STRESS MANAGEMENT AT WORKPLACE

THROUGH SPIRITUAL APPROACH

FINAL PROJECT

Submitted by

KIRAN SAKROJI
TP 0604

For the award of the

EXECUTIVE POSTGRADUATE DIPLOMA IN BUSINESS MANAGEMENT

LOYOLA INSTITUTE OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

LOYOLA COLLEGE, CHENNAI
 Balance Sheet Of Life

Our Birth is our Opening Balance,

Our Death is our Closing Balance,

Our Prejudice Views are our Liabilities,

Our Creative Ideas / Good Deeds are our Assets,

Heart is our Current Asset,

Soul is our Fixed Assets,

Brain is our Fixed Deposit,

Thinking is our Current Account,

Goodwill & Achievements are our Capital,

Character & Morals, our Stock-in-trade,

Friends are our General Reserves,

Values & Behavior are our Goodwill,

Patience is our Interest Earned,

Love is our Dividend,

Children are our Bonus Issues,

Education is Brands/Patents,

Knowledge is our Investment,

The profit or loss is our KARMA Earned.

So, before the INCOME-TAX assessment (arrival of death), Balance your Sheet!

Swami Ishwarananda

(Chinmaya Mission)

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 BONAFIDE CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that the Final Dissertation entitled “STRESS MANAGEMENT AT

WORK PLACE THROUGH SPIRITUAL APPROACH” submitted by Kiran Sakroji to

LIBA, LOYOLA COLLEGE, CHENNAI for the award of the diploma of Post Graduate

Diploma in Business Management is a bonafide record of research work carried out by him

under my supervision. To the best of my knowledge, the contents of this report in full or in

parts have not been submitted to any other Institute or University for the award of any degree

or diploma.

The project work has been carried out at “Technip India Limited - Chennai – 600032”

Date: 20th March 2009 Research Guide

Fr. Emmanuel Arockiam, S.J, Ph.D

ii
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to express my deepest appreciation to my Guide, Fr. Emmanuel Arockiam,

whose lectures during my post graduate studies demonstrated to me that concern for

humankind should always transcend academia and provide a quest for our times. He

continually and convincingly conveyed a spirit of spirituality, apart from various other

therapies, as a phenomenal approach to combat stress in our daily lives. Without his guidance

and persistent help, completing this dissertation would have been a herculean task.

I thank Dr. T.A Sivasubramaniam, Chairperson, Corporate Program, LIBA, for giving me the

opportunity to work in a very interesting area, which has been appealing to me for quite a

long time.

I thank my wife, Snehal, for her consistent encouragement, unconditional love and

wholehearted support while I decided to be a “professional” student for awhile. I thank her

for introducing me to the concepts of human psychology and re-introducing me to the

concepts of spirituality.

I also thank my seniors, subordinates and colleagues at Technip India Ltd., without whose

help this dissertation would not have been possible.

iii
 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Everyone experiences stress from time to time, therefore it is perfectly normal. However,
normal does not necessarily mean healthy. Nor is it inevitable. The reason we get stressed out
is not what is happening to us and not even what happened in the past (at least not directly),
but rather, everything depends on our perception. Past experience does influence us strongly,
but the medium of that influence is our beliefs or thoughts.

Some stress is unavoidable and is actually good for us. But too much stress leads to troubles
that can range from upset stomach to anxiety attacks and even as serious as heart attacks. The
more we understand our stress, the better prepared we will be at controlling our body's
response to stress and restoring a calmer state of mind. This calls for understanding and
identifying the stress triggers and various mechanisms to cope with it. A portion of work
presented in this report helps us to identify these stress triggers and understand the various
coping mechanisms.

Stress as a word is used quite often in our daily lives. Hence each one of us has got a different
perspective towards it. It is necessary to be aware of all the facts associated with stress, but at
the same time it is also necessary to clear the myths associated with it. Since it is the most
common word in modern times, a lot of myths are associated with it. An attempt is made in
this report to identify some of the common myths and how they can be possibly re-
interpreted.

A rational, scientific mind, does not accept any process unless it has a scientific dimension to
substantiate it. Hence a detailed physiological process of stress has been outlined in the
report. Apart from the physiological process, the various impacts of stress on health have
been highlighted in order to understand the importance of stress and its harmful effects.

The importance of meditation and other relaxation techniques such as deep breathing,
progressive muscular relaxation, guided imagery and massage therapies are outlined, as
solutions to handle stress in physical ways. Diet also forms an important part to deal with
stress and hence an attempt is made to understand the significance of the various foods that

iv
we consume daily. There are certain foods that act as “stress-fighters” and a regular intake of
such foods goes a long way in handling stress. In order to avoid the hike in stress levels, an
emphasis has been given on other types of foods that need to be avoided.

Apart from the physical means of handling stress, a psychological approach of stress
management plays a phenomenal role in reducing stress levels drastically. A spiritual
approach to stress management has been emphasized in this report. The concept of
spirituality at work place has still not picked up in most of the organizations and businesses.
Many people have misconceptions about the term “Spirituality” and hence refrain from
incorporating it at work place. The report includes some of these misconceptions perceived
by a large number of people and tries to remove the cloud of myths encompassing the truth
about spirituality.

One of the basic tendencies of human-beings is to form relationships with the intention of
socializing and de-stressing oneself. These relationships are to be nourished and nurtured.
However, sometimes these relationships themselves become the cause of stress. Hence every
individual should be aware of certain basic human values and attitudes, which, if not valued
in the light of spirituality, would induce herd of stresses. The report throws some light in this
context to understand and value the human relationships in order to avoid from coming under
the influence of stress and strain on relationships.

The management of an organization has to know what can make an employee relate in an
insightful way with self and others. It has to nurture a sense of belongingness that makes the
employee feel worthwhile. With this intention, some guidelines are provided in the report for
developing a spiritual workplace.

Spirituality at work place provides host of benefits for the employer as well as the employee.
The morale of the employees gets boosted due to self-fulfillment, contentment and deep sense
of belonging. The ethical and moral behavior scales up new heights, due to increased sense of
trust, truth, honesty, compassion and respect leading to higher productivity, lower costs and
higher turnover. Hence, organizations need to take efforts to introduce the concept of
spirituality at work place and enjoy the cream of benefits supplemented with it. The report
concludes with some stress management techniques and the underlying fact that spirituality at
workplace is a win-win situation for both, the employer and employee.

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 LIST OF FIGURES

Figure Title Page

9.1 Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs…………………………. 36

9.2 Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs – Inverted……………… 37

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

QUOTATION ………………………………………………………………….. i
CERTIFICATE………………………………………………………………… ii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT……………………………………………………… iii
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY…………………………………………………….. iv
LIST OF FIGURES…………………………………………………………….. vi
TABLE OF CONTENTS………………………………………………………. vii

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION TO STRESS

1.1 Introduction…………………………………………………………….. 1

CHAPTER 2 STRESS TRIGGERS AND COPING

MECHANISMS

2.1 Stress Triggers………………………………………………………….. 4

2.1.1 Emotional Stressors…………………………………………………….. 5
2.1.2 Family Stressors………………………………………………………… 5
2.1.3 Social Stressors…………………………………………………………. 5
2.1.4 Chemical Stressors……………………………………………………… 5
2.1.5 Work Stressors………………………………………………………….. 5
2.1.6 Physical Stressors……………………………………………………….. 5
2.2 Coping Mechanisms…………………………………………………….. 7
2.2.1 Level of Flexibility……………………………………………………… 7
2.2.2 Improving Communications…………………………………………….. 7
2.2.3 Journal Writing………………………………………………………….. 8
2.2.4 Gentle Compromise……………………………………………………… 8
2.2.5 Keep time for yourself…………………………………………………… 9
2.2.6 Practice Imperfection…………………………………………………….. 9
2.2.7 Cognitive Restructuring………………………………………………….. 9

CHAPTER 3 MYTHS ABOUT STRESS

3.1 Greatest stress comes from overwork ……………………………………. 11

3.2 Stress is more associated with overwork than under-work………………. 12
3.3 Enjoying work can enable a person to work long and hard……………… 12
3.4 Stress is personal and not related to organization………………………… 13
3.5 Vigorous exercise can reduce stress………………………………………. 13

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

3.6 Top management people experience more stress…………………………. 13

3.7 Stress is always bad……………………………………………………….. 14
3.8 Suffering from stress is a sign of weakness……………………………… 14

CHAPTER 4 BIOLOGICAL PROCESS OF STRESS

4.1 Biological Process………………………………………………………… 16

CHAPTER 5 STRESS AND HEALTH

5.1 Cardiovascular Ailments…………………………………………………. 19

5.2 Immune related disorders………………………………………………… 20
5.3 Nervous system disorders………………………………………………… 20
5.4 Cancer ……………………………………………………………………. 21

CHAPTER 6 STRESS AND DIET

6.1 Tips for balanced diet…………………………………………………….. 23

6.2 Stress-fighting foods……………………………………………………… 24

CHAPTER 7 SPIRITUAL QUOTIENT………………………. 28

CHAPTER 8 MYTHS ABOUT SPIRITUALITY

8.1 The Myths………………………………………………………………… 32

CHAPTER 9 UNDERSTANDING SPIRITUALITY…………. 35

CHAPTER 10 SPIRITUAL GROWTH

10.1 Changing an Attitude…………………………………………………….. 41

10.1.1 Willingness………………………………………………………………. 41

viii
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

10.1.2 Watchfulness…………………………………………………………….. 41
10.1.3 Visualization……………………………………………………………… 41
10.1.4 Effort……………………………………………………………………… 42
10.2 Five Attitudes…………………………………………………………….. 42
10.2.1 Attitude of Kindness……………………………………………………… 42
10.2.2 Attitude of Mercy………………………………………………………… 43
10.2.3 Attitude of Compassion…………………………………………………… 43
10.2.4 Attitude of Forgiveness…………………………………………………… 43
10.2.5 Attitude of Humility and Self-Respect…………………………………… 44
10.3 Do’s and Don’ts for Spiritual seeker……………………………………… 44
10.3.1 Do Everything …………………………………………………………….. 44
10.3.2 Don’t Compromise………………………………………………………… 45
10.3.3 Serve Others………………………………………………………………. 45
10.3.4 Physical Exercise………………………………………………………….. 45
10.4 Being a Spirited Person…………………………………………………… 45
10.4.1 Self-Aware………………………………………………………………… 46
10.4.2 Purposeful………………………………………………………………… 46
10.4.3 Incisive…………………………………………………………………… 46
10.4.4 Rewarding………………………………………………………………… 46
10.4.5 Inventive………………………………………………………………….. 46
10.4.6 Transforming……………………………………………………………… 46
10.4.7 Evaluative…………………………………………………………………. 46
10.4.8 Dauntless………………………………………………………………….. 47

CHAPTER 11 SPIRITUALITY AT WORKPLACE

11.1 Developing a Spiritual Work place………………………………………. 50

11.1.1 Provide Opportunity to be Innovative……………………………………. 50
11.1.2 Respect the Employee ……………………………………………………. 50
11.1.3 Share a Vision ……………………………………………………………. 50
11.1.4 Encourage Communication………………………………………………. 50
11.1.5 Keep Place for Some Fun………………………………………………… 50
11.1.6 Be Flexible……………………………………………………………….. 51
11.1.7 Sense of Control………………………………………………………….. 51
11.2 Human Values at Work Place ……………………………………………. 52
11.2.1 Truth……………………………………………………………………… 52
11.2.2 Righteousness…………………………………………………………….. 53
11.2.3 Love………………………………………………………………………. 53
11.2.4 Peace……………………………………………………………………… 54
11.2.5 Non-Violence…………………………………………………………….. 55
11.3 Valuing Relationships ……………………………………………………. 56

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

CHAPTER 12 BENEFITS OF SPIRITUALITY………………. 58

CHAPTER 13 STRESS MANAGEMENT – SPIRITUAL

TECHNIQUES

13.1 Meditation: An approach to stress management…………………………. 61

13.1.1 Concentration Based Technique…………………………………………. 62
13.1.2 Contemplation Based Technique………………………………………… 62
13.1.3 Natural Thought Based Technique………………………………………. 62
13.2 “Infinite-Being” Meditation Technique………………………………….. 63

CHAPTER 14 STRESS MANAGEMENT - RELAXATION

TECHNIQUES

14.1 Deep Breathing Technique……………………………………………….. 67

14.2 Progressive Muscle Relaxation…………………………………………… 68
14.3 Guided Imagery…………………………………………………………… 68
14.4 Massage Therapy…………………………………………………………. 69
14.4.1 Scalp Massage …………………………………………………………….. 69
14.4.2 Massage for Eyes…………………………………………………………. 69
14.4.3 Massage for Sinus………………………………………………………… 69
14.4.4 Massage for Shoulders……………………………………………………. 70

REFERENCES…………………………………………………………… 71

CURRICULUM VITAE…………………………………………………. 73

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 CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION TO STRESS

1.1 INTRODUCTION

Is it possible to have a “Stress-free” life? Is it good to have a “Stress-free” life? Each one of
us ponders over these questions quite frequently. But have we really understood what stress is
all about? Many of us link it with excessive work load, nagging family problems, lack of
physical exercise or unhealthy food habits. Although each of the above factors is associated
with stress, there is no single definition that combines all these factors together.

In mechanical or technical terms, whenever some external system of forces acts on a body, it
undergoes some deformation. As the body undergoes deformations, it sets up some resistance
to deformation. This resistance to deformation is known as stress (Khurmi, 1998). In other
words it can be understood as an inherent property of a body or material to resist the pressure
or external force. Though the above concept is applicable to non-living beings, it holds
equally good for human beings. There are three important words in the above concept that are
closely associated with human beings viz; Inherent, Resist (Resistance), Pressure.

Many definitions of stress deal with three aspects: Stimulus, Response and Stimulus-
Response (Cunningham, 1998).

A stimulus definition treats stress as some characteristic, event or situation in the

environment that in some way results in a potentially disruptive consequence. In this
situation, stress is an external event as perceived.

Response definition of stress suggests that there may be an internal response, which may
manifest itself in a variety of visible ways.

The Stimulus-Response definition suggests that stress is a consequence of the interaction

between the environmental stimulus and the internal response of the individual.

1
Thus, in its simplest form, stress can be understood as any action or situation that upsets the
body’s normal equilibrium.

Today, we live in an age of anxiety. No previous age in history has included the variety and
intensity of psychological pressures, demands and expectations from work and lifestyle that
we experience today.

Corporate downsizing, lay-offs, outsourcing, business re-engineering efforts have become

common in business today. Downsizing cuts the excessive flab in an organization thereby
making it lean. It becomes stressful for not only the employees who have been terminated on
account of downsizing, but also for the employees who have been retained. The retained
employees need to show consistent performance and produce more with less resource. This
brings them into the direct spotlight of stress. They feel distressed and disenchanted. The
result of this frustration due to stress can be seen in their physical health, personal
relationships and family life.

