By NaSa
The other day I watched a WhatsApp video of Sadhguru in which he was explaining his take on stress management. He said that he was amazed to hear about the term ‘stress management’ because we manage something that is precious to us like our time, our work, our family. Why would anybody want to manage stress? This argument itself sounded pretty amusing and eye opening. Yes. Indeed. Why would we like to manage stress? He further added on that the people who lead their lives beautifully (it’s believed, and rightly so, that life is an art) don’t do anything different. They all do the same things as you and I but still they manage to have a different life, happy life, simply because they have a different outlook towards things. Here enters the theory of the glass half filled or half empty. You must have heard the famous proverb that do rounds in presentations or in gatherings to lift up the spirits of people, “Winners don’t do different things, they do things differently.” So, Sadhguru is right in saying that stress is nothing but our inability to manage ourselves vis-a vis the situations we face in our lives. A person with a job is equally stressful about the overburden of his job profile, from a peon or anyone who’s the lowest in hierarchy, ranging to the President or anyone who’s the highest in hierarchy, as is any jobless person for not having a job. I could not disagree and was swayed.
Just then my phone rang. It was my mother telling about my brother’s condition. He had just met with an accident on road. A truck had collided with his car and he was admitted at a hospital 500 meters from my home. That 2-minutes distance, if I travel by car to cover those 500 meters, were the most stressful couple of minutes. I assign the superlative degree because I don’t have a precedence in near history of me getting this stressful. Though, when I reached the hospital, I got to know he was all well except that he got a couple of stitches on his forehead, which is obviously almost negligible in terms of what you imagine of a car-truck collision. It was only his car that got severely damaged.
So, while on my way home I pondered about the theory and practical experience about stress. I experienced it without having an insecure job or a cruel husband or greedy in laws or a break up or being an unemployed.
For a person like me, stress is a state of mind that could very well be taken care of till the time my loved ones are fine. If, God forbid, something happens to them or even if there’s a remote chance of something happening to them stress and/or worry becomes my first, indomitable reaction.
Nevertheless, when I got back home from the hospital I watched another motivational video to rev up my emotional strength. I felt all powerful once again.
This New Year, I wish all of your loved ones stay blessed and happy and you be stress free and optimistic. Happy 2016. Keep the Guftagoo going on.
