Hello Prasanna :
Yes Spiritual quotient can be improved by following our religious practice, applying the teachings in our daily routine activities. A lot of people do follow certain philosophies which enables them to lead a righteous lifestyle for e.g. Vedanta Philosophy (By Vivekananda), Zen Philosophy etc. Lately many people enrol for Art of Living programs to reconnect with their soul and let go off the baggage (emotional) which we accumulate over a period of time and those experiences lead us to judge people, situations etc.
Yes being spiritually enriched does help in coping with stress/burnout etc.
Personally I also work in a highly stressful work assignment but I make it a point to take off 1 week in a year and go for a spiritual retreat. Honestly this one week rejuvenates me completely and I feel recharged to take on new challenges. It is all about following a simple philosophy - live one day at a time go by the flow.... do your best and leave the rest to God.
In corporate context, a lot of IT companies arrange for stress management programmes where mainly Yoga technique is applied, then Vipasanna is a very good meditation program. Infact these days a lot of premier management institutes and schools have included Vipasanna as a part of their yearly program.
Hope the above info is useful.
- Gia
From India, Pune
95Yes Spiritual quotient can be improved by following our religious practice, applying the teachings in our daily routine activities. A lot of people do follow certain philosophies which enables them to lead a righteous lifestyle for e.g. Vedanta Philosophy (By Vivekananda), Zen Philosophy etc. Lately many people enrol for Art of Living programs to reconnect with their soul and let go off the baggage (emotional) which we accumulate over a period of time and those experiences lead us to judge people, situations etc.
Yes being spiritually enriched does help in coping with stress/burnout etc.
Personally I also work in a highly stressful work assignment but I make it a point to take off 1 week in a year and go for a spiritual retreat. Honestly this one week rejuvenates me completely and I feel recharged to take on new challenges. It is all about following a simple philosophy - live one day at a time go by the flow.... do your best and leave the rest to God.
In corporate context, a lot of IT companies arrange for stress management programmes where mainly Yoga technique is applied, then Vipasanna is a very good meditation program. Infact these days a lot of premier management institutes and schools have included Vipasanna as a part of their yearly program.
Hope the above info is useful.
- Gia
From India, Pune
Hi All
Appreciate Taj Satheesh's way of saying it. - WHAT happens IS NOT in YOUR hands, but HOW you ALLOW IT TO EFFECT you is absolutely in your hands.
Let me relate a simple incident to explain this.
A friend had gone to a restaurant. Suddenly, a cockroach flew from somewhere and sat on her. She started screaming out of fear. She jumped, and tried desperately to get rid of the cockroach. Her reaction was contagious, as everyone in her group started yelling too.
She finally managed to push the cockroach on a man in the group. Now, it was the turn of the man in the group to continue the drama. The waiter rushed forward to their rescue. The cockroach next fell upon the waiter. The waiter stood firm, composed himself and observed the behaviour of the cockroach on his shirt. When he was confident enough, he grabbed and took it away.
Now, let's analyse this incident. Was the cockroach responsible for their histrionic behaviour? If so, then why was the waiter not disturbed? He handled it near to perfection, without any chaos. It is not the cockroach, but the inability of the group to handle the disturbance caused by the cockroach that disturbed the group.
Replace the cockroach planting itself on the lady, with anything else like - Mother's anger, wife's unhappiness, child's lack of discipline, boss's arrogance, death of a loved one.
It is not the incident that disturbs us, but it is our inability to handle the disturbances caused by the incident that disturbs us.
It is not the traffic jams on the road that is the problem, but our inability to tolerate the frustration caused in us, by the traffic jam that disturbs us.
More than the problem, it’s the reaction to the problem that matters.
We constantly attribute our emotional outbursts to causes outside us. The truth is these “causes” only trigger our minds into self talk that validates existing beliefs. These beliefs are different in different people and hence the different reactions.
Example:
Trigger: Boss shouts at subordinates for not completing something on time.
Self talk of A: “I must do all my work perfectly. Others should praise me for it. Otherwise I am useless. My boss just shouted at me. I am fit for nothing.”
Self talk of B: “I do everything perfectly. Others must be kind to me and appreciate me for everything. Otherwise THEY are useless. My boss just shouted at me. He is fit for nothing.”
Self talk of C: “I would like to do everything perfectly. Looks like I made a mistake this time. Let me be more careful next time.”
Reaction of A: Depression
Reaction of B: Anger
Reaction of C: Caution
Needless to say C’s self talk / belief is healthy.
When we have the right beliefs, we will be able to take the right step ahead, when confronted with an issue. And we will also approach failure without relenting to it. Then there can be no question of burn out.
We can discuss more on this if you are interested!
Cheers!
