STABILIZE STRESS

Stress is a killer.

There are some who would say, “there’s good stress and then there’s bad stress.” That’s sort of like saying, “there are good heart attacks and then there are bad heart attacks.”

Maybe there is some positive benefit to the stresses that will enhance our performance, but, for the most part, stress is a negative, keeping us from performing at peak levels, damaging our daily productivity, and decreasing the chances of our longevity.

Many blame stress on external forces. “We are living in stressful times.”  “This is a stressful job.” “My boss (husband, wife, co-worker, customer, client, kid, etc.) is really stressing me out.”

The world is not really a stressful place and these are not really stressful times. There really are no stressful jobs. If any of these were true, then everyone in that community, job, relationship, etc. would be stressed. Some are. Maybe most are. But some are not.

There are many “stress reduction” programs, seminars, and courses out there. Most are effective. But, rather than treat the symptoms, what if we treated the disease and rid ourselves of the causes of the stress?

Most stress is internal, caused by the ways in which we relate to the world and events and people around ourselves. Stress is caused when there is a disconnect between our expectation and our reality. When reality falls short of an expectation, it creates a disappointment and that causes stress.

For example, let us say you drove your car to work today, your car was parked in the nearby parking lot, and you will leave work today at 5:00 p.m. You probably have an expectation that your car will be right where you left it when you got to the parking lot this afternoon. Well, what if you were to discover at 5:00 p.m. that your car has been stolen? I would imagine most of us would feel some stress from finding out about our stolen car!

But, what if you return to the parking lot this afternoon and there is your car exactly where you left it this morning? You insert the key and drive away. Do you experience stress over finding your car where you left it? No, because expectation and reality match up.

While most of us will experience those larger disappointments in life, they are typically few and far between so that our bodies have a chance to cope and recover. Rather, it is all the little disappointments, which seem inconsequential individually, but when added together throughout a day, will really build up the stress. (Dealing with the morning rush hour, not getting things done on time, tasks piling up, personal errands not attended to, etc.)

The solution? Bring your reality up to your expectations. Through effective daily planning make sure that you plan to do the little things you expect should be done in addition to all the things you “have to” do during the day. 

We will never eliminate stress completely but, with more effective planning, we can stabilize stress.

દરેક વખતે એક સરખી સફળતા જોઈએ તો આ વાત યાદ રાખજો

અનેક લોકોની ફરિયાદ હોય છે તેઓ પ્રયાસ હંમેશા એક સરખો જ કરે છે પરંતુ સફળતા દરેક વખતે એક સરખી નથી મળતી. ક્યારેક અપેક્ષાકૃત વધુ સફળતા મળી જાય છે તો ક્યારેક આશા હોય તેના કરતા ઓછી મળે છે. સફળતા હંમેશા એક સરખી રહે, તેની માટે બાહ્ય કારણો સાથે આંતરિક કારણો ઉપર પણ ધ્યાન આપવું જોઈએ.

આખરે શા માટે આપણે દરેક વખતે સફળ નથી થઈ શકતા. કોઈ વસ્તુ ક્યારેક આપણને અંદરખી ખોખલી કરી દે છે અને કયા એ કારણ છે જેને આપણે આજ સુધી સમજી નથી શક્યા.કોઈ પણ કામમાં કુશળતા ત્યારે જ આવે છે જ્યારે તેમાં નિરંતરતા હોય, વગર નિયમિત અભ્યાસે કોઈ સિદ્ધિ નથી મળતી. 

ભગવાન હનુમાન આ પ્રકારના સંકેત કરી રહ્યા છે જ્યારે કોઈ કામ કરો, તેમાં નિરંતરતા બનાવી રાખો. ત્યારે જ તે કામ અને તેની કુશળતા તમારી સિદ્ધિ બની જશે.સફળતાનો એક સિદ્ધાંત એ છે કે, કાં તો તમે સ્થિતિઓને અપનાવી અનુકૂળ બનાવી લો કે પરિસ્થિતિઓને અનુકૂળ બની જાઓ. બંને સ્થિતિઓમાં સંઘર્ષ ભલે હોય, પરંતુ સફળતા સરળતાથી મળી જાય છે. 

શ્રીહનુમાન ચાલીસાની બત્રીસમી ચોપાઈ છે...

राम रसायन तुम्हरे पासा। सदा रहो रघुपति के दासा।।

તેની બીજી પંક્તિમાં એક શબ્દ આવ્યો છે-સદા. આવો આ સરળ શબ્દોને જીવન સાથે જોડીને જોઈએ. હનુમાન ચાલીસામાં જે રસાયણની ચર્ચા થઈ છે અને જે હનુમાનજીની પાસે છે, તેનો અર્થ છે બધી પરિસ્થિતિઓ પ્રમાણે અનુકૂળ રહેવું...

