Sri Ramakrishna Math : The Vedanta Kesari, Editorial: Stress and how to Cope with It

Over the last few decades, this world of ours has changed rapidly. The stupendous advances in various branches of science and technology have opened up new avenues of knowledge, enjoyment and human endeavour. At the same time, new problems have also cropped up. New terms have become common. For instance, globalization, globality, millennium, management, holistic approach, etc. have become household words. The revolution in communication technology has shrunk the world in an unprecedented manner. Even the concept of time has changed. In today's fast-paced society, with an acute sense of urgency, a twenty-four hour day measures far less than what it did half a century ago, Then there is increasing air and sound pollution as also thought pollution. Furthermore, there are job deadlines and work overload. These are some of the entirely new developments which have put greater stress on the modern man.

It is not that there was no stress in ancient times. According to Thomas A. Kempis, 'It is truly a misery to live upon earth.' Our very existence on this earth is fraught with various kinds of dangers and difficulties, and all the ancient cultures and religious systems have worked out ways and means of dealing with such existential problems and have symbolized and codified them in the epics and myths.

Take for example the episodes of the Ramayana. Dasharatha was faced with a situation, which in modern jargon could be termed as acute stress, and he succumbed to it. For Rama, too, it was a stressful situation--sudden in its origin and chronic in nature--living in hostile, unfamiliar situations for fourteen long years! Sita, by choosing to accompany Rama to the forest voluntarily, accepted a physically stressful situation, but was saved from psychological stress by remaining under the loving protection of Rama. However, she was subjected to extreme physical and psychological stress when she was kidnapped by Ravana and placed under custody, surrounded by hostile guards. The Mahabharata too is replete with events depicting various types of stresses and the way they were dealt with. These teachings have become part and parcel of Indian culture. While each individual has his or her own way of dealing with stressful situations, these examples from the epics give us guidelines which show how they can be best tackled.

Then we also have examples of stress-free personalities like Sri Krishna, the Buddha, Jesus, Mahavir, Swami Vivekananda, etc. who could face all sorts of stressful situations with perfect equanimity. Once Swami Vivekananda was invited to deliver a lecture by some cowboys in USA. They placed a tub upside down to make a platform and asked him to deliver his speech. As he was speaking, the sound of gun shots was heard and bullets whizzed past him. But he remained unperturbed and continued with his speech. On another occasion, he was crossing a field in England with two of his companions, a lady and a gentleman. Suddenly a bull charged at them. The gentleman ran to safety but the lady fell down in the line of the charging bull. Swami Vivekananda could have run to safety but instead, he stationed himself in front of the lady and faced the bull. The bull hesitated and retracted its steps. Swami Vivekananda was meanwhile mentally calculating the distance to which his heavy body would be thrown by the impact of the force of the charging bull!

Stress is a state that occurs when people are (a) faced with events they perceive as endangering their physical and psychological well-being, and are (b) unsure of their ability to deal with these events. Thus, stress has two components: (a) the endangering event or stressor and (b) the stress response.

The stressors could be of various types: there could be purely physical stressors like lifting a heavy load, walking an unusually long distance, physical illness, exposure to extremes of climate, etc. There could also be psychological stressors which could again be acute, like the death of a near and dear one, attempted murder, robbery, being sacked, divorce, etc., or, they could be chronic like daily hassles, job adjustments, conjugal dishormony, chronic financial stringency, etc. Earthquakes, floods etc. are natural, and wars are man-made collective stressors.

Stress response could be physiological or psychological. Physiological response is mediated through a structure in the brain called the thalamus. It stimulates the sympathetic nervous system which is mainly responsible for the reaction of fight or flight. More of adrenaline is secreted, the heart rate, rate of respiration and blood pressure increase; secretion of saliva and other digestive secretions are reduced and blood flow is directed towards the muscles from other organs of the body temporarily. This acute physiological stress reaction lasts only so long as the stressor lasts. It helps the individual to fight or fly to safety. There could be occasions when such a stressful situation persists. In that case the thalamo-sympathetic response may also get prolonged and an initially useful, protective response may turn into a harmful response leading to diseases like peptic ulcer, hypertension, etc.

