Stress Management through Yoga - Part 1 (By Hansaji J. Yogendra)

Every situation which has bothered you, you are supposed to identify that situation, give an answer to that situation and see that it does not pile up.  This is the best management.  In the morning you had an argument with your boss and you could not shout back at him, so you kept quiet, however you did get hurt.  You returned home, argued with your wife or somehow released your tensions.  But you have not yet solved the problem. Now before going to bed maybe you could just close your eyes and analyze the situation.  Then you could philosophize and answer it.  Well, boss is justified for his behavior because maybe that is the only way that he can get the work done and this is his way of managing his employees.  So you could answer that, well, anybody who is behaving in anyway is justified.

The thing here is that 'you don’t label it as wrong', because you put yourself in the boss’s situation, and then try to understand it.  Somehow bring all that logic, reasoning, and understanding and answer it and label that situation as a normal situation which should happen as it happened and finish the matter.  If you could do like that every day, things would not pile up.  But somehow we don’t do that reflecting each day and things get piled up. Sometimes the situation is such that any amount of philosophy does not work.  You are really disturbed and someone comes and tells you, “You should not!”  You feel like slapping that person.  You feel like saying, “Now shut up! I know all about it, but now I am disturbed, that’s it! I don’t want your advice!”  So when this is the situation, what to do?

Now Yoga tries to see stress from a different angle.  As Dr. Jayadeva said, any situation is a right situation.  If the understanding is there, then there is nothing like stress.  This word stress is not a Yoga term at all.  According to Yoga, the moment balanced state is lost you are under stress.  The moment you are away from a happy state you are under stress.  I am talking about negative stress.  This stress is going to cause havoc in your personality. So never let this stress pile up.

As soon as you are away from a happy state, what happens scientifically?

Hansaji Jayadeva Yogendra
Director at The Yoga Institute of Santracruz
Mumbai - India

- You all know the adrenaline, hormone is secreted into the blood stream, muscles become tight, arteries become narrow, blood pressure shoots up; you start breathing fast, your pulse rate goes up; all this happens;
- Also the purification of blood does not take place because you are really not taking a normal breath;
- Whatever food you have eaten, the body starts storing it because the body cannot assimilate it;
- Storage starts occurring, arthritis begins, arteriosclerosis starts.  It’s vicious circle;
- Above all your nervous system is much affected because nerves are no more in a normal state, a happy state.

Mind wants to be peaceful, relaxed and in a happy state. Everybody wants happiness.  But now what is happening here is that your nerves are not in happy state, so your concentration, memory and your reasoning power are poor.  Then if reasoning power is poor, then action/reaction begins and a person starts functioning at an animal level.  When he gets affected by others, action/reaction starts.  It is a vicious cycle.  So the Yogis say don’t allow this. But if it does happen then what do you do?

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Keep in touch with our blog. We'll soon post the continuation for this article: 'Stress Management Through Yoga - Part 2'

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About the author:

Smt. Hansaji Jayadeva is at present the Director of The Yoga Institute of Santacruz, Mumbai, India and the President of The International Board of Yoga. She is perhaps best known in India as the charming lady who was the Yoga expert in the popular television series 'Yoga for Better Living’, first televised in 1980 which was judged the best program of that time. But unlike many 'stars' she just does not act the part on the screen but lives what she preaches. She has also been selected 'Woman of the Year - 2000' by American Biographical Institute - USA, for her outstanding accomplishment and the noble example she has set for her peers and entire community.