An underappreciated tool for successful living is “The Art of Disengagement.” There is much literature around engagement and holding one’s ground, but disengagement often gets the short end of the stick.

It takes much skill, mental training and control to disengage. When your brain is sending you a signal “this is very critical to survival” it becomes hard to then note this as a false alarm. Choosing to attend to a different stimuli can feel like it requires a black belt in mental training.

For example, this morning one of my children was feeling particularly irritated and annoyed with the unfair demands of life; needing to get dressed, brush her teeth and go to school. She was attempting to manage this distress by projecting her discomfort upon one of her siblings. I could tell it was going to be one of those mornings where my child was looking to pick a fight. I offered my other children a point towards a reward which they were working to earn if they could practice disengaging and redirecting away from her attempts to hook them in. This was not an easy task for them but knowing from the start that there was a reward involved made it more of a game versus feeling like they were being weak and passive for not fighting back.

Strength comes in many forms and the ability to disengage from someone else’s mental meltdown and associated words that they use to hook you in is a critical life skill.

Here are 10 tips to Practice Disengaging from others drama:

• Be selfish with YOUR energy
• Walking away can be a power pose
• Live for you, not someone else
• Be where your feet are
• Get rid of toxic relationships
• Mind your own business
• Know your limits
• Be comfortable saying “no”
• Worry less, smile more
• Find your anchor