આ રસાયનનો આધ્યાત્મિક સંદેશ એ છેકે આપણે એવી રીતે રહેવું જોઈ કે આપણે સંસારમાં રહીએ, સંસાર આપણામાં ન રહે. સદાય રહો રઘુપતિના દાસા તેમાં સદાય શબ્દ મહત્વપૂર્ણ છે. 

શ્રીરામે હનુમાનજીએ તેમની ઉપયોગીતા, તેમના સમર્પણ અને ભક્તિને કારણે સદાય પોતાની પાસે રહેવું ગૌરવ આપ્યું છે.શ્રીરામનું માનવું છે કે ન જાણે ક્યારે, કંઈ સમસ્યા આવી જાય. એટલા માટે સમાધાન હેતુ શ્રી આંજનેયની સાથે રહેવું સારું છે. પ્રબંધનનું સૂત્ર છે કે, જો તમે સમાધાનનો હિસ્સો નથી તો પછી તમે પોતે એક સમસ્યા જ છો.

હનુમાનજીનું આ સમાધાનકારી ચરિત્ર આપણને જીવન તત્વોનો યોગ્ય ઉપયોગ કરતા વ્યક્તિત્વના વિકાસની પ્રેરણા આપે છે. પરમાત્માની નિકટતા મોટી ઉપલબ્ધિ છે. તે સદાય રહેવી જોઈએ. એવું ન હોય કે આજે સફળ થયેલ, લાપરવાહીને લીધે આવતીકાલે સફળતા જીવનમાંથી સરકી જાય.

Self-Realization Is In Every Moment

Recently, I was talking with a teacher and friend about self realization. He made a simple comment that the soul is the sum total of all of our experiences. It struck me how this meant that every experience adds to our soul, and there is no experience that can detract from it. Since we share experiences with many other souls, that would mean that our souls overlap. 

Anywhere our experience overlaps, our souls would also overlap. And since we overlap with so many other souls, ultimately all souls are connected through this sharing of experience. So whenever a particular soul has a profound experience of awakened consciousness, or self realization, their experience of the totality of consciousness by definition includes all experiences and all the apparent souls out there.

Every experience is actually an experience of self-realization. In each and every experience, we are realizing a capacity or aspect of our soul, and by extension, an aspect of our true nature as being. Since all there is, is Being, every experience is an experience of being. Every experience adds to the totality of our understanding and realization of our true nature. There is no other possibility.

This is a dilemma if we believe there is a better, truer, more spiritual aspect of our Being that we want to be realizing. What if my anger is part of my true nature? What if my greed, lust, fear, sadness, confusion, and pain are all part of my true nature, along with all of the love, peace, and joy that are also part of being? In hoping and waiting for a better experience, we may be overlooking the significance of our present moment experience, just as it is. It isn't that sadness and greed are equivalent to peace and joy, but every experience has significance, since every experience is an experience of our true nature.

The experiences that we may reject because we think they aren't the correct experience may actually be made up of the same peace, joy, and love we are hoping to have. We think of this world as a world of opposites, or dualities. But if we look more closely, we find that the so-called opposites are really just different amounts of one thing. Light and dark are an example: There is no such thing as dark, only light existing as photons. There are no “darkens.” You can’t buy a “flashdark” and point it at things and make them disappear. However when there is little or no light, we call that dark, even though there is no such thing. Similarly, the only thing that exists is our true nature, which is filled with joy and love. If we are experiencing little or no joy or love, we may call that sadness or fear, although those are really only the relative absence of joy and love. And of course, there is often some joy in sadness and some love even in fear.

What if every experience is a unique jewel of our multifaceted Being? What if every experience adds to the abundance of our soul and moves us toward the greatness of our true nature? What if what you are experiencing right now is unfolding your self-realization in the most amazing and unique way? Perhaps there isn't some special experience of self-realization that is the way to realize true nature. Maybe every soul’s realization of true nature is meant to unfold in a completely unique way so that every soul’s experience can also add to the experience of the One Being that all souls are a part of, just as every experience adds to the richness of your soul.

What is Spirituality in Business?

Many people today are finding that there’s more to life—and business—than profits alone.  Money as the single bottom line is increasingly a thing of the past.  In a post-Enron world, values and ethics are an urgent concern.  The hottest buzz today is about a “triple bottom line,” a commitment to “people, planet, profit.”  Employees and the environment are seen as important as economics.  Some people say it’s all about bringing your spiritual values into your workplace. A poll published in USA Today found that 6 out of 10 people say workplaces would benefit from having a great sense of spirit in their work environment.

What is spirituality in business? 

There’s a wide range of important perspectives.  Some people say that it’s simply embodying their personal values of honesty, integrity, and good quality work. Others say it’s treating their co-workers and employees in a responsible, caring way.  For others, it’s participating in spiritual study groups or using prayer, meditation, or intuitive guidance at work. And for some, it’s making their business socially responsible in how it impacts the environment, serves the community or helps create a better world. 

