Total Well-Being:
6. Building Inner Strength – Physical, Emotional, and Intellectual:
People generally live much below the promise of their true potential. If only we tune up our three equipment viz. body, mind, and intellect (BMI), we can be much better performers. Our life will have holistic beauty. The whole of our life is precious and our relationships at home, work, and society are the mirrors of our well-being. It is codified common sense to spell out that diet and exercise are tonic for the body. So too, emotional literacy keeps the mind in fine health. Study and observation are the prescriptions for the intellect.
7. Objectivity – Keeping Out All Storms:
“Let external objects remain outside!” – says the Song Celestial, the Bhagavad Geeta (5:27). We need not make let our minds remain occupied with outer imperfections in the form of undue guilt or shame. If we allow our hearts to house all the problems of the world around us, even changes in weather would make our moods go up or down. “Act, do not react!” said Swami Chinmayanandaji. We ought to live in two chambers: one for interaction with the world, the second for looking within and rejuvenating the mind. Let us learn the special art of moving smoothly between these two chambers – the din of the many human contacts of our life and the quiet of our soul.
8. Fuel For Efficiency – Healthy Emotions:
Even the strongest man or lady in the world has emotions and can be hurt. Understanding and managing the waves – of gratification and sorrow, of pride and envy, and of motivation and despair – that rise in our bosom is pivotal in boosting our efficiency. It is important to perceive others correctly also. Knowing and handling their feelings is vital in successful leadership. First, we must recognize how important Emotional Quotient (EQ) is. Without it out Intelligence Quotient (IQ) is crippled. Nurturing healthy emotions can have magical effects on our life’s quality.
9. Building Inner Security – Reducing the Cause of Fear – I, me and mine:
“Anger is an appeal for help,” someone observed. Many forms of inadequacy infest us as we live in this society, which conditions us continuously with false values. Taking a closer and deeper look at our own psychological suffering, we realize that the very ego that we try to safeguard is the cause of all our problems. Slowly we discover the beauty of generous thinking, listening, giving, sharing, and serving. As the ego dissolves, we feel more secure – with or without money, with or without position, with or without name and fame. The plain truth is that wisdom is independent of all these externalities, in which generally we are held, hostage.
10. Group Dynamics – Balancing Empowerment and Control:
Our mind tends to go to extremes. Some of us try to do too much by just ourselves. Yet others among us look for somebody else always to take up a task. Teamwork is a skill that blesses one and all. TEAM means Together Everyone Achieves More. However, when we lead a team, we again have the same challenge of overcoming extreme tendencies, in another way now. Some of us give too little freedom to the team members, while others among us do not oversee enough. It is then a question of excessive control versus excessive delegation. Spiritual values help us view people with broadmindedness, and at the same time have healthy practices of supervision and stocktaking. We empower but do not pamper. We control but do not suffocate or frustrate anyone.
11. Mind Management – Through Right Breathing and Meditation:
“Mind and breath have a common source (and are closely linked); they are like two branches emerging from a single point.” – Sri Ramana Maharshi. Managing our breathing, or even just observing the movement of breath, can calm the mind. It can facilitate self-knowledge. Fine attention, without any preconceived notion, is the hallmark of meditation. Alert, but not moving in any specific direction, one may come upon the highest truth. We need to know what meditation is not! “All conflicts cease if the thinker can transcend himself.” J.Krishnamurti.