Resolutions to Stress

The root cause of everything is our sense of identity. Our sense of identity can only exist if we manifest that identity and if someone acknowledges that manifestation. Unfortunately, our manifestation is never perfect and neither is the feedback received by us on our manifestation from the other entity, so there is a gap between what we are and the feedback which people give us on what we think we are. This is maya or farce and is the base of our conditioning or svadharma, constantly getting updated with each experience, resulting in changes to our behavior or svabhaava. This results in a constant and continuous weave of our conditioning and behavior which is the foundation of our personality and is called SvaTantra.

SvaTantra is colloquially known as independence. It is a compound word (Sva = self + Tantra = weave) and is our ability to yoke our conditioning with our behaviour in any situation. Yoke? Yes, yoke is the English term for the Sanskrit word, Yoga... both words are cognate, from the same root.

We take and implement decisions all the time. This causes stress, we experience stress all the time. Whenever we wish to get things done, we make an effort. This causes change, to which there is resistance in both, others and ourselves. The effort to effect change and overcome resistance to the change, both result in stress.

Any stress situation has two elements: the stressor and our coping action, out of which the only the latter is truly in our control. Our ability to cope effectively is limited only by our capability, our ability to assess the situation, decide on what to do, effectiveness in implementing the decision and dealing with the consequence of our action.

Elements of Situational Awareness

Situational Awareness is a stress management tool which addresses solutions at two levels; an intervention to manage the immediacy of the situation and a developmental aspect where the lessons are imbibed, resulting in us being able to either avoid the situation in future or to deal with it more effectively.

Intervention. In many new or difficult situations we often feel overwhelmed, experiencing a kind of psychosomatic hijack characterized by a feeling of being out of control. We need some tool that clears the clouds of confusion and brings a sense of clarity and balance.

Development. This solution is used in the following cases:

• Often, we react without fully understanding the situation. This results in a stress residue after the situation has passed. These stresses need to be purged in order that we remain in reality and at peace.
• Some situations are long-term and need continuous attention. This means continued focus on incremental improvements to bring the situation under control.
• Finally, all experiences result in learning at both, vijnana (transactional) and jnana (value) levels. The faster this assimilation occurs, the better will be the capability of the person to manage a similar experience again.

Any stress management tool we use must cover the following areas related to us: 

• Ability to interact with our environment in such a way that we retain our sense of peace and keep the peace with our environment. 
• Ability to digest and assimilate inputs from the environment, extract and assimilate the essence of our experience, reference and understand concepts and build a base for better interaction with the environment. 
• The opening up of the world has thrown up many opportunities and challenges. The cost of assuaging ambition is often very high in terms of health, relationships and other lost opportunities. The ability to prioritise and balance these requirements is very important. 
• As we move to extract more from life without losing our sense of peace, a key requirement is our ability to retain emotional integrity, dual brain operation (left and right/ logical and creative) and high oxygen absorption. The reason is that without such a balance, thinking can become polarized, leading to stress. 
• Finally, our ability to process data needs to be enhanced. The ability to handle multiple situations, each with its own demands, is the key to the effective utilization of our time and energy. 

Situational Awareness is an exercise in capability building, directing our energies to generating maximum effectiveness for the time that we are alive. This means understanding the objective of what we are setting out to do, putting together a plan that has measurable milestones, eliminating waste in the form of frittered energy, fear, etc., in our operations, communicating effectively, learning continuously and being aware of what we are doing. 

While there are many Yoga techniques, these have their base in the liberation of the soul and are not compatible with the demands of managerial stress situations. The most appropriate Yoga technique is Raja Yoga or Ashtanga Yoga (King of Yoga or Eight Limbed Yoga). Raja Yoga has two main sections – Kriya Yoga (Activity Yoga) and Dhyan Yoga (Merger Yoga). The latter section refers to liberation, but the former is very relevant to managers. 

This discipline is one of the most comprehensive and complete tools in situation awareness.  

Kriya Yoga has 5 parts; 

Yama – Transaction Control – How to interact with the external surroundings. This is based on managing transactions or managing response to stimulus. 

NiYama – Conceptual Control or inward discipline– How to manage the turbulence generated by conflict and change within our personality. 

Asana – Managers need to be physically fit to be able to take effective decisions and put in the effort to affect change. Asanas, in addition to increasing fitness levels, help in managing the fallout and reduction in stress levels. 

Pranayama – This compound word simply means – discipline in breathing. This discipline has two objectives- it increases oxygen intake, thereby reducing the level of toxins in the body which accumulate as a result of stress and it balances left and right brain activity. Both are critical to effective decision making. 

Pratyahara – colloquially, this is meditation. What is does is akin to the effect of stress on a prism. A prism breaks down white light into its constituent colours, somewhat like what a manager does with information, breaking it down to its constituent parts in order to take decisions. A prism becomes dysfunctional if is dirty or stressed – its crystalline structure is disturbed, when its ability to breakdown the incoming light is compromised. Praytahara brings back the crystalline ability to process information and data. 

Anecdotes, experiences and situations to help understand… 

Mohammed Ali was born as Cassius Clay and began training in boxing to channelize his anger at discrimination. At age 22, he defeated Sonny Liston to become the world champion and shortly thereafter converted to Islam to become Mohammed Ali. Two years later he refused to be conscripted, preferring to go to prison and be stripped of his championship titles. Resuming after four years, he regained the title and defended it twice, but the hammering he received in the ring resulted in the debilitating illness of Parkinson leading to his retiring. His unflinching stand on discrimination made him an icon of his people. 



• How did Mohammed Ali’s identity develop and change? 
• What was the stimulus in each case which prompted change? From Cassius Clay to Mohammed Ali, from free-man to convict and champion to patient. 
• How did he cope with the change? 
• Trace the changes to his interaction with his environment, within himself, his coming to terms with himself and his situation. 

Share your opinion and experiences; 

• How do you cope with Stress? 
• What do you know of Yoga? 
• How do you build capability?  
• What is learning? How does it affect stress?