Stress is killing and depressing; destroying an individual’s peace of mind. The absence of clarity and lack of information adds to anxiety and wears down the mind. In the new normal of the COVID-19 environment, people are worried of the uncertainty ahead. We are worried about falling sick, catching a cold, losing our jobs but when it comes to your own spouse, child, parents, and friend / near and dear ones suffering, one accelerates into succumbing to the human weakness of worry and dread. The expert will say, “What is the worst that can happen” to placate the mind and the heart and to avoid slipping into remorse and pain. The strongest at times get sucked into a web of mental strain trying to find solutions to happiness.
You switch on the television to hear of more people dying, people falling sick, people not having been paid for weeks, small businesses shutting down and even large companies shutting doors permanently. It is frightening to imagine what will happen next. Is this going to be a never ending scenario? Some amount of stress is good for humans but a long stretch destroys our internal immune system of rebuilding and strengthening the resolve to recover.
In February 2018, my wife and I were involved in a head on collision. The car I was driving was completely written off. It was a miraculous escape for my wife who took the brunt of the hit suffering back ache and neck injury. Surprisingly I was unscathed. That night when my wife was being examined by the ER doctors, the one thought that was terrorising me was that we escaped death. I was frightened and stressed. The same year, I took a mutually agreed call to severe relationship with my employer. Was there something else that could happen to destroy me mentally? My head used to spin evaluating the defeat that was in my path. The introspection was taking its toll in terms of sleepless nights and lack of ability to take intelligent decisions. Two things kept me going. My wife was a pillar of strength on whom I could lean on and regrettably sometimes take out my frustration. The second was my strong belief that mindful meditation will give me strength to recover from despair. My experience as a trained mindful meditation facilitator held me in good stead to recover from the hurt, despair, fear and complete lack of ability to evaluate options to bring back my career to succeed again.
In the several solo sessions of meditation, I rebuilt my self-esteem and courage to fight back the uncertainty in my life. Call it by any name, introspection and re-evaluating options alone does not need any special training. You can find solutions and sieve through alternatives. Is it easy? Certainly not but examining the reasons for a situation, evaluating likely solutions and then choosing the optimum solution is something that will come with encouragement and support. Mindful meditation does give you that strength to “self-repair”, live in the present and develop the faith in your abilities. Mindful meditation gave me clear avenues to explore. Some solutions that I considered were - I wished to work in an area that I love, I also did not wish to work for anyone, I wanted to work on my conditions, and my satisfaction of serving happy clients. Clearly, there is an advantage of knowing how to handle stress, worry and despair. Mindful meditation gave me the inner strength to control my mind. Today, I am better placed to handle the pandemic situation. Both mentally and physically, I will sustain this extraordinary time. I agree that financially, the situation is taxing but confidence to handle far more difficult situations has made me a stronger person.
What do I do differently? The pandemic situation can be well handled by safe distancing, washing hands, disinfecting surfaces that I come in contact with, using a mask and staying at a safe distance from people who are sick. There are many more simple and logical steps you can consider to handle your life to remain happy and content
§ Eat healthy and sleep well
§ Remain connected with people
§ Never forget to be happy injecting humour in whatever possible way that you can do.
§ A smile and a twinkle in somebody’s eyes means happiness.
§ Plan your day. Even the smallest of detail helps define the purpose of the task planned.
§ Have faith in yourself.
The pandemic situation will end. It may be possible that it will have changed the way we will need to live. But do not let this define you; be the awesome human being that you are. Deal with and destroy stress with the strength of your mind and determination of your will.
While stress is an integral part of your lives; we must learn to live with it and more importantly manage it. It is important to note that however hard times maybe, this too shall pass. There will be a point in your lives when these times will be a distant memory. The biggest gift you can give to yourself is to ensure that at these times a calmer you prevailed; you looked at the positives in your life and helped spread the positivity around you; the pillar of strength for your family and friends. Remember it’s always darkest before dawn - persevere and deal with these times and be an example of the beacon of hope that we should all strive to be.
Ajit Sinha CPHR SPHR-SCP
Published on 01 May 2020 on Linkedin. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/control-your-mind-ajit-sinha-cphr-shrm-scp/
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