Hans Selye, the pioneer in evolving the concept of physiological stress, has pointed out that a pair of endocrine glands called adrenals play a very vital role in stress. The adrenals have two parts: medulla and cortex. The adrenal cortex secretes a hormone called cortisole under the stimulus from the pituitary gland--the band master of the endocrine orchestra of the human body. This cortisole plays a very important role in chronic stresses and protects against the harmful effects of long-standing stress.

Although these physiological responses can be modified by drugs, they are mostly beyond our control, being mediated and governed through the autonomic nervous system and the endocrine system. However, with the help of some of the techniques of yoga, one can, to some extent, reduce the somatic reaction. One such technique is pranayama or rhythmic breathing. Breathing is the only movement which, though governed by the (involuntary) autonomic nervous system, is also to some extent, under our will. We can, by practice, make our breathing far more rhythmic than it is now. Through breath-control, we can reduce the physiological response to stress.

Asana, or steady posture, as advocated by yoga, also helps to dampen the possibly severe physiological stress response. Sitting in a steady posture without movement for a long time, first of all, trains the voluntary nervous system and then its effect is also felt on the autonomic nervous system.

As we have mentioned, the religions of the world have evolved ways and means of dealing with stressful situations. Religions are, in essence and by definition, systems of faith--faith in a superhuman, sustaining and protecting power. Such a faith is one of the most important means of stress management. People with faith can bear much greater stress than people without it. The Sanskrit word for religion is dharma which is etymologically derived from the root 'dhri, to sustain', which means a sustaining force.

Dharma as righteousness is greatly sustaining. A person who habitually and assiduously practises the moral values and follows a righteous path is less prone to breakdown under stressful situations or be swayed by threats or temptations. The constant practice of values like truth, ahimsa and brahmacharya makes a person morally tough against stress. There cannot be a better exemplar of this than Mahatma Gandhi.

The etymological meaning of the word ashrama is 'a stress-free place'. Shrama means stress, strain, tension or labour; ashrama means without stress and ashrama, with an elongated 'a' means a place, state or situation without stress. In this sense, the division of a Hindu's lifespan into four stages which are named as brahmacharya-ashrama, grihastha-ashrama, vanaprastha-ashrama, and sanyasa-ashrama is significant. The growing, fresh, young student can without much strain learn various skills, arts and sciences. He can also, likewise, accomplish the difficult task of controlling the senses and the mind in that stage of life. He or she is then supposed to enter the householder's life and discharge his duties towards his family and society. This, again, must be done in a stress-free manner. Attaining maturity in the middle age, the householder could easily hand over the responsibilities to his offspring and lead a retired stress-free life as a vanaprasthin. Finally, with all worldly desires satisfied or sublimated, one can lead a life of renunciation without internal conflicts or tensions.

There could be various types of psychological reactions to stressors. If the individual does not consider a situation a threat, there would not be any reaction. This is an important principle which can be made use of in minimizing stress. There is a story of a Zen master who lived in a village. Once a ruthless warrior attacked the country. Everyone fled except the monk. When the invading general asked his soldiers to search the village, they reported to him that except for a lone monk, there was not a soul in the village. The commander went to the monk and said, 'Don't you know that I can run over everything without blinking an eye?' The monk calmly replied, 'And I can be run over without my blinking an eye.' The monk had no stress reaction because he never saw a situation, however grave, as a threat.

All religious systems aim at building such equanimous personalities who would not be shaken by the severest of calamities or the greatest of temptations.

What is the secret of such a stable stress-resistant personality? As we have just now said, he or she does not consider any situation a threat. Why? Because they know that they are by nature divine souls who cannot in any way be affected by the modifications which are produced in the body and mind. They cannot die, cannot be hurt, cannot be deprived of anything. The Buddhists, of course, do not believe in a soul. Instead, they believe that there is nothing permanent--everything is in a flux. Hence, to feel threatened is irrational. A devotee identifies himself with his Divine Beloved. He accepts with equanimity every situation as presented by his Beloved. Or, a devotee has firm faith that the Lord will save him. In other words, there could be various spiritual attitudes which can make a person totally stress-free.