It is believed that one should work at ‘Preventing’ stress rather than ‘Managing’ it. However
it should be noted that stress plays a vital role and is an inevitable part of human life. Aiming
to prevent stress is not a realistic and desired goal. Stress and worry play an important
function in our day-to-day life. Worry is a way our brain forces us to focus on important
problems. A healthy dose of stress keeps us active. The challenge is not stress, but the
debilitating doses of stress that are more destructive than constructive. In other words, a little
bit of stress can be a good thing (Dev, 2005)

Complete freedom from stress can never be a reality in personal life and definitely not in
professional life. Consistent performance is a set expectation from every employee. Hence
the need of the hour is to help employees manage stress effectively and more importantly
create a corporate ambience that does not develop any other internal strain in the
organization. It is also possible to create such an ambience which infuses a healthy and
positive energy in the work place. Some of the ways to do this is to control extended working
hours, improve the quality of workplace benefits such as meals, recreation, break-out areas
and introduce the concept of spirituality at work place.

2
Another key aspect of stress reduction is ensuring that employees and managers are provided
with the skills and tools needed to perform their roles successfully. Emphasis on skills such
as time-management, effective listening, handling a difficult discussion, situational leadership
equips employees with the confidence to maintain a positive work environment and reduce
anxiety in new and unfamiliar situations.

3
 CHAPTER 2

STRESS TRIGGERS AND COPING MECHANISMS

As mentioned in the earlier chapter stress is an inevitable part of human life. In fact it’s a
necessary part of life. Stress symptoms such as rapid heart beat, sweating and feeling fearful
are basic survival reactions that signal people to pause and think about their situation. People
need to be aware that managing stress depends about their ability to recognize their specific
reactions and situations that trigger them.

Some situations are stressful to almost everyone, for example, if they involve a major
disruption or physical danger. But others are surprisingly individual. A tight project deadline
will give one person nightmares while another enjoys the adrenaline rush. What upsets one
person may not upset another. This differentiation is because of the fact that each human
being is unique. Each of us has different set of belief and value systems. Each one of us has
different perception towards the same situation. Hence the stress triggers (stressors) are
bound to be different for each one of us.

In order to be happy and contended, we need to have control on our emotional reactions. We
can feel more in control of emotional reactions, if we identify our stress triggers or stressors.
Hence it becomes imperative to identify our stressors and learn some of the basic
mechanisms to cope with it.

2.1 STRESS TRIGGERS

As discussed above, a certain situation can cause stress to an individual, but might not at all
affect other person. Hence it becomes evident that there can be a number of stressors, causing
stress to different individuals. These stressors can be usually classified as mentioned below
(Burrows, 2006).

4
2.1.1 Emotional Stressors:

These are the internal stressors which include fear and anxiety, as well as certain personality
traits that can cloud your thinking or perceptions of others. There stressors are very
individual.

2.1.2 Family Stressors:

These stressors are due to family reactions. These can include changes in relationship with
spouse, financial problems, and relationship with aging parents or growing kids.

2.1.3 Social Stressors:

These stressors arise due to our interactions within our personal community. They can
include parties, public speaking and social gathering. These stressors are also very individual.

2.1.4 Chemical Stressors:

These stressors are any drugs a person abuses such as alcohol, nicotine, caffeine or
tranquilizers.

2.1.5 Work Stressors:

These are caused by the pressures of performance at workplace. They may include tight
deadlines, unpredictable boss, unrealistic commitments, fear of unemployment and consistent
adherence to expected performance.

2.1.6 Physical Stressors:

These are the situations that overtax your body, such as working long hours without sleep or
depriving yourself of healthy and nutritious food.

5
The various situations that induce stress in a person fall under one or more of the above
categories. Reducing the strength of these stressors is a more viable option than eliminating
them. However, in order to reduce their strength, these stressors need to be identified first.
One of the most common methods to identify the stressors is through self-interrogation. An
individual can ask as many questions as possible to himself/herself in order to exactly pin
point the stressors.

The questions mentioned below can be looked upon as guideline to help an individual
identify the stressors. Further appropriate and pertinent questions can be added to the list
below, but this exhaustive list should be enough to begin with (Thejendra, 2008)

1) Are the job requirements absolutely clear in real world terms for what you are trying
to do, or expected of you?
2) Do you have the necessary tools, knowledge, resources, staffing, training and budgets
to do what you are trying to do?
3) Are the timeframes realistic for whatever you are trying to do, or are you chasing
artificial deadlines?
4) Are you working in a humorless department or organization?
5) Are you generally short tempered by nature? Do you habitually get flared up over
trivial workplace issues?
6) Is it a specific colleague who is the cause for your stress, or is somebody constantly
breathing down your neck?
7) Is somebody’s short temper and irrational behavior preventing you from doing or
saying the right things?
8) Is a corporate rumor about getting fired, downsizing causing stress?
9) Are you getting the required help from your colleagues and other departments? Are
you trying to tackle things that are not in your control?
10) Is the work you are doing really difficult, or are you just dealing with difficult and
irrational bosses who create panic and terror to cover up their inadequacies?
11) Is your life controlled by emails, mobiles, phones, blogs, laptops and other electronic
gadgets?
12) Are you working in badly managed project? Is everything in your organization or
department urgent and chaotic due to poor planning, an impatient boss etc.?
13) Are you taking care of your health and rest properly? Are you getting your eight hours
of calm sleep daily?
14) Are you trying to please or seek admiration from everyone?
15) Are family problems interfering your work? Are work problems causing strain in
family life?
16) Are you bad at time management? Are there too many things that need your attention?
Can you ignore or eliminate the unnecessary ones?
17) Do you have too much or too less work? Very less work can also create anxiety about
the continuity of your job.

6
Precision questions like above can often provide the key to unlock our unlimited potential
and pin point the exact cause of our stress. After identifying the stress triggers through above
questions, eliminating or reducing their strength would depend upon the precision answers to
the above questions, and the solutions or specific actions that can be taken to reduce them.

2.2 COPING MECHANISMS

Based on the answers to the above questions, following guidelines can help to cope with the
induced stress. The change would not be seen overnight, but gradually there would be a
positive outcome. These coping mechanisms can work as stand alone solutions or they can be
used in conjunction with others (Burrows, 2006)

2.2.1 Level of Flexibility:

Being too rigid or stubborn causes conflict problems and ultimately stress. We all need to
stand our ground on certain issues but we also have areas of our life where we could be more
flexible. It’s necessary to understand that your way is not always the right way and that other
people may be just as effective doing things their way. Recognizing how you can be more
flexible takes a conscious effort and lots of practice.

2.2.2 Improving Communications:

Improved communication is one of the methods for coping with stress. Poor communication
causes misunderstandings which are the root cause of a growing number of problems at
workplace. When conflict arises, search for a common ground; share your ideas and your
emotions. Communication problems are often caused because tone is non-existent in e-mails.
E-mail tone is just one source of miscommunication. We write with tone but often don’t
proofread e-mails to remove things that could be misinterpreted. People often don’t
understand what other people’s objectives are in a given situation. Taking time to understand
what other people want to get out of a conversation can help you avoid the stress of
communication problems.

7
2.2.3 Journal Writing:

There is evidence that writing about stressful events and circumstances help to relieve stress.
Write for 10 to 15 minutes a day about stressful events and look for typical stress reactions
such as irritability, tiredness, sleeplessness, increase in heart rate, increased perspiration etc.
Maintaining such a journal allows you to gauge how much pressure you are under and what
effect it’s having on you. Before you start writing, spend a few minutes with your eyes
closed, trying to get in touch with all the feelings you have at the moment. Are you angry?
Tired? Relaxed? Sad? Open your eyes and write down all the feelings that come to your
mind.

Describe the day’s events. Write about what led you to have the feelings you have now. This
might clue you into some of the reasons you feel stressed. List any worries you have in the
back of your mind. Getting it down on paper, would provide a hint.

Try writing a note of encouragement to yourself. Writing to yourself as though you were
writing to a dear friend who needs cheering up can be an effective way to give yourself the
support and caring you may be lacking.

Try to see your journal-writing time as positive way to let go off the day’s stress. Do not look
upon it as another daily chore.

2.2.4 Gentle Compromise:

Many stressful situations – even those that can’t be entirely eliminated – can be eased
through negotiation. For example, if you are suffering because your boss is keeping you at
work until all hours of the night, try to work out a plan that suits both your needs. Suggest
that you are happy to work late one or two nights a week, as long as you can go home on time
for rest of the days. By doing so you are not getting rid of these stressors but you are reducing
their strength. A gentle compromise does not mean that you need to compromise on your
values or ethics, but it means that you can negotiate on other things which do not jeopardize
your principles or ethics.

8
2.2.5 Keep time for yourself:

Feeling stressed is a strong signal from your subconscious mind that something is wrong in
your life. Somehow you are not getting your needs met. More than likely, you are devoting
more time to work, meeting other people’s needs or dealing with a troubled situation than
taking good care of yourself. Even if you must continue to over extend yourself for a certain
length of time, it’s important to make space for yourself in your busy schedule. This can be
achieved by making sure that you have not filled your day completely with the tasks at hand.
Leave one hour of time unscheduled every weekday and two or more hours a day on
weekends. Make it a rule and live by it. Everyone needs a little time off. Use this time to do
relaxing activities like meditation, reading, painting etc.

2.2.6 Practice Imperfection:

Trying to be perfect can add greatly to your stress level. If you feel that you have to
accomplish everything perfectly, you are sure to feel a lot of pressure. Practicing
imperfection does not suggest you to purposely mess up important projects or deadlines, but
simply that you give a break to yourself once in a while. For example, when you are really
overwhelmed, reschedule an appointment or try to rework a deadline. The reduction in your
stress level will make you even more productive when you get a chance to take care of what
you have put off.

2.2.7 Cognitive Restructuring:

Most of the stress induced in a human body can be reduced or eliminated by encouraging
positive thoughts and behavior. Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) is one such tool that can
enhance positive thoughts and behavior. CBT basically deals with substituting negative, self-
defeating thoughts with positive, affirming thoughts and changing perceptions of stressors
from threatening to non-threatening. CBT approach emphasizes that emotion such as anxiety
result from our perception of the situation in which anxiety arises. In other words, it is the
meanings which individuals attach to conversations, actions and events which cause them
anxiety. Individual meanings arise from previously learned assumptions, past events in that
person’s life, attitudes and biological factors as they relate to the current situation. These are
termed as ‘underlying beliefs’.

9
These underlying beliefs can be used to serve us. One way of helping people develop more
positive thoughts and behaviors is to challenge the underlying beliefs which determine
negative thoughts and actions. Each one of us has a constant internal monologue (self-talk)
within over selves. If this self-talk is based on negative thoughts or emotions, the outcome is
negative. Hence it is necessary to challenge these negative thoughts or emotions which grow
from irrational belief system.

Thus, the first step in mastering stress is for an individual to alter their perception to the
causes of stress. Positive change can occur by persuading people to abandon self-destructive
beliefs which serve to maintain and reinforce negative thinking and behavior. An individual
needs to understand that stress is not induced because of an action / event, but because of our
perception towards that action / event.

Sartre, the French existentialist has stated, “One freedom that could never be taken away from
an individual is the freedom to choose how to react to a situation. Our reaction to something
is our choosing” (Falkner, 2006)

According to Stephen Covey, author of the book ‘The Seven Habits of Highly Effective
People’, with practice we can learn to watch our reactions to certain stimuli and have power
over our stress. The more we can observe our reaction and then our predicted reaction, and
make a choice, the more we can be a powerful instigator in our life and less of a victim.

Apart from the various coping mechanisms explained above, hobbies, prayer, spirituality,
humor and art can be looked upon as some other techniques to cope with stress. By learning
these coping mechanisms to manage stress, our personal and work lives will benefit a great
deal. Our personal and work lives often overlap. Events at work can impact home life and
problems at home can certainly affect the performance at work. People need resources to help
them identify the role of stress in their lives and develop coping mechanisms. Finding what
causes stress is only half the battle. Learning how to cope is the key. Some people consult a
therapist, some people just live with stress and others choose to manage it. However, most
people would like to eliminate stress completely. But without some amount of stress we
would view our lives as unexciting. We do want stress levels to remain manageable.

10
 CHAPTER 3

MYTHS ABOUT STRESS

We all have firmly held beliefs about those people who are more prone to stress. We also
have a certain perception or understanding of stress in our ways. But understanding the
correct meaning of stress and its cause and effects is very important for everyone. Although it
is true that stress is multifaceted problem affected by diet, personality, working conditions,
lifestyle and individual perceptions, many people hold different views about it. Hence it is
important to correctly interpret the common beliefs about stress and rectify the myths
associated with concept of stress.

Our popular impressions about stress may need to be changed. We should not have any fixed
ideas about what it takes to improve our ability to respond to the stress we face, just as there
are no fixed characteristics for people in general.

Following are some of the popular beliefs about stress and their possible re-interpretation
(Cunningham, 1998):

3.1 GREATEST STRESS COMES FROM OVERWORK:

Over work or work load is definitely one of the reasons causing stress. However, it is not the
only stressor at work. The magnitude of stress due to interpersonal conflict and not doing
fulfilling work for some people can be more dramatic than the stress due to overwork.

The stress of too much work can cause emotional and mental paralysis, or an inability to
carry out the work. There are two different types of overload: Quantitative and Qualitative.
Quantitative overload exists when people perceive that they have too much of work to do, or
insufficient time to complete the assigned tasks. Qualitative overload on the other hand,
occurs when people feel that they lack the ability, training or education to complete their jobs
or that the performance standards are too high, regardless of how well they perform or how
much time they have. A person may also experience stress from being improperly trained or
feeling incapable of carrying out work assignments.

11
Poor interpersonal relations and conflicts are the greatest sources of stress in workplace for
some people. People use terms such as dishonest, self-serving, back stabbing, political and
selfish to describe others indicating the feelings of frustration and discouragement leading to
stress. Trust is an important factor at workplace to minimize stressful experiences. It implies
accountability, predictability and reliability and helps in maintaining organizational integrity.

Another factor producing workplace stress is not doing fulfilling work. People experience
stress when they believe that their jobs are meaningless or have little significance. People
who identify themselves with their job are more prone to stress, if they fail to get recognition
based on their job.

3.2 STRESS IS MORE ASSOCIATED WITH OVERWORK THAN UNDERWORK:

Every human-being needs a certain level of stimulation from the environment which is
neither too low nor too high. In case of under stimulation, we become mentally impoverished,
bored and alienated. Our tension level goes down; we become easily distracted and lose
initiative and capacity for involvement. Monotonous, primitive, simple uncomplicated tasks
tend to produce boredom and feelings of sleepiness. This is “Rust-out” characterized by
boredom, fatigue, frustration and dissatisfaction. Skills attitudes and ideas are not fully
utilized and they become obsolete or routine, leaving people with little or nothing to do.

