The first session was taken by Snehal Shah Ma’am and Susie ma’am. It was regarding stress and how it takes various forms, most of which we don’t even realize! The session started with breathing exercises as breathing is the best way of letting go and purifies our body and mind.
Stress can be in the form of emotional stress, cognitive stress, physical stress and behavioral stress. Each of us was asked to jot down points under these four headers which we usually face. There were few who were of the opinion that they don’t experience any physical or cognitive effects. This is when Snehal Ma’am rightly pointed out that it is here where we fail to know ourselves and how our body and mind might be reacting to our levels of stress. It was an eye opener for many who confessed that they never thought that what they were going through were symptoms of stress. In the latter half of the first session we had experienced the power of laughter as a major de-stressor and had fun with laughter yoga conducted by Susie Ma’am!
We also learnt about few coping mechanisms, namely: 1) Avoid stressors 2) Adaptability 3) Alter (express instead of bottling them up) 4) Accept
The second session was taken by Anil Sir on Self leadership. The session on stress was a part of self reflection – How we react, how we let the external stimuli affect us internally. Leadership starts with self. The more aware we are about our self, the better leader we become. As rightly pointed out by Anil sir – Ability comes later, Attitude is the first step.
The most crucial aspect in life is to be able to unearth one’s purpose in life and once that is done – to continuously work towards it. The career track should be such which would lead to that purpose or its attainment. In doing so, one must chalk out necessary learning goals which can be achieved only through self discipline.
Purpose in life à Career track à learning goals à Self discipline
For self discipline there are certain attributes we long to change. There are three types of change:
Need to change: This is governed by the intellect. This forms the very basis as the person himself/herself goes through a self realization and acknowledges the need for change.
Want to change: This is governed by the heart. It is most crucial as usually one finds the heart is in conflict with the mind. The mind might realize that there needs to be a change, however many a times the heart keeps one from committing towards that change.
Actual Change: This is putting the commitment into practice in the long run till it becomes a habit. This is governed by the body through our actions.
Anil Sir talked about how many a times our interests are in conflict with each other and we tend to prioritize one over the other when the latter also is of equal significance. He suggested that instead of going for a trade off, one must put in extra efforts to be able to manage both the interests if they are of importance. He emphasized on being ‘balanced’. He also pointed to one very important aspect which keeps us from changing – it is nothing but our own Hidden competing commitment. It is the discovery and realization of this competing commitment which can help us overcome the obstacles we face in our attempt to change. One needs to challenge that competing commitment. Anil Sir gave the example of his habit of smoking. His intellect reminded him time and again that there was a need to change the habit and stop smoking but the addiction kept his heart from committing to it. After self reflection, he found that the reason why he wasn’t able to was simply because he didn’t want to quit. But one fine day when his heart complied, he could actually stop it.
We were asked three questions:
Qs: One thing that I wish to change or develop in myself – I want to learn to let go and not to get tensed and over worked with issues- be it studies/work or people related. I sometimes tend to think a lot. The tension resulting out of studies and work sometimes makes me work harder and give better results while sometimes makes me go blank and transforms into inability to grasp or perform anything. People related stress comes when I make a practical decision which might not be to the liking of the person or any sort of misunderstanding. I tend to bother myself beyond limit on how people would feel or perceive me.
Qs: What do I do instead or not do - I tend to panic and get anxious
Qs: Hidden competing commitments - I realize that for me balancing is very important. The study/ work related stress till a point gives me a sense of urgency and bring out the best in me. Therefore, I yearn for some sort of challenge in my daily activities, which gives me a platform to prove myself and give me a sense of satisfaction. When it comes to people related issues, when there is a misunderstanding the stress and tension makes me see it from their perspective and therefore I usually find faults in self. It gives me a sense of urgency to quickly resolve the matter, even at the cost of listening. It does give me a sense of satisfaction once I have resolved. But again I tend to overdo it and then with my inability to let go, these things continue to bother.
I do realize that the above analysis of my hidden commitment is still superficial and I would require more time to understand and reflect but I am glad that I have made my first step towards it! Thus the self leadership class was yet another enlightening experience which helped me get a deeper insight about self and therefore proved to be my initial step in my journey of self discovery and continuous improvement. I look forward for more self leadership sessions for my overall growth.
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