From India, Madras
Appreciate Taj Satheesh's way of saying it. - WHAT happens IS NOT in YOUR hands, but HOW you ALLOW IT TO EFFECT you is absolutely in your hands.
Let me relate a simple incident to explain this.
A friend had gone to a restaurant. Suddenly, a cockroach flew from somewhere and sat on her. She started screaming out of fear. She jumped, and tried desperately to get rid of the cockroach. Her reaction was contagious, as everyone in her group started yelling too.
She finally managed to push the cockroach on a man in the group. Now, it was the turn of the man in the group to continue the drama. The waiter rushed forward to their rescue. The cockroach next fell upon the waiter. The waiter stood firm, composed himself and observed the behaviour of the cockroach on his shirt. When he was confident enough, he grabbed and took it away.
Now, let's analyse this incident. Was the cockroach responsible for their histrionic behaviour? If so, then why was the waiter not disturbed? He handled it near to perfection, without any chaos. It is not the cockroach, but the inability of the group to handle the disturbance caused by the cockroach that disturbed the group.
Replace the cockroach planting itself on the lady, with anything else like - Mother's anger, wife's unhappiness, child's lack of discipline, boss's arrogance, death of a loved one.
It is not the incident that disturbs us, but it is our inability to handle the disturbances caused by the incident that disturbs us.
It is not the traffic jams on the road that is the problem, but our inability to tolerate the frustration caused in us, by the traffic jam that disturbs us.
More than the problem, it’s the reaction to the problem that matters.
We constantly attribute our emotional outbursts to causes outside us. The truth is these “causes” only trigger our minds into self talk that validates existing beliefs. These beliefs are different in different people and hence the different reactions.
Example:
Trigger: Boss shouts at subordinates for not completing something on time.
Self talk of A: “I must do all my work perfectly. Others should praise me for it. Otherwise I am useless. My boss just shouted at me. I am fit for nothing.”
Self talk of B: “I do everything perfectly. Others must be kind to me and appreciate me for everything. Otherwise THEY are useless. My boss just shouted at me. He is fit for nothing.”
Self talk of C: “I would like to do everything perfectly. Looks like I made a mistake this time. Let me be more careful next time.”
Reaction of A: Depression
Reaction of B: Anger
Reaction of C: Caution
Needless to say C’s self talk / belief is healthy.
When we have the right beliefs, we will be able to take the right step ahead, when confronted with an issue. And we will also approach failure without relenting to it. Then there can be no question of burn out.
We can discuss more on this if you are interested!
Cheers!
From India, Madras
Hi Radhika :
I want to personally thank you for this post. It is a miracle that God always answers to our needs and it could be as simple as teaching through such incidents.
Just today morning I was upset about something relating to my spouse. While travelling to work my mind was clouded with all sort of negative thoughts. After reading the article below I realised that most of negative thoughts surfaced becoz of my reaction to the incident. Truly we cannot control wat happens atleast we can control our reaction (though it is difficult most of the times) but in future I shall definately try to practice.
Thanks once again !!!
From India, Pune
I want to personally thank you for this post. It is a miracle that God always answers to our needs and it could be as simple as teaching through such incidents.
Just today morning I was upset about something relating to my spouse. While travelling to work my mind was clouded with all sort of negative thoughts. After reading the article below I realised that most of negative thoughts surfaced becoz of my reaction to the incident. Truly we cannot control wat happens atleast we can control our reaction (though it is difficult most of the times) but in future I shall definately try to practice.
Thanks once again !!!
From India, Pune
Hi Gia
You are most welcome.
Most often, it is not an event that causes problems. It is our views or opinions about the event that disturb us. We all talk to ourselves in our minds. Our self talk reflects our opinions.
Irrational Self talk such as : "He MUST NOT get angry with me. What will I do if he is angry with me? I am useless. If I had been more careful, he wouldn't have become angry."
has made the HE's anger into a catastrophic event in my life. I have lost my self esteem and have now decided to be as submissive as possible, to avert any further anger.
When my self talk is, "he MUST listen to me when I give him advice. Otherwise he is a bad man. I SHOULD teach him a lesson."
or, "I SHOULD do only what I want. If anyone thinks they can advice me I MUST NOT listen to anything that they say."
needless to say, my self talk is Irrational.
This theory or approach to life is called Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) or Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy (REBT). It equips one to identify unhealthy, self destructive, irrational beliefs and replace them with healthy, constructive, rational beliefs.
All the Irrational Beliefs of the world can be categorized into these 3 archetypes.
I must do all my work perfectly. Others should praise me for it. Otherwise I am unworthy.
I do everything perfectly. Others must be kind to me and appreciate me for everything. Otherwise they are unworthy.
The elements of the world should be effortlessly attainable and benign to me. Otherwise, the element is unworthy.
Of course, not all beliefs of someone with an Irrational belief are Irrational. These archetypes are the extremes. People can possess varied degrees of these beliefs.