“Burn-out” is caused by the long lasting effects of prolonged stress and feeling overloaded
and unable to cope. Over stimulation can also be one of the reasons for burn-out. The person
cannot carry out his/her activities and feels exhausted and without energy. In case of over
stimulation, the effects may be fragmentation of thought and loss of integrating ability.

Thus, both over-work and under-work have negative implications and stress is therefore
associated with both.

3.3 ENJOYING WORK CAN ENABLE A PERSON TO WORK LONG AND HARD:

Although it may be more enjoyable to perform activities that are challenging and interesting,
it can still produce several negative consequences on one’s health and well-being. Enjoying
one’s work may blind people to the fact that it can cause tremendous stress, just like

12
punishing the body through physical exertion and forcing it to work beyond its limits. Many
people who enjoy their work ignore and underestimate the importance of keeping an even
balance between work and non-work activities.

3.4 STRESS IS PERSONAL AND NOT RELATED TO ORGANIZATION:

Although stress is related to an individual it has its effect on the organization as a whole.
Individuals can experience a range of stress related illness such as hypertension, headaches
and heart attacks. Added to this are frustrations and intense emotions caused by stressful
experiences. Stress is linked to high absenteeism, lost productivity, poor decision making and
low morale of employees which normally affects the organization. The cost associated with
stress runs in millions of rupees for organizations. Hence the costs of stress are more than
personal.

3.5 VIGOROUS EXERCISE CAN REDUCE STRESS:

Keeping in physical shape is an important antidote to stress related problems, but is no cure.
If it is combined with proper diet and other aids, it can reduce the possibility of damage.
Exercise can increase a person’s capacity to handle stress, as it increases the flow of oxygen
throughout the body and increases a person’s stamina. While moderate exercise makes it
easier for people to do much more work, excessive exercise may actually cause serious
damage. Certain competitive sports like squash, boxing and wrestling increase rather than
reduce stress.

3.6 TOP MANAGEMENT PEOPLE EXPERIENCE MORE STRESS:

Stress knows no boundaries of organizational hierarchy. People at various levels of hierarchy

are stressed to various extents. It would be unfair to say that people at higher or managerial
levels are more stressed than the people of lower cadre. In fact it can be argued in a
diagonally opposite way that people at top level would be comparatively less stressed.

People at top level or senor position have more command over the work. They can control the
volume of work they generate and the time when they do it. People at the bottom of the
hierarchy are assigned tasks by others. They have less control and command on the tasks

13
assigned to them. The inability to control is one of the variables to cause stress and hence the
people at bottom of hierarchy may experience more stress.

Middle managers may be more stressed because they play a buffer role in the relationship
between top managers and lower-level supervisors. They need to interface, coordinate and
anticipate events or problems. They are often in ambiguous situations and have little
responsibility or control.

All positions in an organization have a higher potential for stress, if they are so designed that
people have little control over their work or if their tasks are ambiguous and poorly defined.

3.7 STRESS IS ALWAYS BAD:

According to this view, zero stress makes us happy and healthy. This indeed is a classic case
of misconception of stress. Stress is to the human condition what tension is to the violin
string: too little and the music is dull and raspy; too much and the music is shrill or the string
snaps. Stress can be the kiss of death or the spice of life (Miller, 2007; Smith, 2007). The
issue, really, is how to manage it. Managed stress makes us productive and happy;
mismanaged stress hurts and even kills us.

3.8 SUFFERING FROM STRESS IS A SIGN OF WEAKNESS:

Anyone can suffer from stress. It all depends on the circumstances we are in at the time.
Many people think that if they admit to experiencing stress, it’s a sign of failure, weakness or
ineptitude. An individual working in an organization where there are imminent redundancies,
for example, may well seek to cover up any sign of stress in the belief that they may be
viewed as unable to cope with their job and might therefore be regarded as expendable.
Many employees are also wary of any mention of stress being noted on their work record in
case it might prejudice their chances of promotion, and so avoid discussing the problem with
colleagues. This is why it’s so important that the workplace culture embraces the notion that
to be stressed occasionally is a normal human condition, and that to admit to it - initially to
yourself - is the first step in modifying the situation or meeting the challenge

14
Apart from the myths mentioned above, there are many other myths that surround the concept
of stress. Because stress is so common, it often comes up in conversation, and many ideas
about stress are passed around. Some of these ideas about stress are accurate, and some are
myths. When dealing with stress, the more you understand the better. Hence it's best to have
all the facts so you can maximize your health and are in a better position to deal with it.
Clarifying the myths associated with stress would enable an individual to have a control over
him/her and in turn help in creating a convenient atmosphere for themselves and others to
work and live in.

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 CHAPTER 4

BIOLOGICAL PROCESS OF STRESS

When stresses pile one on top of other, they are more than additive – they seem to multiply
the sense of stress, so that as we near the breaking point, each additional burden seems all the
more unbearable.

A stress process is actually a series of steps that leads a person to an unhealthy state. There
are various physiological changes that occur within a body when faced by a stressful
situation. These changes that occur within a body are explained in detail by renowned author,
Daniel Goleman, in his books ‘Emotional Intelligence’ and ‘Working with Emotional
Intelligence’.

4.1 BIOLOGICAL PROCESS

The conventional view in neuroscience had been that the eye, ear and other sensory organs
transmit signals to the hypothalamus (present in the brain area) and from there to the sensory
processing areas of neocortex, where the signals are put together into objects as we perceive
them. The signals are sorted for meanings, so that the brain recognizes what each object is
and what its presence means. From neocortex the signals are sent to the limbic brain and the
rest of the body. There is also a smaller bundle of neurons that leads directly from the
hypothalamus to the amygdala, in addition to those passing through the larger path of neurons
to the cortex.

The amygdala is an almond shaped cluster of interconnected structures perched above the
brainstem, near the bottom of the limbic ring. Amygdala is the specialist for emotional
matters. If the amygdala is severed from rest of the body, the result is a striking inability to
gauge the emotional significance of the events. It acts as a storehouse of emotional memory.

The smaller bundle of neurons that leads from hypothalamus to amygdala allows the
amygdala to receive some direct inputs from the senses and start a response before they are
fully registered by the neocortex. The amygdala can trigger an emotional response via this

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emergency route even as a parallel reverberating circuit begins between the amygdala and
neocortex.

When the amygdala is triggered by an event, it induces a cascade that begins with the release
of flood of stress hormones, mainly cortisol. The hormones we secrete under stress are
enough for a single bout of fight or flight – but once secreted, they stay in the body for hours
and each successive upsetting incident adds more stress hormones to the already existing
ones.

This mobilization draws on the body’s energy reserves and digestive processes while blood is
diverted to the needed areas. The body mobilizes its various systems, especially the brain,
nervous system and endocrine system in response to stress. When we perceive a stressful
situation, a message is transmitted to the neocortex. The hypothalamus responds to the
messages from neocortex by registering emotions such as fear or anger and it is involved in
raising the body’s temperature and controlling appetite and sexual behavior. In the stress
response the hypothalamus triggers the nervous and endocrine systems.

The nervous system controls gastrointestinal, cardiovascular and reproductive activities.

When we experience stress, the hypothalamus stimulates the nervous system to respond. A
person’s heart rate may increase, and he/she may sweat or feel tense in his/her stomach
(Goleman, 1999).

In response, the endocrine system allows the release of various hormones into blood. The
pituitary gland discharges hormones into the blood stream that activate the other parts of
endocrine system and prepare the body to deal with the stressors. As a result, blood flow and
respiration may increase. The adrenal glands produce the hormones adrenaline and cortisol
that increase a person’s stamina and muscular tension. The length of time that the body can
continue to supply adrenaline and other hormones is limited – these hormones get depleted.

The adrenaline acts on muscles and fat tissues, causing them to release various chemicals
they store. The liver subsequently converts these chemicals into glucose, which is usually
directed by the heart and other organs as and energy source. The digestive process ceases,
and blood is diverted to assist the muscles and brain. Effects include increase in respiration,

17
heart rate, blood pressure, blood cholesterol, and decrease in digestive processes while blood
is diverted to the needed areas. In addition, energy is mustered from the release of such
products as glycogen and lipoproteins (Cunningham, 1998).

Apart from these physiological changes, there are a number of other factors that ultimately
leads to our feeling emotionally and/or physically ill. These various factors together form a
stress process. However, it should be noted that we can interrupt this stress process at any
point to help reduce the stress and its negative impact.

The basic steps in the process of stress development are: Preconditions, Situation,
Interpretation, Emotional arousal, Physiological arousal and Consequence. The
“Preconditions” are those things within ourselves that are already in place when we
experience a situation. This includes our genes, past experiences, current health, etc. The
“Situation” is what has actually occurred. We are frequently unaware of what actually
occurred because our preconditions make each of us experience things a little differently than
others. “Interpretation” is what we believe about the situation. Since different people see
things differently, their beliefs will be different. “Emotional Arousal” is our emotional
response to our beliefs about the situation. A negative belief triggers increases in frustration,
anger, fear, etc. A positive belief can trigger excitement, joy, anticipation, etc. “Physiological
Arousal” is when our hormone levels change, resulting in muscle tension, heart rate
acceleration, etc as already discussed above. Whether the emotional arousal is positive or
negative, the physical response is essentially the same. “Consequences” are what happens to
our physical and emotional health as a result of the preceding factors. If the factors are
sustained long enough or are overwhelming, the consequences are typically negative; the
person experiencing the situation may become physically or emotionally ill. This is when the
person’s preconditions have an additional effect. If the person is robust, he or she may be able
to weather the physiological arousal fairly well. If not, they may become ill more quickly or
more severely (Hodgson, 1983)

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 CHAPTER 5

STRESS AND HEALTH

Stress and health are closely linked. The World Health Organization (WHO) defines health as
“A state of complete physical, mental and social well-being, not merely the absence of
disease and infirmity” (Cunningham, 1998). The stress, either quick or constant, can induce
risky body-mind disorders. The stress in any form can cause a basket full of physical
disorders, apart from several emotional disorders.

On a daily basis, we encounter a range of stressful events. Some may be for shorter duration
– like sitting next to a smoker or listening to a loud music. Others may be for longer duration
– like grievance at workplace or nagging family members. Chronic stress situations are those
that last for weeks, months or even years. These may be the death of loved ones, divorce,
prolonged illness, unhealthy diet, etc. it is these chronic stress reactions that are most
damaging to health. These stress reactions affect our immune, cardiovascular and nervous
system (Cunningham, 1998).

5.1 CARDIOVASCULAR AILMENTS:

Prolonged or habitual exposure to stressful conditions gives rise to a number of

cardiovascular diseases including, cardiac arrhythmia (eccentric or neurotic heartbeat), angina
pectoris (sharp stabbing pain in the chest), and myocardial infarction (death of heart tissue).

The most common stressful conditions giving rise to cardiovascular diseases are working
hard and being dissatisfied with work, not appreciated by superiors, enduring interpersonal
difficulties at workplace and threat of unemployment.

The stress responses of our body delays the processing and clearance of harmful fats like
low-density lipoproteins (LDL) and other lipid types such as triglycerides, which are
developed under stressful conditions. The accumulation of these fats puts people at risk of
developing arteriosclerosis and other heart ailments.

19
Even physical cause of stress such as vigorous physical activity and exercises can place
demands on the heart muscle. Due to this the coronary artery gets very low amount of oxygen
due to reduced amount of blood flow. This condition of the heart muscle can cause chest pain
or complete damage to the cardiac muscle resulting in heart attack.

5.2 IMMUNE RELATED DISORDERS:

Stress is known to worsen many immune related, medical conditions. The immune system of
a person protects him/her from infections. People who are overworked or stressed out are
easily vulnerable to infections.

Under stressful conditions, the body produces excessive amount of cortisol or hydro
corticoids. These elements suppress the body’s immune response and increases susceptibility
to infectious diseases.

Many studies suggest that frequent or chronic stress conditions increase the chances of
bacterial infections such as tuberculosis and group-A streptococcal diseases (GAS)
(Cunningham, 1998). Though most of the GAS infections are relatively mild ailments such
as throat infection skin allergies, on rare occasions it can even cause severe and terminal
illness. Attacks of flu, pneumonia and common cold are also directly related to stressful life
conditions. Stressful situations can also make the air-passage in an asthma patient to be over-
reactive and precipitate an attack.

5.3 NERVOUS SYSTEM DISORDERS:

Severe stress conditions reduce the blood supply to stomach, thereby causing hindrance in the
normal digestive functions. Since the function of intestine is controlled by nervous system, a
stressful situation that affects the nervous system can also propagate its impact on the
functions of intestine. These conditions can lead to gastrointestinal disorders like ulcers or
irritable bowel syndrome.

Other impact of stress is the pain in the lower-back, muscles and neck. A stressful event can
induce muscular tension which causes a disturbance in adrenal gland’s production of

20
cortisone. The common types of diseases related to muscular-skeletal system are Rheumatoid
arthritis, gout and bursitis.

5.4 CANCER:

Various life events, personality dispositions and work environment affect our immunological
and central nervous system and accelerate the development of various types of cancer.

Many studies and medical literature can provide evidence that cancer may be linked to the
emotional experiences a person might have. Life disasters, such as loss of dear ones, or other
traumatic events, which induce unbearable stress in a person can be associated with the
development of certain types of cancer.

Although smoking, food habits and life-style are the major culprits for causing cancer, the
emotional experiences as a cause of cancer cannot be ignored. Some medical studies have
found that the rate of tumor growth is associated with personality traits. A person’s attitude
towards life, belief system, life style etc, are powerful factors affecting the growth of tumor
and also recovery.

Cancer is prevalent in industrial societies with western style habits and foods and in areas
where, poverty, crowded housing, divorce and fragmented families are common.

In a nutshell, stress has a major impact on cardiovascular ailments such as heart disease,
stroke and hypertension. It affects the digestive system through colitis and diabetes. It also
has an impact on immunological, skeletal-muscular system and other respiratory ailments.

Apart from the physical illness, stress has a major impact on the emotional and physiological
aspects of our life. Disturbance of emotional and physiological systems leads to anger and
frustration which makes a person incapable of rational responses and good judgment. It
results in alcohol or drug abuse, impaired relationships, sleep disorders, disturbance in
thought process and concentration, behavioral disruptions and occupational burn-out.

Emotional disturbances are reflected mainly through two channels viz; anxiety and
depression. Anxiety leads to disturbances like, heavy breathing, depressed feeling, headaches,

21
trembling, nausea, neck pain, diarrhea etc. Depression is characterized by decrease in energy,
lack of motivation, loss of interest, difficulty with concentration, inability to handle
responsibilities etc.

