The Lessons of stress management from Indian scriptures and ethos during Covid19 lockdown.

Stress Management has become critical in the current crisis wherein the Covid19 virus has locked the entire world indoors, with major cities under lockdown for weeks, financial markets seeing their lowest in the last decade, wealth is getting eroded due to volatile market situations.

Welcome to the new world of VUCA!!!

VUCA means Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous.

That’s the new world order, I suppose.

Thousands of jobs are being lost due to downsizing, Businesses are finding difficult to sustain themselves.

Fear of coronavirus and its associated implications on health are all adding up to STRESS.

Add to it, the media influence that we have in our lives today… with all the negative news, it’s all adding to STRESS.

Read the impact of covid19 on the economy, click here.

In my article, I am going to highlight a few learnings from Indian ethos and Bhagavad Gita that we can imbibe during this lockdown.

Let me clarify one thing, I am not professing any particular faith or religion but I am highlighting the Art of Living that we can learn from our Holy Scriptures and ethos.

What is Ethos?

Ethos is a set of beliefs, ideas, etc., about social behavior and the relationship of a person or group.

Indian Ethos is all about what can be termed as “national ethos”.

Indian ethos refers to the principles of self-management and governance of society, entity or a system by wisdom as revealed and brought-forth by great scriptures like Veda, Upanishads, Gita, Mahabharata, Bible and Quran.

What we can learn from our Ethos about stress management?

1. Balance or Equilibrium: Balance or equilibrium is a stable state of Indian thought, i.e. balance between desire and desirelessness, spiritual and secular values, subjective and materialistic world.
2. Balance of Personal and Work-Life: Indian ethos focuses on the concept that if you are good then the world is also good for you. So, the second Indian Ethos in Management, every individual should have an effective management and balance of personal and work life in the organization.
3. Importance to Character: The Indian ethos gives much importance to character, not to the knowledge.
4. It is the character, which is the real power and wealth. Tough times like, current covid19 scenario is a test of our character and how we tackle the crisis will determine our results.
5. Thrive for Excellence, is the fourth aspect of Indian ethos. In modern management jargon, we interpret it as “Find your Passion” or “do what you love”….

 

The principle remains the same as defined in our scriptures. When you are passionate about something and are self-driven then you don’t feel the stress since you are doing what are you love.

 

What is the definition of Stress?

Conflict with others is a major source of stress in our daily life.

Every conflict between two people has to do with one side wanting to possess what the other side has, or to control it.

This results in one side wanting to impose its will, view, opinion or belief on the other.

We see this in every conflict in the world: between husband and wife; amongst parents and children; between in-laws; amongst friends; between boss and employee; & most of all between communities, and even amongst nations.

Excess of everything leads to Stress

As Beautifully summed up in our holy scripture Bhagavad Gita, Lord Krishna says..

“While contemplating the objects of senses (People, money, power, etc.) a person develops (excessive) attachment for them, and from such attachment selfish desire develops, and from it arises anger (perhaps out of frustration).

From anger arises delusion (grandiosity, paranoia), and from delusion bewilderment of memory (cognitive functions deteriorate).

When memory is bewildered, intelligence (wisdom) is lost (we begin to make stupid mistakes).

When this happens, one falls into degradation (one becomes totally stressed-out).”

 

Read an article- growth in Men’s grooming market, click here.

 

Learn to serve selflessly – Stress Management tip.

It is a shift from ‘me and mine’, the hallmark of compulsive action, to conscious action based on a more holistic perspective.

Trying to change the outer situation without first mastering the inner, is futile.

Rather than hankering after egoistic desires in the hope of happiness, first, strive to find contentment and equanimity inside yourself, professes our holy scripture Bhagavad Gita.

Take a few minutes to look around, you will find sounds of birds chirping, cool breeze and the fresh air without pollution, clear blue skies, and nature is healing itself amid covid19.

We all had desired some time off from our busy schedule to spend with family, me-time, time to introspect, time to pick up an abandoned hobby or finish an uncompleted book or journal, etc, and now covid19 emergence has granted all our wishes in a disguised format.

Learn to adapt is the new mantra of the VUCA world.

 

How can you remain Productive at home or being under lockdown- Stress management tips?

Social distancing because of Coronavirus (COVID-19) is the best thing we can do right now to decrease the risk of spreading the virus in our communities.

1. Conduct virtual Zoom meetings and reconnect with your colleagues, forgotten friends, a network for building new businesses on various meetups. Entrepreneurs can stay in touch with their existing clients and try to generate referrals through existing networks.

 

2. Acquire new skill sets: If you are retail store salesman, acquire soft skills like persuasive selling techniques; if you are into marketing, acquire SEO skills; all these skills will prove to beneficial in your career and would help you even surf the rough tides & will help you overcome the fear of being made redundant.

 

3. Learn to adapt and become more patient: When schedules and routines are turned upside down, everyone is off their game. You and your kids may feel cranky or frustrated, and there might be more crying than usual. Don’t dwell on the things you could have gotten done or should have done differently. Instead, try to focus on the more positive moments throughout your day.

 

4. Limit your time on social media and watching news: This can be tough for some people because scrolling through social media is often seen as a way of relaxing. But the constant exposure to the worries over COVID-19 can be harmful.

 

5. Engage in family indoor sports – Play ‘monopoly’ with kids or practice cricket catches indoors etc.

 

If we want to come out of stress in life then, first of all, we need to change our lifestyle.

The first & foremost thing is that we need to be peaceful at mind in all circumstances. For that, we should be satisfied with what we have at present.

Let’s try to be happy & try to enjoy what we are having at present.

Practice Gratitude.

 

I would like to give credit to one of my retail mentor Mr. Ishwar Chugani, for giving me this topic and inspiring me to write something which would help overall retail fraternity.

I do understand that I have tried to share my learnings from the Holy Scripture, as being a student of Indian ethos and disciple of Jagadguru Sri Shankaracharya math (Sringeri, Karnataka, India); this topic was always close to my heart and I am glad that I am now able to narrate my perspectives on Stress management.

 

References:

www.cdc.gov; book- Indian ethos in management by Tushar Agarwal & Nidhi chandorkar; book – Life’s Amazing Secrets: How to Find Balance and Purpose in Your Life by Gaur Gopal Das.

 

About the author:

Ritesh Mohan is a passionate retail professional with over 22 years in the Retail sector and is an independent commentator on the retail sector. A prolific writer  & curator of retailritesh.com wherein he expresses his views with his audience and educates them on the strategic insights that the industry needs to follow.