Stress impacts the way we think, feel, and behave, affecting all aspects of our lives. Some level of stress at the workplace is normal & acceptable, perhaps even essential. It can keep you on your toes, help you face challenges, and you’re able to meet your deadlines. However, just like too much salt can spoil the food, stress beyond normal levels can leave you feeling frustrated and powerless. The consequences of letting stress rule are nothing short of disastrous and tragic.
So how to be successful without paying the heavy price of a stressful life is what everyone is asking these days.
Balance Life and Work
What is the secret to riding a bicycle? Balance! It is about staying at the center: not letting it fall to the right or left. When it’s falling on one side, you bring it to balance. When you go out of balance, you feel the pinch. Whenever you go out of balance in any aspect of life, listen to your inner voice, and come to the center. Balance your time between work and rejuvenation. If you have ignored your family, it pinches you. If you have ignored your social commitment, it pinches you. If you are ignoring your business, it pinches you. If you are ignoring your spiritual practices, it pinches you. So wherever anything pinches you, come back to the center. The secret of true success is in balancing all aspects of life without being attached or averse to any of them.
Increase Your Energy Levels
Stress is when you have so much to do, very little time, and don’t have enough energy. Now to deal with it, either reduce your workload – that might be impossible! Or increase your time – but a day has only 24 hours. The only option we’re left with is to increase our energy levels.
There are 4 ways you can increase your energy levels:
- Proper food will help you. Not too much, not too little. Also, pay attention to keeping a balanced diet, and freshly prepared food that is easily digestible.
- The right amount of sleep. You need 6-8 hours of sleep. Not more, not less.
- Breathing is a lesser-known but very critical source of energy! Regular practice of breathing exercises like Pranayam and Sudarshan Kriya are effective energy boosters. Breathing exercises help in improving perception, observation, and expression, all vital for good management.
- A few moments of meditative awareness. Meditation is conscious, deep relaxation. Just a few minutes of meditation regularly can relieve all types of stress. About 15-20 minutes of meditation, morning and evening, is good enough. Meditation also helps us get in touch with our inner space – the source of joy, peace, and love.
Enhance Your Intuition
For any business, you need intuition. The success of a business is directly proportional to the intuition of the boss. Greater intuition translates into greater business success. The Art of Living programs aim at lessening stress and enhancing intuition. This also brings out creativity and enthusiasm in the workplace.
Take an Interest in Arts
In the corporate world, you are loaded with left-brain activities like logical thinking, planning, analysis, etc. You need to balance the left-brain activity with the right-brain activity. Painting, music, poetry, or any other kind of creative and recreational activities activate the right brain. When the two hemispheres of the brain are balanced, you experience higher clarity, higher creativity, higher productivity, higher efficiency, and higher relaxation.
Do Acts of Service
Be useful to people around you. It’s the best antidote to stress. You must contribute to society. When you do some act of service and kindness, it brings an immediate feeling of inner rejuvenation.
Talk to Your Colleagues
Let out the steam and get into the team! Take off your management shoes and sit with others in your company. Sit and talk to them and share your point of view. It empowers people and facilitates cooperation.
Don’t be afraid of Office Politics
Wherever there are people, there will be politics. Emotions and dealing with people are like surfing the ocean. Waves after waves come but a surfer knows how to maneuver. Be skillful. Accept this hard fact and remain unattached. If someone says something, just smile. You can do this when you have faith that the best will happen to you.
Avoid Procrastination
Procrastinating your tasks causes stress in the long run. And when you are stressed, you will tend to procrastinate. Break this cycle. Avoid procrastination.
Accept the Opposites
Accept the pleasant and unpleasant moments of life. You need to accept that you will experience both of these in your life. This will help you maintain the equanimity of your mind.
Perfect Imperfections
Make room for imperfection. Accept a little bit of others’ as well as your own imperfections. It allows you to be more patient. It’s like the space in your house where you keep your dustbin. You need it to keep the rest of your house clean.
Know that Stressful Phases will Come and Go
You have been stressed before. Weren’t you stressed last year? You have lived through it. You didn’t die! Look back at your life, so many times you have gone through stress. Remember all that you have gone through and the present stress will seem small in comparison. Have a look at yourself, and you will understand that you have experienced this before.