Thus, it is seen that stress and health are closely linked. At workplace it is just not the
physical health of an employee that needs to be taken into account, but the emotional state
also needs to be taken care off. The concept of medical benefits does not extend to emotional
needs. It is a critical requirement because stress is high in our lives in these times. The
increase in life style diseases like heart attacks is a direct fall out of stress and strain. So it is
very evident that our mental health needs care too. Stress acts like a dragon that threatens our
health and life in general.

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 CHAPTER 6

STRESS AND DIET

Today work schedules can be counter productive to proper nutrition as well only adding to
the natural stress of the workplace itself. A busy schedule, time deadlines and expectations to
meet, meetings over the lunch hour all have a cumulative effect on our level of stress and
make it difficult to break the stress cycle. Although there are many ways to cope, one strategy
is to eat “stress-fighting” foods. Hence, we need to make a commitment to engage in a
healthy nutritious lifestyle and understand the relationship between stress and diet.

A lot of literature is available which indicates a close relationship between stress and diet. For
example, serotonin is a chemical present in the brain that promotes calmness (Foster, 2003).
If your diet contains foods with this compound or includes foods that assists the brain in
producing it; you have an edge over stress.

A cause and effect relationship between serotonin and stress relief may not be noticed
immediately, because the increase in serotonin levels takes several minutes to take effect, but
it lasts for several hours. The levels of serotonin are generally higher in the morning, but tend
to decrease by the late afternoon. One can try to maintain this level by adjusting the eating
habits accordingly. A healthy late afternoon snack for example can help stimulate serotonin
and get a person energized and calm.

6.1 TIPS FOR BALANCED DIET

Due to the increased stress levels at work and home, it is really important to build some
structure in the eating habits. Few simple rules can help to have a balanced diet and reduce
the probability of increasing the unwanted stress levels.

Eat at least three meals a day, with a few simple snacks. Although it may seem like a good
idea to eat less often to lose weight, skipping meals too often and eating too little food
actually stresses your body and mind more and reduces your energy when you need it most.

23
Develop a routine where you don’t have to make too many extra decisions. Space your meals
and snacks out about every three to four hours. Eat smaller meals and snacks more often.

If you have a hectic schedule or stress makes you feel hurried, you might either skip the
meals or eat while doing other things like driving, walking etc. This can lead to overeating,
simply because you don’t realize how much you have eaten because of the distractions.
Hectic meals can lead to poor digestion, poor food choices and feeling bad – which mean
more stress.

A well balanced diet is crucial in preserving health and helping to reduce stress. Certain food
and drinks act as powerful stimulants to the body and hence are a direct cause of stress. These
are the foods and drinks that we need to make conscious efforts to avoid.

6.2 STRESS-FIGHTING FOODS

There are certain other foods that can fight stress in several ways. Comfort foods, like a bowl
of warm oatmeal, actually boost levels of serotonin. They also reduce levels of cortisol and
adrenaline that take a toll on the body over time.

Few foods, among the host of them, are discussed below which act as stress busters. A
regular intake of these foods helps to fight stress in long run (Nazario, 2008).

Carbohydrates trigger release of the brain neurotransmitter serotonin, which soothes the
body. Carbohydrates stabilize blood sugar levels and are also digested slowly. Good sources
of carbohydrates include rice, pasta, potatoes, breads, whole-grain breakfast, cereals and
oatmeal.

A high fiber diet helps to keep the digestive system in order which might go for a toss under
the influence of stress because of cramps and constipation. Fruits, vegetables and grains are
excellent sources of fiber. Fruits instead of fruit juice would be more beneficial, accompanied
by whole-grain cereals and fiber fortified muffins at breakfast.

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Regular intake of vegetables increases the brain’s serotonin production. This increase is due
to improved absorption of the amino acid L-Tryptophan. Crunchy raw vegetables can also
fight the effects of a stress in a purely mechanical way. Munching celery or carrot sticks
helps release a clenched jaw and that can ward off tension headaches.

Among fruits, Oranges have abundance of vitamin C. Vitamin C helps in reducing the levels
of stress hormones while strengthening the immune system.

Spinach has abundant magnesium. Magnesium helps regulate cortisol levels. Too little
magnesium may trigger headaches and fatigue, compounding the effects of stress. Even
cooked soybeans, fillet of salmon are good source of magnesium.

In non-vegetarian food category, Fatty fish keeps a check on cortisol and adrenaline. Omega-
3 fatty acids, found in fish like salmon and tuna, can prevent surges in stress hormones and
protect against heart disease.

Black tea helps to recover from stressful events more quickly. Black tea helps in reducing the
levels of cortisol. Coffee on other hand can boost levels of cortisol.

Pistachios can soften the impact stress hormones have on the body. Adrenaline raises blood
pressure and gets the heart racing under stress. Eating a handful of pistachios everyday can
lower blood pressure, so it won’t spike as high when the adrenaline rush comes. However,
since pistachios also generate heat in the body, it is advisable to keep the pistachios soaked in
water overnight and have them the early morning next day.

One of the best ways to reduce high blood pressure is to get enough potassium – and half an
avocado has more potassium than a medium sized banana.

Almonds are chock full of helpful vitamins. It contains vitamin E to bolster the immune
system, plus a range of B vitamins, which may make the body more resilient during bouts of
stress.

Carbohydrates at bedtime can speed the release of serotonin and help in getting a better sleep.
Heavy meals before bed can trigger heart burn, hence sticking to something light like toast

25
and jam is advisable. Another bedtime stress buster is the time-honored glass of warm milk.
Calcium in the milk can reduce muscle spasms and soothe tension, as well as easing anxiety
and mood swings linked to pre-menstrual syndrome (PMS).

Thus, it can be seen that there are host of foods that helps to fight the stressful situations and
also prevent them. However, there are also certain types of foods which have a direct
negative impact on the body, which in turn aggravates the stress levels. Unfortunately, these
foods have become a regular norm in our daily lives today.

Many lifestyle food habits have become so common in today’s scenario, that we normally
overlook the harmful effects of these foods on our health in long run. Many people consume
such foods either because they are easily available or they are very tempting. The stimulation
caused by these foods is although quite pleasurable in the short term, they are equally harmful
in the long run.

Fried foods and foods rich in fat are very immune depressing, especially when stress is doing
that as well. Animal foods (meat, chicken etc) are high protein foods that elevate brain levels
of dopamine and norepinephrine, both of which are associated with higher levels of anxiety
and stress. These are the foods that have to be avoided at all cost.

Coffee and other caffeinated beverages are also to be avoided. Caffeine found in coffee, tea,
chocolate, coke etc causes the release of adrenaline, thus increasing the level of stress. When
taken in moderation, coffee can increase alertness, increase activity in muscles, nervous
system and heart. However, consuming too much caffeine has the same effect as long term
stress.

Alcohol, if taken in moderation, acts as a very useful drug (many of allopathic medicines use
alcohol). The irony is that most people take to drinking as way to combat stress. Alcohol and
stress, in combination are quite deadly. Alcohol stimulates the secretion of adrenaline
resulting in the problems such as nervous tension, irritability and insomnia. Excess alcohol
will increase the fat deposits in the heart and decrease the immune function. Alcohol also
limits the ability of lever to remove toxins from the body. During stress, the body produces
several toxins such as hormones. In the absence of its filtering by the liver, these toxins
continue to circulate through the body resulting in serious damage.

26
Another ingredient that needs to be reduced in our daily consumption of food is sugar. Sugar
has no essential nutrients. It provides a short term boost of energy through the body, resulting
possibly in the exhaustion of the adrenal glands. This can result in irritability, poor
concentration and depression.

Salt is an essential ingredient of all the food that we consume. However, it increases the
blood pressure; deplete adrenal glands and causes emotional instability. It is advisable to use
a salt substitute that has potassium rather than sodium.

It can be seen from above theory that stress and diet have a close relationship. The type of
food we consume greatly affects our stress levels, either in a positive or negative way. A
nutritious diet, however, can counteract the impact of stress, by shoring up the immune
system and lowering blood pressure. It helps to keep a check on the adrenaline and cortisol
levels and enhance the production of serotonin.

Stress being an inevitable part of our life, it needs to be dealt with properly. A great way to
deal with stress is to have a combination of exercise with a proper diet. Such a combination
makes for a great defense against the onset of chronic stress. A person might not have much
control over the external events that cause stress, but he/she definitely has a lot of control
over his/her reactions to them, including how much and what they choose to eat.

Apart from diet, exercise and relaxation techniques, a spiritual approach to manage stress
would be a phenomenal antidote. Spiritual approach basically deals with understanding
oneself and having unconditional love for others. It makes us to think ourselves as an
expression of higher reality. It relates to transcending man-made mental barriers like
prejudices, ego, and dislikes which are exactly the problems we are trying to get rid-off in the
present conditions.

In the succeeding chapters, I have attempted to create awareness about spirituality, its
importance at workplace and the way it can be used to combat stress.

27
 CHAPTER 7

SPIRITUAL QUOTIENT

Robert F. Kennedy in one of his speech has said, “The gross national product of a country
does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education, or the joy of their
play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages; the
intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. It measures neither
our wit nor our courage; neither our wisdom nor our learning; neither our compassion nor
our devotion to our country; it measures everything, in short, except that which makes life
worthwhile” (Gable, 2005 and Haidt, 2005)

Robert F. Kennedy’s lament about the gross national product is analogous to our lament
about our situation in the present times of globalization and cut throat competition of the dog-
eat-dog world.

Every individual is struggling today to get rid of the unwanted stress levels. The expectation
from individuals have gone up sky high - top notch productivity, super intelligence, being a
team player, an ability to inspire/ motivate groups of people with diverse interests, remaining
calm and composed even in the most trying circumstances have become a norm.

However, the so called development of the world has left individuals stressful, emotionally
weak, impatient and discontented instead of helping them to do whatever they do more
happily with the least of the resources. Chronic diseases like blood pressure, diabetes have
become a part of progress and prosperity. A person experiences chaos wherever he/she is -
home, office, business - instead of creating a peaceful environment & harmony for
himself/herself and everyone. All the essential virtues such as good health, a living based on
potential, creativity, patience, mutual trust etc. are lost in manipulating a successful life.

Most of the people are taking up various courses and learning relaxation techniques to
combat stress. Relaxation techniques such as deep breathing, visualization, progressive
muscle relaxation, meditation and yoga help to activate the relaxation response, which is a
powerful antidote to stress. When practiced regularly, these activities lead to a reduction in
the everyday stress levels and boost the feelings of joy and serenity. But apart from the

28
physical ways to handle stress, it’s necessary to explore the mental or spiritual ways to handle
the same.

A spiritual approach would cater to an individual's overall personality which is a blend of

ones Physical, Emotional, Intellectual, Social, Physiological & spiritual characteristics. It can
enhance the over all personality of an individual and open up various possibilities in ones life
to enable oneself to live up to his/her true potential. This helps in making a person happy,
joyful, peaceful, productive and prosperous. Basically stress management is a science of
managing happiness. Spiritual approach ensures that the person becomes inspirational to
others to do whatever is needed voluntarily, with dedication and self assumed responsibility.

However, before we take a plunge into the spiritual quest of a human mind, it is necessary to
understand the concepts of the first two dimensions of human mind, namely, the Intelligent
Quotient (IQ) and Emotional Quotient (EQ). These two quotients are now giving way to the
third dimension, Spiritual Quotient (SQ).

Intelligence Quotient (IQ) was discovered in the early 20th century and is tested using the
Stanford-Binet Intelligence scales. It refers to our rational, logical, rule-bound, problem
solving intelligence. It is supposed to make us bright or dim. It is also a style of rational,
goal-oriented thinking. IQ thinking enables us to follow rules in ways that are rational and
logical. It is accurate, precise, measurable, repeatable and reliable. IQ is usually associated
with high logical, strategic, mathematical and linguistic talents (Zohar, 2006).

Emotional Quotient (EQ) was articulated by Daniel Goleman in mid-1990. It represents the
factors that can lead to healthy relationships and the ability to respond appropriately and
positively to everyday life. It is about recognizing emotions and managing them. EQ is about
understanding ourselves, how we relate to others and how others perceive us. People with
high EQ relate well with others, have high self-esteem and respond appropriately in a
situation (Chari, 2000).

However, neither IQ nor EQ, separately or in combination, is enough to explain the full
complexity of human intelligence, nor the vast richness of the human soul and imagination.
Computers have high IQ: they know what the rules are and can follow them without making
mistakes. Animals often have high EQ: they have a sense of situation they are in and know

29
how to respond appropriately. But neither computers nor animals ask why we have these
rules or this situation, or whether either could be different or better. There are so many
aspects of human mental life and intelligence that no computer built, nor envisaged can
replicate (Selman, 2005).

This leads to the emergence of third dimension of human intelligence or a new paradigm
called as Spiritual Quotient (SQ), which is related to brain, heart and soul.

True happiness is actually based on contentment and this can be achieved only if one is at
peace with oneself. At work this means achieving the peace of mind attained by the practice
of fair and ethical means, developing meaningful relationships with people you work with, be
they colleagues, client, customer or even business rivals. The sense of peace attained by such
an attitude eases tensions and leads to a stress free environment which means increased
productivity. Each person in an organization has a unique role to play and developing a
positive attitude by neither overhauling nor underestimating yourself will go a long way in
being able to deal with situation at work.

In the initial days of one’s career ladder, IQ is important as it derives him/her to acquire the
position he/she wants to grab in order to sustain his/her life. In the medieval period, he/she
has to maintain his/her career and reach to the heights, needs to maintain his/her EQ. The
period ahead of it, usually in the senior most positions, the person is required to be more
complacent and motivating. He/she has to shine and set the examples before others to follow.
He/she is required to develop spiritual quotient (SQ) in order to be matured, patient,
organized, selfless, self-disciplined, self-motivated, self-directed and self-managed (Chari,
2000).

In today’s stressful environment at work and otherwise, one has to learn good problem
solving strategies. So also it makes sense to change self rather than attempting to change
others or the situation. A healthy mind gives rise to a healthy body and good stress relievers
like good diet, exercise, sport and humor go a long way in increasing one’s capacity to work
better.

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Thus, while IQ is about, knowing your work, EQ is about tolerance and sharing and SQ is
about fair play and caring. It is a combination of all three that is the winning formula. To be
completely successful in workplace, an employee should have a balance of IQ, EQ and SQ.

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 CHAPTER 8

MYTHS ABOUT SPIRITUALITY

Despite the promise of bliss and stress-free environment, a lot of people still choose to keep
away from spirituality as it is often associated with complex, mysterious and mystical forces;
forces that are irrational and that do not appeal to a scientific mind. Anything that is mystical,
mythical, metaphysical or abstract gets classified under the term ‘Spirituality’, which is
definitely refused to be digested by a rational mind. For instance, rituals, astrology, palmistry,
Feng Shui, Vaastu, numerology, past life therapy, auras etc. get classified under the term
spirituality. As a result, modern, scientific person, who is intrigued by the realm of
spirituality, abstains from taking the plunge by concluding that ‘Spirituality is not my cup of
tea’. Thus, even before exploring any further what spirituality is really all about, scores of
people dump it aside as something not meant for them.