Some business people are comfortable using the word “spirituality” in the work environment, as it’s more generic and inclusive than “religion.”  Instead of emphasizing belief as religion does, the word spirituality emphasizes how values are applied and embodied.  Other people aren’t comfortable with the word “spiritual” and prefer to talk more about values and ethics when describing the same things that others would call spiritual.  But there are some businesspeople who talk about God as their business partner or their CEO.

There’s some fear about spiritual beliefs or practices being imposed by employers, but to date this has been extremely rare.  On the other hand, some observers warn about the potential for superficiality and the distortion of spiritual practices to serve greed.

Key spiritual values embraced in a business context include integrity, honesty, accountability, quality, cooperation, service, intuition, trustworthiness, respect, justice, and service. The Ex. Satyam CEO Ramalinga Raju told workers they are “morally obligated to help customers solve problems” – they’re not just to sell people products. The CEO of Mahindra & Mahindra, a popular national vehicle manufacturing company, honored--instead of fired--an employee who told the truth in a widely circulated memo.  This greatly increased morale and built a sense of trust in his company.

The sustainable business, social investment and spirituality in business movements are one of the hopeful signs that business, as the most powerful institution in world today, may be transforming from within. What is emerging is a new attitude towards the workplace as a place to fulfill one’s deeper purpose.

As World Business Academy cofounder Willis Harman remarked many years ago, “The dominant institution in any society needs to take responsibility for the whole, as the church did in the days of the Holy Roman Empire.”  Each day, more and more businesses are helping to create a better world by being more socially responsible in how they treat people and the environment.  They are proving that spirituality helps--rather than harms--the bottom line. 

As Kahlil Gibran reminds us in The Prophet, “Work is love made visible.”

Photo Credit: Google Images

How do I value other people’s time?

Developing a personal sense of time includes developing a personal sense of the value of other people’s time. 

How do I rate as a consultant of other people’s working capital of time? 

To discover my attitude to other people’s time, I will complete the following exercise. If a statement describes my attitude or behaviour I will put Yes if not, Check No. I will tell the truth.

Attitudes and behaviours to other people’s time

I took upon the time of those who work for me as an extension of my own, to do with as I please.

I frequently interrupt meetings in their offices, as I have first priority on their time.

I regard job descriptions – that each position in an organization has its own proper duties, responsibilities and authority – as a bureaucratic nonsense.

When telephoning anyone I never check to see if my call is an unwanted interruption at that particular moment.

I enjoy the sound of my own voice and I know that I am rather long-winded at meetings.

In the last month I can think of at least one occasion when I have kept someone waiting needlessly without telling them why.

I am aware of the quantity of time that my people put into their work (how many hours a day), but not the quality of the time they give.

I have never reflected on the fact that other people’s time is as precious to them – or ought to be – as my time is to me.

I do not show potential or actual customers that I value their time. It’s their money I am after!

I frequently miss agreed deadlines, I say that I will do things and then don’t do them, and have to be chased by others accordingly.

I will practice and learn in next 30 years:

Time – human time – is the most precious natural resources I have.

Time is well-managed if:

Things that ought to run smoothly are doing so

Desired ends are being achieved by the economical use of time.

Time is well-led if those ends are carefully thought through in terms of purpose, aims and objectives in a rapidly changing world.

My personal sense of time should include an awareness of the value or importance of other people’s time as well as your own.

Finding Potential Within

River Ganga, Haridwar, India

When you are silent your potential speaks to you, whispers to you. And those whisperings are absolutely categorical – there are no ifs and buts. The heart knows nothing of its and buts, it simply says that this is your destiny: become a painter or a poet or a sculptor or a dancer or a musician. It simply says to you that this is how you will be fulfilled. It starts directing you. The function of the master is to help you to be silent so that you can hear your own inner whisperings and then your life starts moving through an inner discipline. So I don’t give you any outer discipline. I help you to rediscover your insight; then you are free, then you move in freedom. So sannyas is not a bondage, it is not a cult, it is not a creed. It is a declaration of freedom. It is a declaration of individuality. It is a declaration of love and creativity.

The truly religious person will live his ordinary life with immense joy and ecstasy. he will not call it ordinary. He will live it with extraordinary sensitivity. It is a gift from the whole, it is a gift from the beyond; it has to be respected, loved, appreciated. And it is really an immense gift. All these trees and the birds and the people and the rivers and the mountains and the stars and this vast sky, all this eternity… it seems really strange, sick, that somebody can be serious in this celebrating existence.

But seriousness has been praised, and because it has been praised people have tried to be serious. They have repressed their cheerfulness, they have repressed their dances, they have made themselves cripples, they have paralyzed their being in every possible way. They have cut themselves so that they can fit into the pattern of being a respectable saint.

To me this has been a calamity. Religious have been committing a great crime against man, and it is time it should be corrected. It is already late. This is the only world, and we have to live now and here. We are not sacrifice now and here for some fantasy of a heaven or a paradise or a moksha. Each moment functions as a mother for the next moment. Condemning it is dangerous. Appreciate it, love it, rejoice in it.