Don’t react, respond to bust stress, says Swami Sukhabodhananda

 

Merely reacting to a situation and that too on an impulse only deteriorates the quality of life, he said. It is important to condition the brain to respond and not react, he said, to a rapt audience at the session organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry and the Indian Women's Network.

 

There is no point complaining or cribbing about situations in life. It is important to recognise and validate any given situation so that the associated issues could be straightened out.

When the mind is not conditioned and goes on a mechanical auto pilot mode then it becomes blunt, ineffective and incapable of handling situations.

 

It is not the situation, it is the perception of the situation that results in stress. If one expects an 'ideal situation' all the time, it is not practical. It is important to optimise the situations in life and take responsibility to look for solutions, the swamiji observed.

 

"The most essential requisite for work-life balance is to experience the experience, be it pleasant or unpleasant. The issue arises when one always thinks that the problem is on the other side. Most often, we are fixated on perceived conclusions and dogmas and drown ourselves in soliloquy. This is when the skill to listen gains significance," he said.

 

For a life of contentment, success and satisfaction should go hand in hand. The secret to ending up having a miserable life is to wail about what one does not have, he added.

 

Ms S. Malarvizhi, chairperson of Sri Krishna Group of Institutions and convener of Indian Women's Network, said peace and happiness were hard to get in a world that was packed with stress and compulsions to compete.

 

To manage stress effectively, it was important to devote attention to balancing the social, emotional, intellectual, career and physical aspects of life.