8.1 THE MYTHS

Often the word ‘Spiritual’ invokes concepts of religion and religious belief systems and
dogmas, which for some, can trigger feelings of aversion. So it is important to clarify the
myth that ‘religion and spirituality are same’.

Religion in an organized sense tends to encourage the individual to attach to a packaged set
of externally prescribed beliefs, whereas spirituality tends to encourage detachment from all
beliefs and use the practice of a meditative and reflective process to reveal and realize what is
true. Religion offers many beautiful things like rituals and ceremonies, but it is not
spirituality. Spirituality has no borders or restraints; it doesn’t separate, it connects. Religion
is something that has been handed down to an individual. An individual may choose to apply
some of the values in the life and life might become more spiritual. But it is something
external, whereas spirituality is within an individual (Miller, 2006).

All of the different religions have their own belief systems and they do cross over each other.
While in spirituality there is no belief system. Spirituality talks about ultimate truth. One
must realize it, understand it and feel it.

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Another way of looking at spirituality is that it is the thread that holds together the pearls of
the world’s religions. At their purest, religions are intended to evoke the spirituality in each
of us. Spiritual search can be based upon a religion – the practice of a religion can be
formalized, structured part of one’s spiritual search. But being a part of a formalized religion
is not necessary for being spiritual.

People can have a spiritual search without following a religion, and can be religious without
being spiritual by only participating in the social gatherings and rituals as part of their culture,
without any deep search for spiritual meaning.

Another myth is a very common problem of the modern day Indian society that is nothing
short of blackmail. Certain unscrupulous people, who call themselves as ‘Spiritually evolved
souls’ are hiding behind the garb of being evolved souls and promising miraculous cures to
certain ‘‘no cure’’ diseases. All you need to do is practice certain techniques told by them;
but of course a certain sum of money has to be parted with. To look for such people all you
need to do is look at the newspaper ads. These are the people who have stigmatized the purity
of spirituality. These are the people, because of whom many seekers of spirituality are
ambiguous of treading the spiritual path and abstain from practicing spirituality. The seekers
of spirituality often get confused with spirituality, superstition and black magic due to the
acts of such unscrupulous people.

There are definitely even in the present day world such evolved souls whose look or a touch
are ‘‘miraculous’’ but we forget that people with such powers are definitely beyond the realm
of the financial world. They would only indulge in such an act if it is for the betterment of the
mankind. This myth can only be broken by studying the etheric world under an evolved soul
and by not believing in something because we want to believe.

Many people know that Spirituality is useful, yet most of them say, ‘we will undertake
spiritual practice when we grow old’. But it needs to be understood that good physical and
mental health is required to undertake spiritual practice. In old age since both these weaken; it
becomes difficult to undertake spiritual practice. Just as it is difficult to learn any new skill in
old age, so also it becomes difficult to learn and practice spirituality in old age. The number
of impressions created in the subconscious mind goes on increasing with age. In Spirituality,
however, one aims at eliminating all these impressions.

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Many seekers of spirituality feel that if they want to make spiritual progress they should not
get married. However this is incorrect. If one practices spirituality while living in a society,
then one makes a faster spiritual progress. If one renounces the world and retires to the
Himalaya Mountains, one is not tested enough unlike when living in society where one is
tested at every step.

There are many other myths associated with the term spirituality, which puts the seekers of
spirituality in a dual mind. The need of the hour is to clean these myths and create awareness
among the masses. The concept of spirituality, which is essentially creating self-awareness,
self-development and personal fulfillment, needs to be propagated. A rational framework of
spirituality needs to be designed, which satisfies thousands of questions and doubts faced by
the seekers of spirituality.

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 CHAPTER 9

UNDERSTANDING SPIRITUALITY

In today’s world we are all victims of the blind and unpleasant rat race due to which majority
of us is turning selfish, short visionary, inhuman and evil. We are unnecessarily
compromising with our values and ethics which are required to build a strong organization,
economy, nation and world for an ever-increasing growth at a lesser risk exposure. Humans
are becoming greedier and impatient causing more number of frauds, sexual harassments,
indiscipline and other economical, social and personal malpractices. This is the sole reason
for which we require so many regulations to control the human behavior.

This leads us to understand the concept of spirituality, leading to focus on two aspects; Self-
development and Personal fulfillment.

Spirituality or spiritual intelligence is what makes us essentially human: the ability to plan, to
make sense of our emotions, to control our impulses, to make choices and endow our world
with meaning. It helps us to extend and change the boundaries, question our assumptions and
formulate new meaning. It motivates people to balance their work schedules and spend time
with their family (Leonardi, 2007).

Spirituality is an essential component of holistic approach to life. It finds expression in

creativity and all art forms and is the bit that adheres together our conscious intellect and our
intelligent action. Spirituality sustains us from within, when all else fails; spirituality allows
us to dream, aspire and raise ourselves up.

Spiritual Quotient has several facets: improving on reducing one’s ego, spirit of surrender and
service to others, showing more compassion and expressing gratitude to others. In a
transcendental sense, it is the fount of all other values such as honesty, truthfulness, rectitude,
modesty, morality and humanity.

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The transformative power of spiritual quotient is what distinguishes it from other dimensions
of intelligence. It adds to our values, positive strengths and promotes right vision, ethics,
approach and practices. It helps us to feel happy and satisfied in a detached way and teaches
us to live a valuable and meaningful life with clarity in objectives. The development of self
automatically helps to develop great human-beings with higher productivity, efficiency,
concentration along with good health and behavior.

The very essence of spiritual intelligence lies in its seeking a bigger and broader, ever
growing perspective. It can be seen as the highest and ever-growing need in the mankind. All
human-beings differ in their evolution of need and hence work at different levels of “need
satisfaction”. Abraham Maslow, a great psychologist and existentialist, classified such needs
in five categories in hierarchical order (Kotler, 2003).

Figure 9.1 Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

The lowest needs in such hierarchy are biological, such as hunger, thirst and sex. Next are the
safety needs that include security, stability and order. Then comes belongingness, such as
affiliation and identification. Thereafter self-esteem needs follow that include prestige,

36
success and self-respect. Finally at the top in hierarchy comes the need for self-actualization
that refers to a person’s need to develop his/her potentialities in whatever field he/she works.

Thus, according to Maslow’s theory, a person will try to satisfy the most important need first.
When a person succeeds in satisfying an important need, it will cease to be a motivator and
the person will try to satisfy the next most important need. However, the theory does not say
that once we arrive at a higher need level (E.g.: the need for self-actualization), we will never
act or exhibit a lower need in any given situation or if we have not satisfied the lower need,
we may not yearn for the higher need like self-actualization. In other words, one can thirst for
spiritual knowledge or self-actualization even while one’s desires in the other three lower
dimensions are not completely satiated (Gupta, 2007).

For sake of curiosity, if we invert the Maslow’s grid, the grid would imply that the fulfillment
of one’s spiritual need can lead to the fulfillment of all other needs. Many spiritual teachers
and methods tell us that treading the right spiritual path helps one nourish and nurture all
aspects of one’s existence.

Figure 9.2 Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs - Inverted

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This indicates that, if a person is satisfied with the utmost need of self-actualization, he/she
would not have any temptation towards the materialistic world. Although the person would
still require the other needs (e.g.: Physiological needs, Social needs), but the urge to satisfy
these needs would be very mild or equal to nil. Once a person has realized the concept of
self-actualization, all other needs become secondary. Hence, taking a spiritual approach
which introduces a person to the concept of self-actualization would make a person happy
and contended at very early stages. A spiritual approach to work at workplace would make an
employee more productive and efficient. This in turn would lead to a harmonious work place,
which would help the organization to grow multifold in terms of net profit and net happiness.

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 CHAPTER 10

SPIRITUAL GROWTH

Spiritual growth is the expansion of personal truths outside the perceptions produced by
irrational belief systems, towards the reality. It is a process of becoming stronger and better
by trying to understand ourselves in a new light. It is the process of moving closer to being
able to love unconditionally. It is every person’s ultimate goal to learn to love
unconditionally and “Be” that how we really are – Spirits Of Unconditional Love (SOUL).
This is a difficult task, but at the end everyone must achieve it (Michael, 1994).

Romantic love is something that happens to us; it is something that we actively do.
Unconditional love is something we have to “Be”. Loving unconditionally is actually
accomplished through a powerful form of inner subtle energy that we can learn to send out
from the energy centers of our soul. This energy emanates from our soul as Divine love and
we can send it out to others in moments of consciousness. This includes learning to accept
others, to trust, to need and be needed, to commit to being kind, compassionate, patient and
open. It takes the pursuit of these attributes of love to prepare us for changes in spiritual
growth.

In the process of growing spiritually, we experience the unburdening of negative emotions

related to fear and anger. On positive side we experience the feelings of peace and love. Over
a period of time, we become more sensitive of other people’s emotions and vibrations
because we would be able to tune into them.

The more we grow, the better our life becomes. We have more serenity and less stress, more
love and less hate, more joy and less pain. Relationships with others would become more
positive and stronger. There will be fewer chances of going astray and getting involved in
wrong situations. We would be able to think more clearly and would be in a better position to
provide appropriate reactions in a given situation.

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The important aspect of growing spiritually is to deal with our negative emotions. Emotions
such as sad, pessimistic, anger, frustration, remorseful, jealous, aggressive, discourage are
prime candidates that need to be looked into.

Another important aspect of growing spiritually is to strengthen, encourage and enhance the
positive emotions. Positive emotions such as joy, contentment, satisfaction, happiness
indicate that different aspects of our life are going well.

In the path of spiritual growth, if we wish to leave the pain of negative emotions, we must
change our attitude. Attitude can be understood as the overall mental orientation that we hold
towards a person or situation. Attitude is composed of beliefs and values that make our
perspective or approach to life. It is a form of energy that makes us to act and react to the
things, situations and people in our life. Changing attitude is a fundamental part of spiritual
growth because it is our attitude that determines the type of the subtle energy that we contain
within and it is this subtle energy that spiritual growth transforms into unconditional love.

When we change an attitude and start to operate according to new attitude, we expand our
experience of life into new and different areas, which gradually provides lot of comfort and
peace. Hence if we wish to make an attitude change, it is good to begin with that area of life
which places us in pain and turmoil on a frequent basis.

The sooner we make the decision to alter our present attitude, the sooner we will find a vast
improvement taking place in our life. We will feel as light as a feather, as we get used to the
new attitude and it forms a part of who we really are. The discomfort experienced due to fear
and pain would vanish and feelings of joy, happiness and peace would take their place. This
would make us feel stronger, better and more confident. The simple reason for this change is
that less amount of energy would be spent on the negative emotions and a substantial amount
of energy would be utilized to accomplish more positive things that would further increase
feelings of happiness and joy. These types of rewards (feelings of joy, happiness and peace)
would encourage us to make more attitude changes and improve the quality of our life.

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10.1 CHANGING AN ATTITUDE

However, changing an attitude is not very simple and easy. It takes lot of patience and
dedication to change an attitude to which we are very used to. Following are the steps that
precede making an attitude change (Michael, 1994)

10.1.1 Willingness

An alcoholic does not quit drinking until he is willing to put down that drink and do whatever
is necessary so that he will not want to pick up another. In order to start the process of
spiritual growth, we must first be willing to go through whatever is necessary to change that
which is moving us away from unconditional love. In short, the first step is “willingness” to
do whatever it takes to grow spiritually, to change that attitude that is leading us in the
direction away from unconditional love.

10.1.2 Watchfulness

This step is about being “Watchful” of our thoughts. It is about taking action to identify what
attitude we need to change. We do this by looking at the cause-and-effect pattern of the
thoughts that come up time and again, and keep asking ourselves, why this pattern happens.
After a lengthy process of self-interrogation, we might land up with only one answer. This is
then the point when we discover what we have to do in terms of changing our mental attitude.

10.1.3 Visualization

After the above steps, it is time for us to decide, whether we are ready to put in the efforts to
change to the new attitude. We need to plant this new mental attitude firmly in our mind by
focusing on it as deeply as possible and with as much emotion that we actually feel the
freedom and peace that it has to offer. In this step, we visualize going through situations
which would have normally provoked our response of old attitude and experience the feelings
of total peace and contentment instead of pain and disgust. It is through this visualization that
we clearly feel the different results that our new attitude will bring and thus, it will manifest,
providing concrete evidence that we need to fully commit ourselves to further change.

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10.1.4 Effort

The fourth and final step in the process is effort. Effort is required all through this process. It
is required for willingness to change, to be watchful of our thought patterns, to visualize and
finally to use the new attitude at every opportunity. After a few weeks of applying our new
found attitude, it will become like a habit and will kick in automatically, no longer requiring
any conscious effort by us.

It is important to understand that the true value of anything is in the effort that goes into
getting it. The things that come easy are usually of little value. It is what we put into that
determines the quality of the results.

10.2 FIVE ATTITUDES

There is a lot going on, both before and after ‘attitude’. Out thoughts and feelings tend to
compromise our attitudes towards anything. Shaping these thoughts and feelings are our
beliefs and values, both of which tend to have been programmed into what is sometimes
called the subconscious. And then there is ‘intention’, which is also shaped by our beliefs and
which also influences the formation of our attitude. One could say that between intention and
action is “attitude”. An awareness of our attitude tells us much about ourselves at any given
moment. There are five basic attitudes which are probably worthy of aspiration and the
challenge of conscious creation (George, 2008).

10.2.1 Attitude of Kindness

When you extend true love to everyone with selfless motivation that is an attitude of
kindness. Three concepts meet and merge into one action – love, selflessness and kindness.
Today love has become more of a fuzzy idea than a real and authentic gesture. It seems love
is now one of the most misused words in our language. To say ‘I love my country’ is not true
love but identification. To say ‘I love a chocolate’ is not true love but more like a dependency
or addiction. To say ‘I love you’ sounds good, feels ok, but it can be easily interpreted as I
want you. Only the speaker knows his/her own motive. Actually, true love is not
identification, dependency or desire. The extending of true love is simply extending of the
self as a conscious and benevolent connection is made with other. It does not have any desire.

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When love is tinged by desire, it ceases to radiate naturally and flow outwards without
distortion, and it tries to bring some part of the universe into itself. Ultimately love neither
gives nor takes nor wants. True love is the shadow of kindness. Understanding the true nature
of love seems to be one of the deepest challenges at this particular time.