Another attitude which can make one stress-free is to be mentally prepared for the worst. Swami Vivekananda's father told him when he was a young man: 'Never be surprised at anything.' In this world of Maya anything is possible. Expectation in itself conduces to stress because if they are not fulfilled, we feel sorry or depressed.

According to laboratory experiments in stress response by modern techniques, it has been proved that if a person has an intimation of the stress situation about to occur, he responds to it in a much better way. The spiritual method trains the mind to accept the inevitability of disease and death, suffering and pain.

A second response to stress could be one of positive joy, when it is not considered a threat, but a challenge and an opportunity. A person with such an attitude rejoices when stressors are presented. Rather, he seeks such stressful situations so that by responding to them, he might be able to manifest his hidden potentialities. Swami Vivekananda was a great advocate of this attitude. Every stressful situation taken in the right attitude can act as a factor in character-building and a means of manifesting the inner potentiality. Indeed, those who from their early childhood have to face prolonged stressful situations get adapted to them better than those who are not exposed to them; and they also become physically and mentally tougher and better adapted to face stress.

Herein is the utility of the religious concept of tapas. Various types of tapas or austerities like fasts and night vigils etc. are in fact voluntarily produced, planned and calculated stressful situations. They make the mind and body less stress prone. Never seek an easy life: this is a common teaching of all religions. St.John of the Cross says:

Always seek for preference,
Not the easiest but the hardest;
Not the most charming but the most boring;
Not what pleases but what repels;
Not what consoles but rather what afflicts;
Not what saves trouble but what gives us trouble;
Not the most but the least...

One of the commonest technique prevalent in some form or the other in all religions is meditation. Christian prayer and mass, the Hindu sandhya, the Jain samayaka and the Muslim namaz are all various forms of meditation techniques. The votary is expected to perform these religious acts faithfully, with regularity and perseverence for a long time--nay, for the entire life. By these exercises the practitioner develops values like dedication, consistency and concentration. They also greatly help in imparting emotional stability to him, and in integrating his personality. Such virtues are extremely useful in dealing with stressful situations.

The second group of values advocated by the religions are non-attachment and dispassion. Every situation and its associated action involves a certain amount of uncertainty with regard to its results. If one is too much attached to the result--to the success of the enterprise--one is likely to be frustrated some day or the other. While attachment to an activity and the expectation of a specific result do conduce to the concentration of our energies, but attachment to the result and expectation of it cause undue stress and tension. That is why one is advised to work without attachments and be equanimous in success or failure, victory or defeat, good or bad. Without such equanimity, it is not possible to avoid stress and tension in work.

Two more psychological techniques prevalent among religions are (1) constant remembrance of God and (2) emphasizing that the world is unreal or unimportant and is not worth the candle. The practice of constant remembrance of God acts like a buffer between the stressful situation and the individual. We read stories of saints who, when tortured by hostile people, did not feel the stress or react so strongly. In fact they underrated the situation and easily got over it.

Constantly considering the world as unreal, transitory, full of suffering, a place not worth living in or possessing, immunes the mind against events which might disturb it if they are considered real. Swami Yatiswarananda, one of the former Vice-presidents of the Ramakrishna Order, has advised, 'Don't take the world-phantom too seriously.' We create our own stress-situations by overreacting and by giving too great an importance to situations.

There could be unwholesome responses in the form of anxiety, irritability, anger, depression, etc. When the stressor is considered an unwanted threat but which the person can cope with, there is irritation or anxiety. But when the person feels that he or she cannot cope with the stressor, there is a feeling of helplessness, depression and apathy. This happens due to lack of faith in oneself or in Divine help. Hence, in religious systems, faith in oneself or in God is strongly advocated and there is no greater advocate of faith in oneself than Swami Vivekananda.