Not My Circus.....

There's a Polish proverb which, thankfully, was introduced to me some years ago: “Not my circus, not my monkeys.” It's a way of saying, “Don't drag me into your drama and your issues—I'm not getting involved.”

This saying  has played a huge part in my journey and my transition from 'old Lindsey' to 'new and improved Lindsey'.

Pre-Mindfulness, and whilst still partaking of an alcoholic beverage or 6 of an evening, and whilst still working in an employability role, I found myself very easily dragged in to other people's dramas. In fact I wasn't even dragged into them most of the time, it was usually more a case of me barging my way into them, uninvited. 

I'd observe colleagues' behaviour and get all worked up about it. 'Why is he/she doing that?' 'Why is he/she talking to him/her?' I had nothing positive to say about the industry, company, how we were being treated etc, although, looking back , this was a really great job with some fab people. Obviously, spending a lot of time focused on other people's behaviours, and then getting quite involved and worked up about them, only really has a negative outcome. It's exhausting being annoyed and angry and negative all of the time. It filters and trickles through and starts to taint relationships and other areas of your life.

One day, after I had had a good old moan about someone doing something, one of my colleagues (who quite rightly had probably just about had enough of me and my whinging) said these words to me . 'Linds. Just think of it like this. It's not your circus so not your monkeys'. 

WOW!! Talk about a lightbulb moment. It totally resonated with me. I really do NOT have to get myself involved. It was the starting point of something huge for me. 

Every journey starts with just the tiniest step. This was my first tiny step and I have kept this saying with me since that day. 

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