From Wikimedia Commons, the free media repository. File:Technology stress hunch.png
This newsletter has lifted a number of excerpts and snippets from Building Your BounceBackAbility - where more learning may be found – which cover the 9M framework of well-being/ mindful stress management (Williams, G. 2017)
On the inter-connectedness of the 9 M’s:
Have you noticed that a mood, resentment, stress, distraction is accompanied by changes in body posture, facial expression, energy levels and outlook. Our body, mind, spirit are inextricably linked: Imagine yourself in a stressful workplace situation with tight deadlines and where you suffer continuous eye strain due to poor lighting, or a computer screen with inadequate anti-glare and anti– radiation filtering. This leads to a headache, lowers your tolerance to stress, and results in failure to concentrate and complete tasks on time. This in turn results in you becoming irritable, which then might well trigger relationship conflict. (This conflict may be exacerbated by a command-and-control boss). Over time your confidence takes a knock.
Or you work in a highly competitive sales environment where salary is 100% commission. It’s cutthroat, there is no harmony or collaboration, and you witness unethical practices by colleagues in order to ‘get the business’. And the ‘bad guys’ seem to win. You can’t dissociate yourself from this, so you become anxious, depressed, lose focus and meaning, lose your appetite and sense of fun, even question your faith. Causes of such stress, the symptoms experienced and the antidotes to alleviate them are in each case physiological, psychological and socio-political - as shown on this chart:
So, the causes of distress may be social (financial problems, relationship conflict), physiological (headache, injury, chemical imbalance, lack of sleep) and psychological (low self - esteem, anxiety or fear), or a combination of these things. They may be internal and external. In situations of adversity and change we face distress at all of these levels.
Our coping mechanisms are also both external and internal. A social distress may be alleviated by financial planning advice, assertive communication training, training in public speaking. A physiological distress might require medication, better health insurance. And psychological distress may benefit from counselling, a programme to improve self-confidence. All of us may be helped by the development of mindfulness, emotional and social intelligence, and the resilience factors (resources) and resilience-building techniques and practices that are in the BounceBackAbility book.
Periodically doing the 9M checklist allows us to monitor ourselves, to refocus on what is important in the present moment.
The nature of true mindfulness
As their ship travels from Crete, Zorba the Greek becomes angry when Basil is too preoccupied to be in the present moment and wonder at a frolicking dolphin.
Zorba: “I felt once more how simple and frugal a thing is happiness: a glass of wine, a roast chestnut, a wretched little brazier, the sound of the sea. Nothing else”, and “I’ve stopped remembering bygones, stopped seeking future prospects. What matters to me is whatever is happening right now, at this very moment. I ask myself, ‘What are you doing now, Zorba?’ ‘I’m sleeping.’ ‘All right, sleep well!’ ‘What are you doing now, Zorba?’ ‘I’m working.’ ‘All right, work well!’ ‘What are you doing now, Zorba?’ ‘I’m embracing a woman.’ ‘All right, embrace her well!’ Forget all the rest”. (Kazantzakis, N. 1961)
Before going to the 9M checklist below, an example or two to illustrate. Consider the meals that you eat:
You can eat them mindlessly, be unaware because of your busyness, be in Fast-food gobble-and-go mode.
Or at another level participate in preparing carefully for a meal, slow down, eat at leisure and enjoy a convivial time with friends and family, sip a glass of wine …. Slow food.
At another 'higher' level, your meal may be a time of Quiet food. You contemplate with sensitivity and gratitude as you nourish your body and mind, the labour and thought that went into producing, transporting, preparing what you are eating. You taste mindfully. Savour. Perhaps sense that moment when you can no longer tell when the food becomes a separate object or merges into being a part of you.
And at an even higher level all of your eating becomes a sort of Mystical, habitual practice. It’s almost as if you are not aware that you are aware. You are lost in wonder.
These same levels of Unaware (U), being often mindful (O), being fully and constantly mindful (F) and possessing a ‘mystic’, im-bedded awareness or ‘abiding’ (P) apply to everything that we do, no matter how mundane the activity might seem on the surface. When we walk we can rush around without noticing at the U level, - or at the P level, as Thich Nhat Hanh teaches, “kiss the earth with our feet”. Being fully mindful in the present moment is a sort of relaxed, intense spirituality (if that makes sense!)
In BounceBackAbility, if you are interested in knowing more, the checklist that follows is accompanied by explanations for each of the questions: the Why?s).
Those who put faith in measures may wish to score themselves from 0 to 3 on each question. But remember - we may jump out of these levels, or states, quite frequently. The process is not a simple linear one. Over time we do make progress and become more consistent, but never ‘arrive’. Completing the checklist mindfully will however provide you with a good platform for increasing your awareness, without striving, in your daily living and (when you return to) the workplace. Perhaps begin by working first on your current ‘U’s – areas of mindlessness).
How often should you do the check? Whenever you feel or sense the need.
Cabin Fever
Being in forced lock-down during the coronavirus crisis may lead some to experience the sort of claustrophobia known as cabin fever. Fyodor Dostoevsky used the condition as one of his themes in Crime and Punishment (written in 1866). Cabin fever is usually characterised by symptoms that are psychological (restlessness, lethargy, depression, lack of motivation), physiological (apathy, food cravings, inability to focus and concentrate) and social (irritability, impatience, withdrawal, aggression).
I am not a medical doctor, but alleviation of these symptoms can be helped by following the 9Ms. Good exercise (physical and mental), regular healthy meals, time in the garden if you have one. If you don’t tap into your imagination, your inner reality. (The heroine of The Man from Beijing, when experiencing high blood pressure problems, is advised “look after your roses and come back when you are healthy again”. She replies: “I don’t grow roses”. Her adviser continues: “that’s what my grandmother used to say. She thought you should concentrate on growing your imaginary roses”. (Mankel, H. 2011)
I asked Norman Grimbeek, a long-time friend who has sailed around the World, what lessons had he learnt on his journeys that applied during lockdown. His reply confirms what has been said above. Norman stressed (forgive the pun) that the disciplines of regular watches/ periods of duty and being diligent with maintenance and other tasks during time off was important, as was being ready for adventure (He relates an unexpected chance to effect a rescue, spot whales or frolicking dolphins) and mindful of moments of appreciation and beauty, and ecstatic, extra special, rare moments such as witnessing a green flash as the sun sets. (Norman is a member of the Royal Order of the Green Flash, one of the rare few who have observed the green flash at the setting of the sun during exactly the right conditions).
Dr M.C.Briscoe recounts how the Royal Order of the Green Flash came to be in 1978. “On August 12th, all the skeptics became believers. We watched the sun dip below the horizon, and a very clear and bright Green Flash occurred. I had my camera in hand …. Afterwards, gathered in the main lab ….. The Royal Order of the Green Flash was formed at that moment”. (Brengle, G.M. 1983)
References
Brengle, George M (1983) The Green Flash Lives in Cruising World Magazine July 1983, Vol 9. No. 7, Page 123
Dostoevsky, Fyodor (2002) Crime and Punishment Penguin Classics
Kazantzakis, Nikos (1961) Zorba the Greek Kazantzakis Publications, Athens. Translated by Carl Wildman, published in English by Faber & Faber, London
Mankel, Henning (2011) The Man from Beijing Vintage Crime
Williams, Graham (2017) Building Your BounceBackAbility
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