Here is the complete transcript of the podcast
Welcome back to Success with Srini. Today on this podcast episode, I’m dealing with a question that has come in from a listener of this podcast and also a listener of my radio show, asking me about my thoughts on stress, how to deal with stress. Now, this listener has been listening to my radio shows and some of the recent radio shows where I talked about hypnosis, as a mechanism as a tool to deal with several dysfunctions of life, and stress happens to be a dysfunction of life. So the question is, what do you think should I try? I tried many, and I didn’t get a response, I didn’t get the result at the level that I expected. So what do you suggest I do? Now, before I answered the question, the reason why I took that question is they didn’t ask this question for the podcast. But this was a kind of a preliminary question of this individual trying to figure out if they should engage with me.
Now, here is how I look at a solution. Every time we talk about a solution and how the solution works for a problem, we need to understand the origin of the problem. Stress, in general, is stress. But then the nature of the stress and the source of stress needs to be understood before we apply a solution to the problem itself. So got understand where it is coming from the source of this problem, and then we can find a solution to fit the problem to solve the problem. Now in generic solution for genetic stress, is kind of hit and miss, like, you can’t just take stress as it is, and say, Okay, fine, I have a generic solution for any kind of stress, it doesn’t work. It’s just like it’s a mismatch.
So here’s how I would approach this. The first and foremost thing is to understand the triggers the sources of stress, where are you getting this class from, for example, people get stressed from their environment. Sometimes people get stressed from interaction with other people, like relationships, at work at home, or sometimes in the crowds and parties, sometimes, just some people being critical, and some people being rude to them, sometimes dealing with moody, indecisive, and unreliable people. So all kinds of interactions and social interactions could create stress also, then there is institutional stress, right rules, regulations, boundaries, borders, bureaucracy, red tape, all that introduce a kind of stress. And obviously, you have projects to work on, you have deadlines to meet your meetings, formalities, you have office policies that you have to live up to all that introduces stress, then major life events, they create stress, like getting married, getting divorced, having a child that in the family promotion, or a job loss, all that induces stress, some forms of stress life stress space for about maybe 12 or 24 months, because there is a duration that stress has to play out. You had a baby just now. So you will go through stress for about 346 months, as the baby is growing and attaining different stages. So some events last for long. That’s the point.
Now, sometimes, you also have stress because of daily hassles, like traffic taxes, waiting in the lines, some home maintenance stuff, people getting stressed out, waiting at traffic lights, and trying to find parking spots. So all these things give stress. The question becomes is before you jump and say, I’m experiencing a lot of stress in life, you need to segregate, you need to draw and say okay, this is the specific stress. And this is the source from where the specific stress is coming. That’s the key. That’s the basic benchmark that you need to set before you jump into looking. Should I do yoga, should I do meditation? Should I try hypnosis, guess what everything works. There is a generic solution to generic stress. But that’s not what is going to give you the result. The result is when you identify specific stress that has a definitive source. I hope I’m coming across the system, serious stuff. Now, you can try whatever solution you want to try. But here is the general gist of this. The best way to deal with stress is not to take stress, is to prevent stress is to block stress or restrict stress. And the way you do that, I’m going to share a few techniques or a few approaches here. You can try doing this, but then again, this is not the solution. So this is I’m assuming that you are trying to prevent stress, because prevention is better than cure at any point in time for anything. So these are some things that you have to do to prevent stress.
The first and foremost thing is, you should learn how to act, and never to react. Never react, for example, somebody sends you a text message, wait for five minutes, or 10 minutes before you say something. If somebody’s yelling and shouting at you wait for five minutes before you say anything. I have a mental clock in my mind, if somebody is yelling at me, or somebody is showing the emotions of somebody is showing some anguish. Then I wait, I count 10. In my mind, before I respond. If I respond, I’ve seen this every time I have responded in line with their expression of emotion. I’m creating enmity I’m creating a fight. That’s the first one. The second part is you need to learn to say so what if something is seriously going wrong, something is you know, somebody is annoying you, somebody, you’re stuck in the traffic and you need to deal with taxes and you are missing deadlines. Ask the question. So what? It’s amazing when you put yourself in that state, everything that you do anything that you’re doing today, you got to preempt every act by asking one question, which is, what is the greater good? That’s going to happen? As a result of me doing this? What is the greater good in this? Whatever that is?
So before I started today’s podcast, I did ask this question, what is the greater good I’m doing as a result of doing this podcast? Yeah, there is a deadline to be met. Yes, this podcast has to go out. Yeah, all that is good. But then what is the greater good, the greater good is? Maybe nobody’s listening. But then what if somebody is listening? What if this is despite this one technique, this stress today is the only thing that they were looking for a solution for. And they happen to be stumbling upon this podcast today from nowhere, and they’re listening to this, and this is the only thing that is going to create the success that they are seeking or the breakthrough, or the transformation, that they have been waiting for years.
What if that means I need to preempt that in my mind, I need to have that in my mind before I attempt recording this podcast. If not, this is the job for me. If that meaning is not there, then this is not the way this whole thing becomes a futile effort is futile. One other thing, in any situation that you step yourself into, let’s say you are stuck in traffic and you hit the traffic and you need to get to the destination You’re getting late is what if that moment is your last moment? What if life stops in that moment. So and it has not stopped. That means you are given, you still have time on your side time is playing for you. Your life has not stopped, your heart has not stopped, you have a life you will get there. But a lot of people never get there. You see, once you bring that kind of perspective, you will never have stress. It’s impossible to have stress when you think like that. That is what we call living in gratitude. And I’ve seen this happen, people experienced stress because of the Forgotten gratitude, the forgotten what a blessing this life is how they have been given this. No animal has been given this. No other life form has been given this. It has been given to us humans. And we run around squandering it away. You know life is a gift. Very few people appreciate this gift. They spent days, months years deep depressive state, blaming someone for victimizing them. Why? Yes, you can try meditation. Yes, you can try yoga. Yes, you can try hypnosis. Yes, you can try anything and everything and you should. Why shouldn’t you? Try that which you know, will work and stay with something that works for you.
Okay, that’s all for now. I’m going to stop here. Have a wonderful Thursday. Tomorrow is the weekend. I’m gonna come back. I’m gonna keep it short tomorrow. Talk soon. Bye now.