10.2.2 Attitude of Mercy

When you send good wishes and pure feelings to those who are troubled that is an attitude of
mercy. This is not so easy when faced with sorrow of others, especially if they are family or
friends or people at work. We tend to sympathize and create sorrow for ourselves under the
illusion that by doing so we are giving support. It means we have not yet learned the meaning
of empathy, which is to understand someone from their point of view by sensing their
feelings or emotions without allowing ourselves to create the same emotion. Empathy is also
rooted in the energy of love. The other’s emotion is a symptom of their momentary weakness,
and being in the company of someone who does not cry, but remains strong, can give them
the strength to pull themselves up and out of their emotional trough.

10.2.3 Attitude of Compassion

When you see the virtues rather than the weaknesses in others, then that is an attitude of
compassion. It’s not so easy not to judge others when the world seems to both encourage it
and turn it into a virtue. It’s a real challenge to look behind the apparent weakness or faults of
another and affirm the goodness that lies within. It first requires that we be able to do the
same for ourselves. We may do things that we label stupid or bad but we are not innately bad
or stupid person. Self-criticism is both toxic and disabling. To know our own innate goodness
and strengths becomes the only way we can see it genuinely in others. And as we do we give
them the gift of a higher vision of themselves than that which they have for themselves at that
moment. This is both a subtle and a spiritual empowerment. It empowers the other in a way
they may not even notice at the time.

10.2.4 Attitude of Forgiveness

When you bless and uplift someone even as they defame you that is an attitude of
forgiveness. It is hard not to react and feel personally insulted when someone critics or

43
defames us. But it is just another of ego’s games. It is really the conditioning that is offended
not the self. Whenever we take personally it just means we don’t yet know ourselves as we
truly are. We are still identifying ourselves with false image that we have given ourselves.
When we know ourselves as conscious beings with no self-image, when we are aware of
ourselves as only consciousness, words cannot touch and therefore cannot hurt us. The one
who would insult us is then seen to be suffering within themselves. Their words and the
energy behind the words are recognized as a symptom of their own discomfort. A need is
discerned, so love as compassion arises. And that is forgiving.

10.2.5 Attitude of Humility and Self-Respect

When you tolerate a situation and take responsibility as well as cooperate, even when not
appreciated, that is an attitude of humility and self-respect. Perhaps this is the profile of a
‘hero’. A hero is someone who saves the day and has the courage to step up and put him in
danger, to take what seems to be a risk that few others would dare to take. The attitude of
humility is only possible where there is the courage to let go of the illusion upon which the
ego is based. It is always the false image that the self attaches to, perhaps even for a lifetime,
hence the courage that is required is to let go or to ‘see through’ the illusion to the truth. This
is why humility cannot be pursued but arises only when there is the courage to let go of the
illusion that the fear is real. All fear arises from the ego, and the ego is not real, so the fear is
also unreal. Fear always loses its power when reality is restored. Only then, when the self
stops being busy in ego’s game of self protection, can the self be fully available for all, which
is co-operation in the most complete sense.

10.3 DO’S AND DON’T’S FOR SPIRITUAL SEEKER

10.3.1 Do Everything

Do everything to nurture every aspect of one’s life. Live life fully with passion, drive and
achievement orientation. Give yourself as much stimuli as you need. But while doing this,
follow the spiritual path with intensity. Live spontaneously. Sacrificing or giving up your
ambitions is not necessary at the intellectual, emotional or action level. Let it happen
naturally, if at all.

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10.3.2 Don’t Compromise

Don’t compromise on any of your material pursuits, goals, ambitions, passions or

relationships. Don’t let go off your pursuits in any way by listening to those sermons that
claim “All these pursuits are futile, as the world is unreal”. Spirituality can be practiced along
with the material pursuits. In fact, the inclination towards spirituality can be acid-tested by
living in the material world with ambitions, goals and relationships.

10.3.3 Serve Others

It can cause inner transformation and build your sense of self-esteem. It will teach you
compassion and create a cosmic benevolence for you. It must be remembered that “Service to
mankind is Service to God”. Serving others with selfless intentions can foster inner peace and
harmony, thereby making a person happy and contended.

10.3.4 Physical Exercise

Do not ignore Physical exercise. Physical exercise generates chemicals that can make you
feel better and that can recharge each cell of your body. This is just as important as sleeping,
eating, working or meditating. It keeps a person fit and healthy, and a fit and healthy person
has more positive energy and motivation to tread the path of spirituality.

10.4 BEING A “SPIRITED” PERSON

People who fully express their creative potential are “spirited” people. These people exhibit
qualities like self-awareness, purposeful, incisive, rewarding, inventive, transforming,
evaluative and dauntless (Miller, 2006). Though we are all naturally creative, as part of our
Divine nature, many people fail to recognize their creative potential or cultivate the personal
qualities for being creative. As described above, the spirited people exhibit the following
qualities:

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10.4.1 S = Self-Aware.

This quality indicates actively developing an intuition, willing to feel the emotions, seeking
insights about others and oneself and knowing personal purpose and values.
10.4.2 P = Purposeful

This quality indicates taking a holistic view, envisioning what is important, committing
whole-heartedly and promoting the highest benefit for everyone concerned.

10.4.3 I = Incisive

This quality indicated seeking opposing points of view, assessing situations systematically
and holistically, being curious and getting insights into complex situations.

10.4.4 R = Rewarding

This quality indicates sharing the credit with others, seeking to acknowledge positive
performance in others, appreciating efforts of others and celebrating the completion of
activities, however small or big they might be.

10.4.5 I = Inventive

This quality indicates looking beyond the tradition window and generating more options,
switching easily between logic and imagination and looking at challenges in new perspective.

10.4.6 T = Transforming

This indicates taking persistent action, energizing, motivating and moving people to action,
acting with integrity to keep agreements and choosing growth over fear.

10.4.7 E = Evaluative

This indicates considering personal values while making decisions, seeking long term and
short term benefits, seeking consensus whenever required and anticipating the consequences.

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10.4.8 D = Dauntless

This indicates clarity in ambiguous situations, taking prudent risk, maintaining confidence in
tough situations and acting independently, if necessary.

If we have a closer look at the above qualities, we can recognize them as the essential
qualities needed by any person who aspires to be a leader or a manager. This indicates that
the managers and leaders at workplace or business need to encompass these qualities, which
essentially directs them to a spiritual path. Being spiritual reflects an awareness of being a
part of something bigger than oneself.

In our world today, the thing we are most lacking is a visionary leadership. One reason that
visionary leadership is in short supply today is the value our society places on one particular
kind of capital - material capital. Too often the worth or value of an enterprise is judged by
how much money it earns at the end of the day, or how much worldly power it gives us over
others. This obsession with material gain has led to short-term thinking and the narrow
pursuit of self-interest. It is true that any kind of enterprise we want to engage in requires
some kind of financial wealth if it is to succeed in the short term. But for leadership to inspire
long-term, sustainable enterprises, it needs to pursue two other forms of capital as well: social
and spiritual. These three types of capital resemble the layers in a wedding cake. Material
capital is the top layer, social capital lies in the middle, and spiritual capital rests on the
bottom, supporting all three (Zohar, 2006).

Today business and society in general is driven by four negative motivations: fear, greed,
anger, and self-assertion. When we are controlled by these negative emotions, we trust less,
both ourselves and others, and we tend to act from a small place inside ourselves. Pumping
our work system with spiritual intelligence creates transformation of these four negative
motivations: fear becomes mastery, greed becomes self-control, anger becomes cooperation
and self-assertion becomes exploration. And this is essentially one of the responsibilities of a
true leader or a manager (or any other human-being at workplace) to foster the organization
with spiritual values by becoming a spirited person.

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 CHAPTER 11

SPIRITUALITY AT WORKPLACE

Each of us spends more of our waking hours working, or preparing for work, or recovering
from work, than we spend on any other activity in our life. At the end of each day the
universe is different that it was at the beginning, and our work is one of the most important
aspects of that change.

Most of us dissociate ourselves from our work when away from office as if unburdening our
lives of a sore, difficult reality. We try to interact with family and friends. Work related
issues or people are the last thing we would want to talk about or meet up with. Most of the
times, such an attitude can paradoxically relax you and you can return to work refreshed after
a weekend or holiday. However, it would be worthwhile to pause and think: what it would be
like if one could find work that evokes a feeling of belongingness, which typically doesn’t
induce antagonistic feelings for the large amount of time spent, for the unpleasant interactions
that one may have to go through while dealing with people of temperaments that are different
from ours.

A spiritual approach at workplace can help in realizing this dream and make it come true.
Incorporating a philosophy that is rooted in spirituality will give a direction to all. It acts as
an effective stress relieving mechanism that the organizations could make use of.

Up until recently, people considered spirituality and business as polar opposite. It seemed
weird to be spiritual at the place for being professional. However, the growing stressful and
traumatic work environment compels people at work to take a turn towards in-depth insight
of spirituality.

The vigilance about peace at work has lead to awaken the conscience of everyone about
spiritual quotient. Conventionally, spirituality had no place in business as the modern
management concepts advocate that the business of business is business. Those concepts of
management can be implemented effectively if one has wisdom of spiritual conscience. The

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senses of resilience, contentment, forgiveness, benevolence, dutifulness, discipline and
selflessness are some of the components of attitude that infuse the spirit of spirituality.

Various empirical studies state, that those who invigorate themselves with the illumination
and power of spirituality are better managers and elite performers. They have compassion and
devotion towards everything they do; they are always well wishers of organization. They
place their heart and soul to work, since they do everything with ultimate passion and burning
desire, they succeed.

The enlightenment of spirituality paves the path to mental peace and tranquility. A happy
contended and generous person is instinctively a good performer as he keeps his environment
illuminated with his positive waves. It is not necessary that spiritual intelligence is required at
the senior most positions but it facilitates them to be more vigorous, vigilant and concerned
about the stakeholders. The spirit of spirituality is required at the beginning and medieval
period also but the mix of it varies depending upon person to person and situation to
situation.

Spirituality at workplace certainly helps people to have an extra edge in order to lead a
healthier life with grace, love and gratitude. The organizations nowadays have inside towards
work ethics or business ethics; those ethics can be instilled easily among personnel as they
have a platform existent. The people inclined towards spirituality easily acclimatize
themselves with such a work culture. The malpractices, malicious activities, unethical issues,
policies in the working environment tend to slow down their rate or diminish their
occurrence. One can manage interpersonal issues, stress, conflicts, crises, tribulations and
disturbances of the organization in a healthier manner, if he/she is invigorating and
enlightening himself/herself with the concept of spirituality.

Given enough care and importance in developing spiritual quotient would help to develop all
the qualities of a human-being. These inherent qualities of human-being essentially include
leadership, managerial effectiveness, team work, motivation, interpersonal skills, stress
management, confidence, positive thinking, time management, communication and
presentation skills and all such professional, personal, social and spiritual effectiveness which
add to our overall positive and constructive development, which in turn is beneficial for
organization and individuals.

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11.1 DEVELOPING A SPIRITUAL WORK PLACE

The management has to know what can make an employee relate in an insightful way with
self and others. It has to nurture a sense of belongingness that makes the employee feel
worthwhile. For this, the management must take the following steps (Mehta, 2004):

11.1.1 Provide Opportunity to Be Innovative

It is creativity which brings us closer to our real self and potential. An employee who can
express his/her ideas without inhibitions will be more tuned towards self-awareness.

11.1.2 Respect the Employee

It means respecting individual differences and providing space to the employee to function
within the framework. It means accepting all differences, whether they are regarding views,
origins or personal traits.

11.1.3 Share a Vision

Spiritual values must be part of the vision that the organization shares with its employees.
The vision will help both the employer and the employee look beyond petty issues. It helps
them become better people and thus better co-workers.

11.1.4 Encourage Communication

Poor communication fuels conflicts and ego clashes. Communication aids clarity by helping
people understand better. It involves thinking beyond the immediate situation.

11.1.5 Keep Place for Some Fun

It is difficult to get associated with a workplace, where there is no space for fun, no matter
how loaded it might be with values and goodness. In fact, a little bit of fun at workplace will
lighten up the atmosphere and help employees go about their work without any inhibitions.

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11.1.6 Be Flexible

Spirituality has got nothing to do with rigid standards of perfectionism. An open mind and
spirit will help both the manager and employee to be flexible in their approaches. It will help
tackle explosive situations where flared tempers can only make matters worse. Being
assertive is important for the manager, but it should be tempered with a pliant attitude.

11.1.7 Sense of Control

A sense of control will come with a little bit of autonomy in handling of the work. It helps a
person get to know his/her capabilities and incapacities and thus makes them accept
themselves unconditionally.

An unconditional acceptance of oneself and by others improves one’s self-esteem and self-
awareness. Any individual in such a state will perform at his/her best. Organization must look
towards harnessing this positive energy that is present in every person rather than using the
carrot and stick method. A spiritual approach will help maximize the gains for both the
employers and employees.

It’s a well know fact and pre-requisite for any business that right from the managing director
to the entry-level employees, everyone works hard for better quarterly results. However,
these results, instead of being in terms of net profit, should be looked in terms of ‘net
happiness’ and ‘peace per employee’. This would move the organization up the higher levels
of ‘spiritual maturity model’. A spiritual approach at work place would definitely prove to be
a win-win situation for both the employer and employee.

However, the organizations while embracing spirituality will have to tread the path with
caution and care. Employees may look at this strategy as a ploy by company to create a
religious atmosphere. Some employees of dominant religion within the company may resent
the religious beliefs of other employees resulting in an irreconcilable conflicts and a
depressing work atmosphere. Fear of religious conversion may pop its ugly head. Some
employees may have a cynical view and laugh it off as a latest management fad. Some may
view it as a desperate attempt by the management to shore up the bleeding bottom-line.

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Hence the management should muster up enough courage to carry the conviction of creating
a spiritual workplace. All the myths about spirituality and religion should be clarified right
from the root level. Employees, irrespective of religion and cadre, should be taken into
confidence, if the management wants to make a dream of workplace spirituality come true.

11.2 HUMAN VALUES AT WORKPLACE

As mentioned earlier, spirituality at workplace is based on the foundation of self-

development and personal fulfillment. Focusing on these two aspects of spirituality
essentially means creating awareness or unleashing the inherent human values in an
individual. There are basically five human values which are the fundamental roots of a
healthy, vibrant and viable individual (Miller, 2006).

a) Truth
b) Righteousness
c) Peace
d) Love
e) Non-Violence

Before we explore the spiritual essence of these values at workplace, it needs to be

emphasized that these values need not be taught or learnt; rather, they must be evoked or
unveiled, sometimes by unlearning the ways we keep them hidden. It also needs to be noted
that these five values represent humanity at its fullest.

In other words, these human values can also be termed as spiritual values, since
understanding and unleashing these values at workplace leads to stress-free environment and
a satisfied, composed and efficient employee. These human values have been described
below.

