Do we not often hear from our colleagues that they are completely stressed out? This is more so appropriate today as we live in a virtual world; many of you still working from home; long operational hours, endless calls, Chain of mails, connectivity issues! Long ago (well, not that long ago) when we used to attend offices daily, I had a colleague of mine who would reach office at 8.15 AM, pick up a double expresso, go around the cabins, telling people that he is completely stressed. I happened to ask him one day as to how & why he felt stressed so early in the day – he would say it’s due to number of meetings scheduled, deadline to send reports, mails & other routine meetings which invariably happens each day. I was a bit intrigued & got talking to him; later did I realize that he parties at least 3 to 4 days a week, where his days ended well past midnight & his weekend schedule was completely packed with his friends & travel.

It’s important for us to get into the root cause analysis as to what exactly causes our problems; invariably you would be surprised to find the bitter truth which you may not like to believe. Steve Saccone in his book “Rational Intelligence” describes this phenomenon as identifying your Blind Spots. He says; “As we acknowledge our Blind Spots and identify our limitations, we can make adjustments that allow us to improve our vision, we can then begin to develop a new level of ability that strengthens our leadership force, precision & impact”.

In this particular case, the real reason for my colleague’s stress was lack of sleep and adequate rest. However, we tend to identify partying as a stress-reliever, on the contrary we don’t like to believe that lack of sleep would contribute to stress the next morning. Stress is a silent killer, if you are unable to identify & act quickly on time, it causes damage to your mind & body. Stress causes fatigue & in some cases results in weight gain too; I am aware of one such person who used to relieve stress by watching his favorite TV show (not a bad idea) but unfortunately was binge-eating unhealthy food through the process without exercising any control. Hence, instead of feeling relaxed he would go to bed with full stomach, unable to get good sleep and yep, the vicious circle of stress continues!

The obvious question you have in mind is “Yes, I am aware of all this, is there any solution”? While I am not professionally trained to recommend any solution, I would rather encourage you to identify your Blind Spots – as that indeed is the first step towards progress.

Timothy Gallwey in his book “Inner game of stress” sums it up beautifully. He says, there are 3 Principles crucial to taking steps in your life: ACT – AWARENESS, CHOICE & TRUST

• AWARENESS is one of the greatest tools of human consciousness. If you know where you are going, simply being aware of where you are will show you the next steps to take
• CHOICE on the other hand gives you freedom to exercise your control. Ignoring what you truly want in favor of pleasing others (example: attending calls & replying to e-mails late at night to please your Boss) or simply choosing what’s convenient weakens your stability
• Can you TRUST that life can be lived well- that’s not out to get you? When you are focused on the “good” that life is bringing your way, you worry less about the “bad” and you can walk more easily.

Further, Timothy adds, “Awareness is what you are, Choice tells where you want to be and Trust is the key ingredient to movement toward your desired outcome”!

So the next time you feel stressed, spend some time to think about it; you will realize the solution to destress lies in your hand & the extraneous reasons you tend to believe are factors contributing to your stress, would soon fade away, your life & of those people around you would be much better. The tag line of one of the famous Brands say “It’s your Life, make it Large”. It’s time to take stress out of your schedule & start seeing life differently, you will then realize how large life is!

Cheers & Best

P Sriram

https://www.linkedin.com/in/sriram-p-a302b77/

This article originally published by me on August 20, 2021 in LinkedIn