Managing Stress — the Yoga Sutra way.
As a difficult year draws to a close, it is time to pause, reflect and make new affirmations for the coming year — to ensure that even though pain cannot be avoided, suffering can. The medical industry has raced against time to produce vaccines that are expected to take care of the virus strains — our primary source of pain in 2020. But for those whose lives have been indelibly scarred and altered by losses — family, health, financial security — the alleviation of suffering involves tackling the thinking patterns within one’s own mind. Stress is a treacherous and formidable foe to handle.
But there are antidotes.
One of the most authoritative and timeless texts that deal with the complexities of the mind at great length is the Yoga Sutras by Maharshi Patanjali.
Ironically, we humans, despite being a highly evolved species, are more intrinsically stress prone due to our tendency to replay stressful events in our mind in an endless loop. This generates a prolonged stress response, long after an unfortunate event has taken place in real time. Since the body cannot distinguish a real stressor from an imagined one, it ends up producing the same physiological response to both. Hence, cortisol levels remain chronically elevated, wreaking havoc on our physical and emotional wellbeing. It compromises our immune system, affects our metabolic functions and ultimately manifests as disease.
The general perception of stress being a modern day phenomenon is linked to the fact that stressors spring from the socio-cultural subtext of today’s world. For example, non-controllable stressors at the workplace include job loss, heavy work pressure, skill obsolescence, promotion denial etc. One needs psychological stamina to tackle these. The controllable stressors that creep in alongside are competitive rivalry, jealousy, greed, vindictiveness, ego, for which human values such as gratitude, honesty, patience, calmness and contentment need to be nourished.
One needs to acknowledge that the crux of chronic stress is poor management of the mind. And stress is no recent phenomenon. There are enough references in ancient scriptures to indicate that mental conflicts have had mankind in its grip since times immemorial. The Bhagavad Gita talks of the opposing pull or dwandwas that an exteriorized mind is subjected to. It offers instead the concept of balance or samattwa when faced with such conflicts. Dwandwa and samattwa form the psychological background of the battle of Kurukshetra in the Mahabharata.
But it is the Yoga Sutras by Maharshi Patanjali that tackle this issue head-on, by delving deep into the functioning of the human mind. The Sutras spell out powerful techniques for achieving an equanimous state of being, even as life with its ups and downs, happens all around. My year-long study of the Yoga Sutras after a 3.5 decade long corporate career, has given me the opportunity to personally experience the enormous, transformative effect of Ashtang yoga. By creating a heightened awareness of the inner workings of the mind, a complete re-orientation of one’s thought patterns comes into effect. That such a brilliant and comprehensive road map of the human personality was laid out thousands of years back and is relevant and applicable even today, is nothing short of breathtaking.
Interestingly, just three out of the 195 aphorisms of the Yoga Sutras are dedicated to Asanas — an indication that overall well-being is the result of more than mere Asana practice. The mind is the prime mover here. Patanjali, therefore, devotes his longest sutra (YS#2.34) to listing out the innumerable miseries that man can bring upon himself through his thoughts and actions. The negative acts may be performed either directly (krta), caused to be done by another (karita) or endorsed by oneself (anumodita); they may be incited by greed, anger or delusion (lobha, krodha, moha); and they may be mild, moderate or extreme (Mrdu, Madhya, Adhimatra) in intensity. Several commentators have interpreted and identified 81 stages of such pain causing actions. To catch the errant thought behind each action requires continuous reflection on our own true nature and a conscious recalibration of our thought patterns.
For this, Patanjali suggests the discipline of raising contrary positive emotions or Pratipaksh Bhavana, which gradually weakens or even eliminates the grip of negative emotions. ‘Cognitive reframing’ is the modern day equivalent of this process. The key here is to pause the hyperactive mind and consciously change the storyline running through it. Since our emotions arise out of our perception of the world, if the perceptions can be reframed, our emotions too will automatically follow suit.
Maintaining harmonious inter-personal relationships is another aspect that the Yoga Sutras emphasise upon, for keeping stress at bay. In YS#1.33, Patanjali offers four keys to unlock the four locks in our relationships, so to speak.
Maitri Karuna Mudita Upekshanam
Sukha Dukha Punya Apunya visanayam bhavanatas citta prasadanam
Hence, the appropriate way to respond to a happy person is with amity rather than envy; towards those in distress it is with compassion, not smugness; the success of a virtuous person is acknowledged with goodwill and the dissonance caused by a non-virtuous or negative person is treated with benevolent indifference. These positive emotions are known as Parikarmas. They are like embellishments that help polish the mind and inculcate positivity in us — the state of citta prasadanam.
Conventional medicine is increasingly recognizing the role of stress in a wide variety of medical ailments. Ancient yogic techniques, known for their restorative effect, are found to largely conform with modern day research findings , lending credence to the practice of yoga. For instance, doing asanas with the right anatomical alignment, right breath and right attitude shifts the balance of our Autonomic Nervous system; switching it from a hypervigilant state, mediated by the Sympathetic Nervous System that deals with acute crisis, to a relaxed ‘rest and digest’ response mediated by the Parasympathetic Nervous system, that restores the body to homeostasis.
Ashtang yoga practised in its entirety therefore ends up making us feel calmer, less fearful and uncertain even as contemplating on the Sutras inexorably draw us towards happiness and fulfilment. A priceless gift indeed from the ancient sages to the modern man going through trying times.