11.2.1 Truth

Most people think of truth as simply being honest. However, the spiritual essence of truth
reveals much deeper implications. Truth, from a spiritual basis, starts with recognizing the
unchanging, essential nature of Divinity in oneself and all creation. And this leads to seeing
the Divinity in everyone.

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Truth is inextricably linked with other four human values. When you are truthful from a
spiritual basis, you will naturally be ethical (righteousness), self-confident (peace), pure at
heart (love) and dedicated to equality (non-violence). Understanding truth from a spiritual
basis leads to honesty, trust and wisdom in relationships at work.

11.2.2 Righteousness

Righteousness, from a spiritual basis, is acting in accordance with your own Divine nature
and in complete harmony with the essential Divine nature of all creation.

Righteousness is different from people who act “righteously” in their work – those who
elevate their beliefs of right or wrong above all others and have very little regard for anyone
who might disagree. The people who do “righteous” work from an ego, self-centered basis,
have qualities like narrow mindedness, rigid views of right and wrong, harsh judgment
towards anything they consider wrong, a desire to seek jobs that allow them to enforce their
views of right and wrong etc.

On other hand, people with righteousness quality have strong moral principles and their
attitudes create inspiration and harmony around them. Righteousness at work is naturally
aligned with essential Divine nature, spiritual purpose and values and universal laws. It is a
distinctive spiritual quality of excellence, duty and virtue that each person naturally
possesses. It includes following your own sense of a “right path” in your career and
expressing “right conduct” in your words and deeds.

Righteousness is also inextricably linked with the other four human values. When you act
morally from the wisdom of your true spiritual purpose and values, you will bring out your
natural ability to be trustworthy (truth), contended (peace), helpful (love) and co-operative
(non-violence).

11.2.3 Love

Mahatma Gandhi sought to free India from the clutches of British Empire, using simple yet
powerful tools of ‘Ahimsa’ (Non-violence) and ‘Satyagraha’ (Force of Truth). According to
him, love was the basis of Satyagraha.

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Basically, it is the law of love that rules mankind. If love can help free a nation, then it can
definitely work miracles at workplace. However, it needs to be clarified that it is not the
worldly love that comes from the mind and has our self-interest desires at its basis that can
create miracles. It is the Divine love that comes from the heart and has the wisdom and power
of the universe at its basis.

When love comes from a spiritual basis, it inspires, motivates, energizes and strengthens all
aspects of our day-to-day work. To experience the power of love, we need to go beyond a
typical mistaken belief. Most people see love as a more passive experience, and they think
that in order to show love they must overlook transgressions and unfair behavior, and just be
nice. On the contrary, when love comes from the heart, it is the motivator, energizer and
strengthener that gives you the power to speak boldly and act courageously – all the while
respecting the people and conditions you find yourself in.

11.2.4 Peace

There is a constant quest for peace; everyone is seeking it. But peace is not just an external
polish, which can be put on or brushed off. Peace is not to be had from the external world. It
is inherent, present in each one of us.

By far, peace is the most challenging human value for most people to draw upon and
experience in their work. Importance and necessity of peace at work can be understood from
the fact that without inner peace, there can be no real contentment and inner fulfillment in our
work. Inner peace puts us in touch with our highest wisdom, thus enhancing our work quality
dramatically.

It needs to be realized by each one of us, that peace is in our inherent nature, not a function of
our minds – that’s why it transcends our understanding. When we know that it’s a natural part
of our being, we can make an earnest effort not to let even the most dire circumstances or
darkest inner feelings, cloud over this peace.

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11.2.5 Non-Violence

Many a times, at workplace we find ourselves having tough competition with someone for a
promotion or someone opposing our strongly-held point of view. In such situations we
frequently see others as “enemy” in our own minds. We easily find ourselves feeling critical
and resentful, trying to control or dominate others and wanting to retaliate. These are the
reactions or perceptions that categorically fall under the definition of “Violence”

The broadest and most common definition of non-violence is; “Respecting all and causing no
harm to any being by our thoughts, words or deeds” (Miller, 2006).

From a spiritual perspective, non-violence is regarding and treating everyone and everything
in creation as Divinity. In other words, when we are aware of the oneness that underlies all of
creation, we realize that when we do anything that harms others, it is the same as harming
ourselves.

Following guidelines can help us to treat others at work without harming them:

x Have a clear intention to respect others and not harm anyone, no matter what the
circumstances are. This can be true, even when competing for a treasured job.
x Understand the fact that harmful responses can never lead to success
x Live by the other four human values; truth, righteousness, peace and love. The
combined power of these human values makes non-violence a natural result, even in
tough confrontations.
x Have self-control over the tendency to possess, control or dominate others.
x Experience no sense of separateness from others, but feel respect and a desire for the
well-being and dignity of all people.

All the five human values have the same spiritual core – seeing and appreciating the Divinity
in oneself and all creation. Because of this, these values will always bring harmony among
everyone. These values cannot be expressed in isolation; each supports the other. For
example:

x If you are strong in truth, you can bring out your natural ability to be ethical
(righteousness), self-confident (peace), pure at heart (love) and dedicated to equality
(non-violence)
x If you are strong in righteousness, you can bring out your natural ability to be
trustworthy (truth), contended (peace), helpful (love) and cooperative (non-violence).

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 x If you are strong in peace, you can bring out your natural ability to be authentic
(truth), disciplined (righteousness), compassionate (love) and forgiving (non-
violence).
x If you are strong in love, you can bring out your natural ability to have integrity
(truth), be charitable to others (righteousness), be equanimous (peace) and respect
others (non-violence).
x If you are strong in non-violence, you can bring out your natural ability to be honest
(truth), dutiful (righteousness), patient (peace) and kind (love).

Understanding these human values, therefore becomes utmost important for following the
path of spirituality at work. These human values are the founding stones of spirituality at
work. Understanding and implementing them paves a way for a successful individual and
organization.

11.3 VALUING RELATIONSHIPS

In the fast-paced modern times, people have become extremely busy accumulating financial
assets and physical comforts. We have lost ourselves so much in this race that we hardly find
time to sit back and think where our relationships are heading to. We have forgotten that
material belongings are devoid of meaning, if there is no peace or happiness within. In this
hi-tech world, where work pressures are mounting and consistent peak performance has
become a norm, men and women are transforming into machines, with no heart, feelings or
emotions. We don’t find time to nourish our relationships at work and home. We have started
taking our relationships for granted. As a result, these relationships at work and home have
become strained.

Assumptions are like termites as they eat into trust, the basic ingredient for a healthy
relationship. Lack of trust leads to suspicion, suspicion generates anger, anger causes enmity
and enmity may result in separation. It is a chain reaction (George, 2008).

Another enemy of good relations is the blame game. When things go wrong, people try to
find a scapegoat. It must be remembered that when we point one finger at somebody, the
other three point at us. It is better to take personal responsibility and accept our own folly
than create an environment of hatred for each other. It is extremely difficult to change another
person’s character. Thus, having high expectations from others will only result in

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disappointment and frustration. On the other hand, it is easier to change ourselves and lower
our expectations.

Ego is the biggest hurdle in a relationship. It leads to lack of communication and

misunderstanding which finally ends up in a cold war or heavy atmosphere. Having an easy
nature towards everyone helps one to be flexible and humble. An easy person can get along
with everyone and become an instrument in creating harmonious relationships.

Many relationships break-off because of use of wrong speech. When we are close with each
other, we tend to be casual about mutual respect and courtesy. Frequently exchanging critical
remarks plants the seeds for a bitter relationship. We must choose our words carefully and
refrain from hurting others’ feelings.

Often we fail to distinguish a person from his performance. We associate the two so closely
that we treat people according to their actions. Everybody’s dignity needs to be given due
respect irrespective of what they do.

We also forget that forgiveness is greater than revenge. Mistakes can be overlooked but the
actions taken in anger will bother us forever. A person needs to think first before he/she loses
his/her patience with someone they love. Give value to your near and dear ones and also your
colleagues and subordinates at work and do not lose them on trivial matters. It is important to
give them a sense of belonging and care. Do not forget their small kindness and do not
remember their minor mistakes.

Each one of us has the capacity to fulfill all the relationships. Seeing Divinity in all creation
makes it easy to give love to other human-beings. This feeling forms the fundamental base of
improving our relationships with others at work and home.

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 CHAPTER 12

BENEFITS OF SPIRITUALITY

A spiritual workplace would mean that work would move from merely being a place to get
enough money to survive and earning our daily bread – to a place where we not merely
survive but are fully alive and human. We are alive, in that our spirit fully expresses itself.
And through our contribution, we allow other people’s spirits to be nourished and to flourish.

Spiritual workplace works wonders for business. One of the primary benefits is that people
are more in touch with the source of creativity. Creativity is the cornerstone of business. It
leads to more efficient contribution, more revitalization, renewal and resilience.

Another benefit is increased authenticity in communication, in which people feel free to talk
about their truth without fear of reprisal. When truth is allowed to be safely and respectfully
spoken, old problems clear up, new possibilities emerge and people feel more aligned. They
work together in a trusting team.

Increased ethical and moral behavior is yet another benefit. An important value of ethical
behavior for business is the development of trust. We trust people who operate in an ethical
framework and spiritual approach plays an important role in developing this framework.

Spirituality at workplace also leads to increased self-fulfillment, contentment and a deep

sense of belonging. It creates a win-win situation for the employee and organization. Some of
the other benefits that spirituality at work place offers are:

x Scope for personal and organizational transformation.

x Understanding the need for personal connection creates sympathy and loyalty to
others.
x Fosters a climate of trust, loyalty, honest and authentic communication and
commitment of members towards organization.
x Awareness of purpose and interconnectedness increases dignity and respect from
others.
x Awareness of the effects of an individual’s actions makes them more responsible.
x If people feel they are appreciated and connected to community and part of a larger
purpose, they will feel more motivated.

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 x Retains talent. People want to remain where they feel supported and encouraged to
meet their personal development and satisfaction.
x Enhanced productivity and reduced absenteeism
x Enhanced job satisfaction levels.
x Gives an opportunity to morph into a close, well-knit community of mutual care, help
and service with greater sense of purpose.
x The organization will become purpose-driven and meaning-based.
x Management with a mission will replace management of efficiency and control.
x There will be a shift from fear-based culture to love-based culture.
x Management practices and decisions will be clearly consistent with spiritual values
such as integrity, honesty, love, hope, kindness, respect and nurturing.
x Management will break down the walls of hierarchy to create a sense of community
and inspire a sense of belonging in the workers.
x There is a new willingness to reflect on the meaning of life and moral implications in
making important decisions.
x There is a shared attitude that products and services need to be beneficial to
community and humanity.
x Management will value employees based on who they are, what they can become,
rather than what they can do for the company.
x Bosses will treat employees in a responsible, respectful and caring way, because
people are not instruments to be used and exploited.
x Management will also resort to spiritual ways of resolving conflict. Therefore, they
will be reluctant in issuing ultimatum and slow in the "firing trigger".
x Spiritual dimension will be fully integrated with every aspect of work life, such as
relationships, planning, budgeting, negotiation, compensation, etc.

It can be seen that workplace spirituality offers huge benefits. Employees may forge long-
lasting relation with the company if they feel their contributions are being acknowledged,
their thoughts are being listened to, their ethical behavior being encouraged, their soul, mind
and body awakened to the highest level. Employees do not look only at the pay packages but
they also seek spiritual fulfillment.

Organizations need to openly advocate and support more caring and sharing ideals that place
people and ethics ahead of profit. A more caring philosophy can translate into competitive
advantage, and better commercial performance. If an organization is open and accepting,
people can feel comfortable. People feel better when they are allowed and encouraged to
connect on a deeper level with others, especially with managers and superiors. Fear and
anxiety is no help in organizations. Connecting openly dispels anxiety and makes for
harmonious relationships.

An increased sense of humanity and trust positively impacts the bottom line, because people -
and entire organizations - work far better when folk are happy.

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 CHAPTER 13

STRESS MANAGEMENT – SPIRITUAL TECHNIQUES

Lifestyle is one of the major factors that can provoke many of the stressors people
experience. A healthy and fit person is much more capable to handle stressful situations than
a weak and unfit person. Lifestyle of an individual is defined by three important parameters;
Diet, Exercise and Relaxation.

Certain types of food combinations are difficult to digest thereby causing stress on the
digestive system. The obvious examples are alcohol, drugs and caffeine. Caffeine is a
xanthine drug that functions similar to adrenaline’s role in activating the central nervous
system’s stress response. When excessive mounts of alcohol is consumed, the digestive
system has to respond by using energy to dissolve toxins, instead of constructing and
maintaining cell growth.

Exercise is an important factor in increasing longevity. Regular and planned exercise routine
helps in metabolizing the harmful cholesterol (Low Density Lipoprotein) and producing good
cholesterol (High Density Lipoprotein) levels.

Relaxation programs assist in changing people’s attitude towards stress and health. There are
a variety of new age therapies that can help a person to unwind.

a) Quantum Healing: This therapy helps to increase the vibrations of cells by

increasing metabolism.
b) Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP): It is a theory of language, communication
and thought that helps in improving the way people interact with the world.
c) Carnio Sacral Balancing: This therapy helps to balance our neurological system.
d) Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT): A tool that works on the body’s energy field
and releases negative emotions and restores the energy balance.
e) Rebirthing: It is a special breathing technique which releases traumas, conflicts,
stresses and past memories.

The relaxation techniques help a person by allowing his/her mind and body to rest and
regenerate. However, it should be noted that the exercise and relaxation methods will not
automatically enhance a person’s ability to respond to stressful event. Much of it depends on

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the programs used, attitude of an individual towards the program and meticulous adherence to
the program.

13.1 MEDITATION: AN APPROACH TO STRESS MANAGEMENT.

To most people meditation is associated with a method used for concentration and driving
away thoughts and committing oneself to a lifestyle of abstinence and self control. As such,
many people find it rather complex and mystical. Hence it becomes absolutely necessary to
clear the myth and understand the basic concept of meditation and how it can be used as a
tool for stress management.

Meditation is a technique that helps to experience a state of consciousness that “transcends”

or goes beyond the three normally experienced states of consciousness – waking, sleeping
and dreaming (Gupta, 2007)

Human-being’s mind is always thirsting for more joy and happiness. Mediation can help
saturate the mind with pure and unbounded joy by making the mind experience pure
consciousness. As the practice of mediation enhances the experience of pure consciousness
becomes deeper and more refined. There may come a time when pure consciousness remains
permanently established in one’s being and permeates through all the other three states of
consciousness. This is the state of enlightenment (Gupta, 2007)

Thus, meditation can be looked upon as a crucial component in the spiritual quest or as an
important tool for stress management.

There are various known techniques of meditation, each having its own limitations and
merits. While the goal is same, each technique uses different approach to reach the goal. The
underlying fact of each technique is that they provide deep relaxation and rest, which in turn
leads to the release of stresses and negatives embedded in our consciousness. As this
negativity is released, one experiences more clarity in the mind, a sense of relaxation and
lightness.