These beliefs could vary for different activating events. People can possess a combination of two or more of these archetypes. The Irrationality of the Belief is compounded by the awfulization of the second clause – to wit, “Otherwise I am unworthy”, “Others are unworthy”, “The task is unworthy”.
So, when the word MUST appears in your self talk, make the self talk Rational, by asking yourself this question: "Is there a law of the universe that you must be able to avoid loss of face, or discomfort?"
If your self talk has the words synonymous to AWFUL or other such catastrophising words, tell yourself "It is bad – agreed. But how does it thus become totally bad?"
If your self talk says "I can’t stand it!" , then ask "Prove that you cannot stand it. What is it that seems unbearable?"
If your self talk condemns others tell yourself "The act/event is unpalatable. But how does that make you, others/the world bad as a whole? Don’t other opinions exist?"
Well, the post got too long now...
So, I am going to close it. I only hope it helps someone and brings a smile on your face when you talk to yourself next time!
Cheers!
Radhika
From India, Madras
You are most welcome.
Most often, it is not an event that causes problems. It is our views or opinions about the event that disturb us. We all talk to ourselves in our minds. Our self talk reflects our opinions.
Irrational Self talk such as : "He MUST NOT get angry with me. What will I do if he is angry with me? I am useless. If I had been more careful, he wouldn't have become angry."
has made the HE's anger into a catastrophic event in my life. I have lost my self esteem and have now decided to be as submissive as possible, to avert any further anger.
When my self talk is, "he MUST listen to me when I give him advice. Otherwise he is a bad man. I SHOULD teach him a lesson."
or, "I SHOULD do only what I want. If anyone thinks they can advice me I MUST NOT listen to anything that they say."
needless to say, my self talk is Irrational.
This theory or approach to life is called Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) or Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy (REBT). It equips one to identify unhealthy, self destructive, irrational beliefs and replace them with healthy, constructive, rational beliefs.
All the Irrational Beliefs of the world can be categorized into these 3 archetypes.
I must do all my work perfectly. Others should praise me for it. Otherwise I am unworthy.
I do everything perfectly. Others must be kind to me and appreciate me for everything. Otherwise they are unworthy.
The elements of the world should be effortlessly attainable and benign to me. Otherwise, the element is unworthy.
Of course, not all beliefs of someone with an Irrational belief are Irrational. These archetypes are the extremes. People can possess varied degrees of these beliefs.
These beliefs could vary for different activating events. People can possess a combination of two or more of these archetypes. The Irrationality of the Belief is compounded by the awfulization of the second clause – to wit, “Otherwise I am unworthy”, “Others are unworthy”, “The task is unworthy”.
So, when the word MUST appears in your self talk, make the self talk Rational, by asking yourself this question: "Is there a law of the universe that you must be able to avoid loss of face, or discomfort?"
If your self talk has the words synonymous to AWFUL or other such catastrophising words, tell yourself "It is bad – agreed. But how does it thus become totally bad?"
If your self talk says "I can’t stand it!" , then ask "Prove that you cannot stand it. What is it that seems unbearable?"
If your self talk condemns others tell yourself "The act/event is unpalatable. But how does that make you, others/the world bad as a whole? Don’t other opinions exist?"
Well, the post got too long now...
So, I am going to close it. I only hope it helps someone and brings a smile on your face when you talk to yourself next time!
Cheers!
Radhika
From India, Madras
Hello Gia,
Just thought your line---"Truly we cannot control wat happens atleast we can control our reaction (though it is difficult most of the times) but in future I shall definately try to practice"---actually leads me to correct your thought process.....if I may be permitted.
There are TWO PARTS in this line you wrote:
1] '......we can control our reaction.........'
2] '...........though it is difficult most of the times....'
Suggest NEVER EVER TRY to 'Control' your 'reaction' AND EVEN the thought process, which precedes any 'reaction/response'. That's the toughest part of human nature & the worst aspect of the 'human mind'--the more one tries to control his/her thoughts, the more the mind resists & this goes on & on....the most noblest souls have faltered by focusing on THIS aspect of spiritual efforts--which consequently is related to the SQ that this thread is focused on.
Since you have mentioned that you practice meditation, maybe this would make sense to you: if you go thru any spiritual literature, the 'core' principle that is taught is to 'let the mind be free'. One could write books on this subject...
What I meant by "WHAT happens IS NOT in YOUR hands, but HOW you ALLOW IT TO EFFECT you is absolutely in your hands" was this: shift your focus FROM the 'IMMEDIATE' TO the 'LARGER picture.
In Radhika Ashok Anand's cockroach situation/example, this is what the waiter did--he moved his focus from the cockroach itself to the 'behaviour of the cockroach'--hope you get the point. Since it is the cockroach's behaviour that is more important than the cockroach itself.
