By Pooja Shrivastava | Posted: June 25, 2019
“If you have a stress-free mind, your thoughts will be positive.” – Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
People with mental diseases like depression can be helped through yoga, pranayama, and meditation. Research shows that people with symptoms of depression have a greater increase in time lost from work in comparison with those without symptoms of depression. Scientists Jeffrey Kahn M.D., and Alan Langlieb, M.D., in their book Mental Health and Productivity in the Workplace: A Handbook for Organizations and Clinicians, Productivity loss, absenteeism, lack of focus, and higher turnover are often directly linked to poor mental health.
Here are two science supported methods to reduce stress and achieve excellence at work:
1. Forgiveness
Being competitive and proactive might be your tool to deal with your present situation and achieve excellence. But how do you deal with the baggage of the past? That’s where forgiveness becomes important.
Forgiveness is a process of freeing ourselves from our past and living peacefully in the moment. This could mean forgiving yourself or forgiving others. When we fail to forgive, we are caught up in past unpleasant events that may affect our performance and relationships. When we fail to forgive, we fail to work towards reconciliation. We cultivate an atmosphere of blame, which cripples creativity, or we become defensive, which hampers trust-building in the workplace.
Let’s see it with this example: Robin, the project manager, missed the deadline to submit his work along with the team. He’d had some problems that took more time to resolve. When the CEO found out about the missed deadline, instead of blaming, she offered special assistance to Robin and explained how to resolve the problem. Robin was grateful for the CEO’s gesture and came away with a sense of togetherness with the company.
When people work in a forgiving culture, they expand creativity, foster compassion, and build a sense of togetherness and team spirit. By the same token, when we forgive others, we free ourselves and move ahead with a clear conscience and without the weight of anger. Fred Luskin, in his Stanford Forgiveness Project, concluded that “Forgiveness may prove effective in reducing anger as a coping strategy.”
In her scientific article, Emma Seppala urges that forgiveness can bring deeper satisfaction. When we demonstrate forgiveness at our workplace, we create a friendly environment, an environment of creativity and innovation.
2. Meditation and Breathing Techniques
1) Physiological (by stimulating the parasympathetic nervous system) and
2) Psychological factors (by deflecting attention from thoughts).
Speed and haste might get more work done, but it might be at the expense of our health. By contrast, a peaceful and calm mind can achieve more as it has elements of both peacefulness of mind and excellence in action. Practicing techniques for a relaxed and peaceful mind helps us achieve mental focus and heightened awareness.
Meditation is the means through which you can strike a balance between activity and rest. If you decide to meditate even for ten minutes each day, accompanied by breathing practices, meditation will start to calm your mind, discipline your brain and bring you joy. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, the creator of the Happiness Program, says, “The secret lies in our own breath. Through breathing exercises, certain breathing techniques and some practice of meditation, we can rekindle positive vibrations within and around us.”
I also take this opportunity to invite you to Mental Health Summit in Denver, CO on 23rd-24th July which will explore other science supported means including meditation, music, yoga to achieve better mental health.
With that two science supported ways, we can achieve professional and personal goals. We can move from a stressful state of mind to a peaceful one.
Dr. Pooja Shrivastava is a writer, executive coach, Ph.D. organizational leadership, mindfulness coach, Adjunct Faculty at the University of Oklahoma. She can be followed on Facebook and Instagram.
