Stress - A call for Awakening

This is a Guest Post by Jagjit Singh of Samatvam Academy. The Samatvam Academy seeks to develop the ‘value-creation capabilities’ of organizations by helping foster individual excellence, group synergy and collective transformation. The mission is to deliver learning solutions for people who wish to become simultaneously effective and fulfilled in their respective organizational roles.

Subscribe to a 4-day training workshop by Samatvam Academy on Stress management here.

                                              STRESS 
                                   A call for awakening

We are a perpetually anxious species, constantly creating stress by not having control over our environment. A human being is the architect of his own destiny, but we have allowed fear, loneliness and despair to disturb us through the ages. Even in the early times, when life seemed to have been simpler than it is now, people were born in pain, separated from what they loved and subject to sickness, old age and death. This is still true, for pleasure, wealth, fame and power have never been able to dispel the basic ignorance, which is at the core of human existence.

This situation has been a burden to man since the beginning of human consciousness, and now it seems to have become even more intense. The rapid pace and complex demands of modern life add to the weight of that which is already on his shoulders.

What could be a better example of the overwhelming stress of the modern age than to quote the demise of Mr. Ragu Pillai, the CEO of Future Value Retail and Executive board member of the group. He was just 54 years of age. Mr. Raghu is the third CXO to meet with an untimely death in eighteen months – the other two highly regarded CXOs were former SAP India head Ranjan Das, 42, and Reliance Industries Executive Director Ravimohan, 52.

To endorse the situation further are the following words by Dr. Naresh Trehan, cardiac surgeon and chairperson, Medanta-The Medicity

“Thirty percent of the executives are in the high-risk category…”

“At the level of CXOs, it is worse”

(Reference from The Economic Times, New Delhi, Friday 15^th April 2011)

Unrelentingly the modern work-life schedules, and ignorance of health has made man fall into the trap of Stress.An untimely control over the situation leads to distress, which is the cause of various diseases and also may cause death.

It is only when one learns to understand that the nucleus of stress resides in the inner chamber of his own being, he learns to organize his internal states. He is thus able to create a joyous, stress-free and peaceful atmosphere around himself. Such a person becomes a responsible family member and an accountable citizen and contributes significantly to creative ways of living and being.

References Cited

Nuernberger, Phil. (1981) Freedom From Stress. Himalyan International Institute of Yoga Science and Philosophy

Bhattacharya, Saumya (2011, April 15). Its time India Inc got stressed over CXO health. The Economic Times, New Delhi

Subscribe to a 4-day training workshop by Samatvam Academy on Stress management here.