Had the cockroach been flying [instead of just sitting on his coat/apron], MAYBE his response would have been different [a bit more aggressive in dealing with it] which surely would STILL have been DIFFERENT from that of the others. The others REACTED while he RESPONDED--that's the only difference, but a big one. And IF he had the option/necessity, he would only CHANGE the RESPONSE rather than reacting.
Rgds,
TS
From India, Hyderabad
Just thought your line---"Truly we cannot control wat happens atleast we can control our reaction (though it is difficult most of the times) but in future I shall definately try to practice"---actually leads me to correct your thought process.....if I may be permitted.
There are TWO PARTS in this line you wrote:
1] '......we can control our reaction.........'
2] '...........though it is difficult most of the times....'
Suggest NEVER EVER TRY to 'Control' your 'reaction' AND EVEN the thought process, which precedes any 'reaction/response'. That's the toughest part of human nature & the worst aspect of the 'human mind'--the more one tries to control his/her thoughts, the more the mind resists & this goes on & on....the most noblest souls have faltered by focusing on THIS aspect of spiritual efforts--which consequently is related to the SQ that this thread is focused on.
Since you have mentioned that you practice meditation, maybe this would make sense to you: if you go thru any spiritual literature, the 'core' principle that is taught is to 'let the mind be free'. One could write books on this subject...
What I meant by "WHAT happens IS NOT in YOUR hands, but HOW you ALLOW IT TO EFFECT you is absolutely in your hands" was this: shift your focus FROM the 'IMMEDIATE' TO the 'LARGER picture.
In Radhika Ashok Anand's cockroach situation/example, this is what the waiter did--he moved his focus from the cockroach itself to the 'behaviour of the cockroach'--hope you get the point. Since it is the cockroach's behaviour that is more important than the cockroach itself.
Had the cockroach been flying [instead of just sitting on his coat/apron], MAYBE his response would have been different [a bit more aggressive in dealing with it] which surely would STILL have been DIFFERENT from that of the others. The others REACTED while he RESPONDED--that's the only difference, but a big one. And IF he had the option/necessity, he would only CHANGE the RESPONSE rather than reacting.
Rgds,
TS
From India, Hyderabad
Hi,
Really appreciate both TajSatheesh and Radhika way of explanation. Also TajSatheesh there is no need to worry, we understand what you were trying to convey.
Actually today Occupation related stress among working people is drastically increasing worldwide. Stress at work place has become an integral part of everyday life it . But it has been noticed that workers suffering from stress exhibit decreased productivity, absenteeism, higher number accidents, lower morale and greater interpersonal conflict with colleagues and superiors .
Several companies which have availed corporate training by spiritual gurus claim that working relationships and efficiency have experienced a quantum leap, which like spirituality is not tangible but empirical. It has been noticed that unlike usual management workshops and offsites, spiritual courses works wonders on mind, body and soul and have a longer lasting effect.
There are several Organisations such as Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's Art of Living, Swami Sukhabodhananda's Prasanna Trust, Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev's Isha Foundation or Yogi Ashwini's Dhyana Foundation who have entered into the corporate training zone to improve the spiritual quotient (SQ) at the workplace. Very soon we will be seeing breathing breaks (OM) replacing cigarette breaks
Some of the companies who have gone in for such type of trainings and greatly benefited are as follows Crompton Greaves , Indraprastha Gas, Capgemini, Birla Groups, IGL, Barclay's etc .
Regards
Anita
From India, Mumbai
Really appreciate both TajSatheesh and Radhika way of explanation. Also TajSatheesh there is no need to worry, we understand what you were trying to convey.
Actually today Occupation related stress among working people is drastically increasing worldwide. Stress at work place has become an integral part of everyday life it . But it has been noticed that workers suffering from stress exhibit decreased productivity, absenteeism, higher number accidents, lower morale and greater interpersonal conflict with colleagues and superiors .
Several companies which have availed corporate training by spiritual gurus claim that working relationships and efficiency have experienced a quantum leap, which like spirituality is not tangible but empirical. It has been noticed that unlike usual management workshops and offsites, spiritual courses works wonders on mind, body and soul and have a longer lasting effect.
There are several Organisations such as Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's Art of Living, Swami Sukhabodhananda's Prasanna Trust, Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev's Isha Foundation or Yogi Ashwini's Dhyana Foundation who have entered into the corporate training zone to improve the spiritual quotient (SQ) at the workplace. Very soon we will be seeing breathing breaks (OM) replacing cigarette breaks
Some of the companies who have gone in for such type of trainings and greatly benefited are as follows Crompton Greaves , Indraprastha Gas, Capgemini, Birla Groups, IGL, Barclay's etc .
Regards
Anita
From India, Mumbai
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