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The various techniques of meditation are as mentioned below (Gupta, 2007):

13.1.1 Concentration Based Technique:

A concentration based technique for meditation essentially means concentrating on an object

which may be any given point, the centre of the forehead, a source of light that is real or
imagined, concentrating on a word or a string of words (Mantra) or concentrating on a
particular image.

13.1.2 Contemplation Based Technique:

This technique of meditation involves contemplating the thoughts and image of Divine,
trying to evoke feelings of love, devotion and surrender from within oneself. Variation of this
method would be to think deeply about our existence and conscience.

13.1.3 Natural Thought Based Technique:

These are neither concentration, nor contemplation based techniques. They also do not
involve breathing exercises. They are based on relaxing the mind in a natural way, without
obstructing the natural flow of thoughts, ideas or emotions.

Whatever the technique, it should be remembered that a disciplined routine, with a balanced
diet, adequate sleep, rest and exercise is an aid to meditation, which in turn helps in coping
and preventing the stressful events experienced in daily life.

Some people are of the opinion that meditating more than the prescribed time limit would
lead to faster enlightenment or quick relieving of stresses. This might be true for certain types
of paths, but it does not appeal to a person who is living in a society and working to earn his
living. Practicing meditation all day long or for a sizeable portion of the 24-hour day may not
be the most feasible approach. Sixty to ninety minutes per day seems to be a good enough
investment and commitment.

One may argue that there are people who are willing to sacrifice anything and everything to
progress fast and they would progress faster if they meditated constantly. A counter argument

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is that while a deeper thirst for spiritual salvation would help, merely spending more hours
meditating will work only to a limited extent,. In doing so the person might reach a saturation
point and the law of diminishing returns may start applying to meditation as well (Gupta,
2007). There is also the fear that meditation without commensurate activity can make a
person dull.

Meditation should be understood as a mechanism for providing deep rest to the mind and
body. “Rest” and “Activity” are the basic steps to progress. Rest followed by activity
followed again by rest is what leads to spiritual progress. “Rest” can be construed as
relaxation or de-stressing derived from meditation, while “Activity” as carrying on with our
daily jobs, duties and tasks, thus gathering stress in the process.

The above principle of “Rest” and “Activity” as an essential step to progress can be
understood by an example of age old process of dyeing a cloth. In order for the color of dye
to be strong, the first round of coloring is faded away by drying the cloth in the hot sun. After
many such rounds of coloring and fading after every dip, the color becomes strong and
permanent. In a similar way, for personal evolution to take place through the experience of
meditation, one must return to physical, mental and emotional activities after meditation. The
meditative effect must thus be faded away through contact with the material world, activities
and diversions. This must be repeated many times over. Then, the experience of pure
consciousness through meditation becomes more permanent.

13.2 “INFINTE BEING” MEDITATION TECHNIQUE

In meditation practices, affirmations are often used to focus the mind. By simply repeating
the words “I am,” you affirm your true nature as consciousness. In the case of the Infinite
Being meditation, we affirm our innermost identity as the ultimate, infinite consciousness.
The affirmation “I am Infinite Being” is the most powerful affirmation possible within the
English language (Waters, 2005).

The phrase “I am Infinite Being” is an affirmation of your oneness with the ultimate
potential, the source of all life, the consciousness from which all life sprang. You are one
with that universal consciousness. Everything in manifestation is one with that universal

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consciousness. Now is the time to consciously affirm your ultimate potential. It may take
courage to begin with, but the results are more than worth the effort.

Have the inner discipline to stay with the affirmation and let any issues fade away
unchallenged. Your inner self knows the meaning of the words and resonates in joy with their
exact and literal truth. Every time you make this affirmation, you become more connected
with Infinite Being. Any lesser thoughts are then healed within the light of greater truth.

The Infinite Being meditation technique is simple, but it takes efforts to practice it. Find a
quiet space to sit down for a few minutes, close your eyes, and start looking for the quiet
space within. To keep your brain occupied with the task at hand, focus your attention on the
slow, even flow of your breath as it passes in and out of your nostrils.

As you breathe each in-breath, mentally repeat the affirmation “I am Infinite Being.” On the
out-breath, simply allow your attention to follow the flow of air from your nostrils. To induce
an immediate calming effect, allow each out-breath to take longer than each in-breath.

Life energy, also known as etheric energy, is conditioned primarily within the human spinal
column. From there it is distributed to the rest of the body via the subtle nervous system.
Most key functions in the human body owe their operation primarily to the supply of etheric
life energy, rather than to the supply of electrical energy. Etheric energy, like consciousness,
is non-physical and yet it is behind all life.

To help enhance the natural flow of life energy within your spine while performing this
meditation it is preferable to sit upright in an erect chair. As you progress with this
meditation, the natural flow of life energy within your spine will become enhanced, bringing
an enlivened awareness to your consciousness.

When distracting thoughts arise - which they will - treat them with patience and
understanding. Put each distracting thought aside so that you can continue with the Infinite
Being meditation. If a thought seems important or urgent, then it will be sure to return later,
after your meditation session has finished.

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There are a number of ways to enhance your meditation experience. One is to reserve a small
space, such as the corner of a quiet room, where only meditation is conducted. That space
then becomes more conducive to a meditation environment. A small table or surface can be
covered with items that you connect with spiritual practice. Candles and incense are
especially useful as they provide some initial focus for the senses.

It also helps to always use the same chair, one that is constructed primarily of a non-metallic
material. Metal chairs attract etheric life energy away from you, which is great for the chair,
but not so good for the meditation session.

A small clock completes your setting, and clean, light clothing, reserved especially for
meditation, further enhances the atmosphere. A shower or bath before meditation is very
valuable, as water is a powerful cleanser. If, for example, you have just come home from a
hectic day at work, then your body will be filled with the distractions of the day, stored in
etheric energy form.

The water that cleanses you in a shower or bath not only cleanses you of physical impurities,
but, more importantly, it also cleanses the etheric energy impurities that do not belong in your
energy body.

The detailed technique of Infinite Being Meditation is as described below (Waters, 2005):

x Take a few moments to completely relax your physical body. Sit in an upright
chair with your eyes closed, then clench your feet, toes and leg muscles. Release
the tension and let your feet and legs relax completely. Do the same clench-and-
release process for your stomach, chest and back; then your arms and hands; then
your neck and face.
x In preparation, take three deep breaths and exhale each one completely.
x Now focus your attention on the slow, even flow of breath as it passes in and out
of your nostrils.
x As you breathe each in-breath, mentally repeat the affirmation,
“I am Infinite Being.”
x On the out-breath, allow your attention to follow the flow of air from your
nostrils. To induce an immediate calming effect, slow each out-breath and allow it
to take up to twice as long as each in-breath.
x To make a space for your consciousness to dip into the experience of being, pause
at the end of the out-breath. Hold the breath out of your body until you feel the
need to inhale again. This will typically be for around three seconds, sometimes

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 less. When you are in this motionless quiet space, don’t think, just be. Subtle
impressions may arise from your inner self in this Being Space. The end of each
breathing cycle is your personal communion space with your inner being. Ignore
surface mental noise – words and feelings that jump into your attention – and
maintain your focus upon the quiet inner space and subtle impressions of higher
consciousness. Nothing loud comes from your inner being. Focus your awareness
upon your inner silence. With practice, this is a time when great insights and
inspiration quietly dawn upon your awareness.
x Repeat this cycle of breathing and being for 20 minutes.

An effective meditation technique opens the door to more inspiration, love and creativity into
your life.

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 CHAPTER 14

STRESS MANAGEMENT - RELAXATION TECHNIQUES

Meditation is very powerful tool for stress management. However, at work place practicing
meditation does not become feasible in most of the organizations, in spite of the fact that the
workplace serves as a hub of stressful events. Hence it becomes necessary to explore other
techniques which can be practiced anywhere and anytime and help in reducing the stress
levels and boost the feelings of joy and serenity. These techniques should also teach us to
stay calm and collected in the face of crisis at workplace.

Some of the techniques are explained below (Segal, 2008; Saisan, 2008; Smith, 2008) which
can be practiced anytime and anywhere. Learning the basics of these relaxation techniques
isn’t difficult. But it takes practice to truly harness their stress-relieving power.

14.1 DEEP BREATHING TECHNIQUE:

Deep breathing is a simple, yet powerful relaxation technique. It’s easy to learn, can be
practiced almost anywhere and provides a quick way to get the stress levels in check. Deep
breathing is the cornerstone of many other relaxation practices and can be combined with
other relaxation techniques.

The key to deep breathing is in breath deeply from the abdomen, getting as much fresh air as
possible in the lungs. When deep breaths are taken from the abdomen, rather than shallow
breaths from the upper chest, more oxygen is inhaled. The more oxygen you get, the less
tensed, short of breath and anxious you feel. The technique for deep breathing is as
mentioned below:

x Sit comfortable with your back straight. Put one hand on your chest and the other on
your stomach.
x Breathe in through your nose. The hand on your stomach should rise and the hand on
your chest should move very little.
x Exhale through your mouth, pushing out as much air as you can while contracting
your abdominal muscles. The hand on your stomach should move in as you exhale,
but other hand should move very little.

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 x Continue to breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth. Try to inhale
enough so that your lower abdomen rise and falls. Count slowly as you exhale.

14.2 PROGRESSIVE MUSCLE RELAXATION

Progressive muscle relaxation (PMR) is another effective and widely used strategy for stress
relief. It involves two-step process in which each muscle group is systematically tensed and
relaxed.

With regular practice, PMR gives an intimate familiarity with what tension – as well as
complete relaxation – feels like in different parts of the body. This awareness helps an
individual to spot and counter act the first signs of the muscular tension that accompanies
stress. As the body relaxes, so does the mind. One can combine deep breathing with PMR for
an additional level of relief from stress. The technique is as follows:

x Loosen your clothing, take off your shoes, and get comfortable.
x Take a few minutes to relax, breathing in and out in slow deep breaths.
x When you are relax and ready to start, shift your attention to your right foot. Take a
moment to focus on the way it feels.
x Slowly tense the muscles in your right foot, squeezing as tightly as you can. Hold for
a count of 10.
x Relax your right foot. Focus on the tension flowing away and the way your foot feels
as it becomes limp and loose.
x Stay in this relaxed state for a moment, breathing deeply and slowly.
x When you are ready, shift your attention to your left foot. Follow the same sequence
of muscle tension and release.
x Move slowly up through up your body – foot, calf, thigh, hips and buttocks, stomach,
chest, back, right arm and hand, left arm and hand, neck and shoulders and finally
face.

14.3 GUIDED IMAGERY:

Guided imagery is a variation of meditation that can help relieve stress. It involves imagining
a scene in which you feel at peace, free to let go off all tensions and anxiety. Choose
whatever setting is most calming to you, whether a beach, a favorite spot, lush green fields or
holy place. Close your eyes and let your worries drift away. Imagine your restful place.
Picture it as vividly as you can – everything you can see, hear, smell and feel. Guided
imagery works best if you incorporate as many sensory details as possible. For example, if
you are thinking about sunset on a beach, see the sun setting over the water, hear the birds

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singing or the waves washing ashore, feel the cool water on your bare feet and taste the fresh
clean air.

14.4 MASSAGE THERAPY:

With the modern pressures of working many people experience neck and shoulder problems
from continued work at computers and this can lead to headaches and other problems.
Massage at work offers a quick and convenient way to break this cycle and can offer an
opportunity for you to return to work feeling mentally and physically reinvigorated for the
day. Massage provides deep relaxation. As the muscles in the body relax, so does the
overstressed mind. There are many simple self-massage techniques, one can use to relax and
release stress, even at the workplace. Although self-massage is good for stress relief, getting a
massage from a professional massage therapist can be tremendously relaxing and more than
what you can do yourself.

14.4.1 Scalp Massage:

Place your thumbs behind your ears while spreading your fingers on top of your head. Move
your scalp back and forth slightly by making circles with your finger tips for 15-20 seconds.

14.4.2 Massage for Eyes:

Close your eyes and place your ring fingers directly under your eyebrows, near the bridge of
your nose. Slowly increase the pressure for 5-10 seconds, then gently release. Repeat 2-3
times.

14.4.3 Massage for Sinus:

Place your finger tips at the bridge of your nose. Slowly slide your fingers down your nose
and across the top of your cheekbones to the outside of your eyes.

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14.4.4 Massage for Shoulders:

Reach one arm across the front of your body to your opposite shoulder. Using a circular
motion, press firmly on the muscle above your shoulder blade. Repeat the other side.

Whatever type of work you do, relaxation techniques at work can be part of a positive work
environment and is very much appreciated. The stress of modern life can make real relaxation
an elusive dream. Yet there is no reason life has to be filled with anxiety and stress. If you
take some time to learn the art of relaxation, you can easily rediscover the enjoyment in life.
The secret of relaxation is a controlled state of mind. Relaxation techniques are often
employed as one element of a wider stress management program and can decrease muscle
tension, lower the blood pressure and slow heart and breath rates, apart from other health
benefits. Relaxation techniques are also a mainstay of complementary and alternative
medicine (CAM).

The relaxation techniques described above change the body’s physiology from the high
arousal state to a low arousal state. Hence these techniques work well for stress related to
anxiety, but they do not do much good for stress related to depression. These techniques can
give an individual the ability to counter their edginess and nervousness.

The spiritual and other relaxation techniques discussed in the above two chapters pave a way
for healthy, peaceful and contended life. They are easy to use, quick to learn and quick to
implement. Some of the techniques can be practiced at work place and some others require
specific environment or setting. Hence, each individual can follow his/her own technique
based on their daily schedule, and work style. However, manifesting these techniques in the
daily lifestyle and a strict adherence to them is the key that enables a person to enjoy a
“Stress-free” or “Manageable-Stress” life.

Mother Teresa once said, “Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow is not yet come. We have only
today. So let’s begin”

Hence, understanding the fact that stress is a known dragon, let’s begin to use the above
techniques to slay it or at least tame it.

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19. http://www.webmd.com/diet/diet-for-stress-management-slideshow “Diet for Stress
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 CURRICULUM VITAE

1. NAME : Kiran Sakroji

2. DATE OF BIRTH : December 18, 1977

3. EDUCATIONAL QUALFICATIONS

Degree : B.Tech (Mechanical)

Year of passing : 1999

Institution : Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Technological

University, Lonere, Maharashtra.

Degree : Post Graduate Diploma in Piping

Design and Engineering

Year of passing : 2000

Institution : Maharashtra Insitute of Technology,

Pune, Maharashtra.

4. WORK EXPERIENCE

i. Senior Engineer-Stress – Technip India Limited, Chennai - January 2006 till date.
ii. Engineer-Stress – Uhde India Limited, Mumbai - September 1999 to January
2006.

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