundamentally, our job in all of this is to realize Love is sometimes strange. It‘s “a fate resigned.” Things happen we don’t have to approve of, but which—for Love’s sake—we have to accept. And if we abide by Dr. Strangelove’s orders, we can come to appreciate the Love Bomb, our cue to recenter.