Two mythological stories about coping with stress

1. Picture credit - Janaka and Ashtavakra
Day 70 - Coping with Stress
18 June 2020
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Prabodh Sirur
sirurp@gmail.com
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My learning for the day
Today I want to share my learning on the topic of coping with stress from two
mythological stories. The first story is about King Janak and Sage Ashtavakra
and the second is about the Sumerian King Gilgamesh.
Story 1 - King Janak and Sage Ashtavakra (From Hindu mythology)
This is a story of King Janak, Sita’s father, revered as an example of
non-attachment to material possessions.
Janak was Sage Ashtavakra’s disciple and would regularly visit the Sage to
learn the ultimate truth from him.
Ashtavakra’s sanyasi students were jealous of Janak because of Ashtavakra’s
love for Janak. Observing this jealousy, Ashtavakra played a trick on them. He
told one of the students to come in during the discourse and shout, “Oh
sanyasins, a monkey has come and is taking away all your clothes.” Hearing
this, all rushed out to shoo away the monkey. The next day, he asked the
student to come and shout, “Oh king Janak, your palace is on fire.” Janak just
glanced at the person and went back to his prayers.
Ashtavakra turned to his disciples and said, “Yesterday you were worried
about your loin cloths, the only possessions you have. Look at this King. He
showed no stress even when the whole of his palace was burning.”
Janak continued to study under the guidance of Ashtavakra. This study, a
dialogue between Ashtavakra and Janak, is known as Ashtavakra Gita.
Ashtavakra Gita is about the nature of soul, reality and bondage and about
the complete unreality of the external world and absolute oneness of
existence.
The learning
Problems, uncertainty and crises are part of life. In such situations,
maintaining equanimity opens up opportunities to find solutions.
There is no merit in getting stressed about what has already happened. You
can not undo it.
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Story 2 - The Epic of Gilgamesh (From Sumerian mythology)
The Epic of Gilgamesh is the oldest written story from Sumer, the earliest
known civilization.
This epic is written on clay tablets dated c 2000 BC.
The epic is about King Gilgamesh and his quest to become immortal.
King Gilgamesh was a powerful and arrogant king of Uruk. The Gods created
Enkidu, a wild man to stop Gilgamesh from oppressing the people of Uruk.
Enkidu challenges Gilgamesh but loses the fight. Nonetheless, the two
become great friends.
Together, they slay Humbaba, the guardian of the sacred Cedar. This enrages
the gods and they decide to sentence Enkidu to death and kill him.
This event triggers great fear and stress in Gilgamesh’s mind. The distress
over Enkidu's death causes Gilgamesh to undertake a long and perilous
journey to meet the immortal man Utnapishtim and discover the secret of
eternal life.
He learns from Utnapishtim that life on earth is temporary, so we should live
it to the fullest.
Gilgamesh also learns why Utnapishtim was immortal. It was because
Utnapishtim built a ship for all living beings to be carried in and keep them
alive when the gods brought floods to eliminate all life on earth.
The learning
Death anxiety causes distress casting a shadow over our daily life. Thoughts
of death create a sense of powerlessness, loneliness, and meaninglessness.
We must learn to accept death as a natural fact of life and live life to the
fullest.
We become immortal when we live for a cause.
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References
Ashtavakra – the Self-Realised Saint
Janaka and Ashtavakra: A Journey Beyond by Ashraf Karayath
Death anxiety. The worm at the core of mental health
Psychology Analysis: The Epic of Gilgamesh
The epic of Gilgamesh
My learning so far on this topic
Day 10 post - What is Hans Selye’s stress theory?, Ways to cope with stress
Day 20 post - Symptoms of stress, Main causes of workplace stress,
Holmes-Rahe stress inventory
Day 30 post - Stress and Anxiety; are they different?, Mobile Apps to cope up
with stress
Day 40 post - Two TED talks - All it takes is ten mindful minutes & How to
make stress your friend
Day 50 - Two books - Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers & Manage Your Time to
Reduce Your Stress
Day 60 - Two movies - Amélie (2001) & Destressed (2014)
What is stress?
When you perceive a threat or a major challenge, chemicals and hormones surge
throughout your body. This is called stress. It is basically a survival mechanism of
our body.
There is good stress (eustress), bad stress (acute stress) and chronic stress
Eustress is the type of stress when we feel excited e.g. when riding a roller coaster
or when competing for a promotion etc.
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Acute stress is a short term stress because of some stressors e.g. stuck in a traffic
jam when we are late for a meeting, an argument with your spouse, an unkind
criticism from your boss etc.
Chronic stress is a long term stress brought on by continual acute stresses when we
repeatedly face stressors. This condition gives a feeling of helplessness and a
feeling of being put in inescapable state. Chronic stress causes many physical and
mental health related issues e.g. heart disease, cancer, lung ailments, accidents,
cirrhosis of the liver and suicide.
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How to improve this skill?
Set a goal to become a go-to person by mastering the art and science of coping
with stress.
Follow the LAST model to build your personal brand as a Guru of coping with
stress.
Learn - Invest time in learning different frameworks/ models/ techniques of coping
with stress
Apply -
Identify a model suitable to you
Create a template to document the flow of the process
Find opportunities to use the selected method/ template
Maintain record/ process flow of every important activities you did with
respect to coping with stress
Maintain notes of your thoughts/ insights/ failures/ challenges…. to be used
for sharing/ training others
Share - Share the insights captured in step 2 above in a planned manner (social
media posts, blogs, videos, study notes…)
Train - Generate opportunities to train your peers and team members so that, over
time, your organization benefits from your efforts
Purpose of this document
I took a 66 day challenge to study Life Skills last year (10 April 2019). To my
astonishment, I succeeded in studying for 66 days one skill a day.
My objectives of learning these skills were - To strengthen my mind to face life’s
challenges with ease, To use these skills in my worklife for a better performance, To
use these skills in my personal life for enriching my relationships, To open new
possibilities to surprise myself.
This is my next 66 day challenge (from 10 April 2020) - To share my Life Skills
learning with my social media friends.
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I pray that my toil helps you in your success journey.
What are Life Skills?
UNICEF defines Life skills as - psychosocial abilities for adaptive and positive
behaviour that enable individuals to deal effectively with the demands and
challenges of everyday life. They are loosely grouped into three broad categories
of skills
- cognitive skills for analyzing and using information,
- personal skills for developing personal agency and managing oneself,
- inter-personal skills for communicating and interacting effectively with others.
Which LifeSkills are covered?
The World Health Organisation identified these basic areas of life skills that are
relevant across cultures:
1. Decision-making
2. Problem-solving
3. Creative thinking
4. Critical thinking
5. Communication
6. Interpersonal skills
7. Self-awareness
8. Empathy
9. Coping with emotions
10. Coping with stress.
Some trivia
‘Life skills’ was never part of the school curriculum. WHO/ UNESCO mandated
academia to teach these skills in all schools across the globe in 1993.
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Different countries educate their children in these skills with different objectives
- Zimbabwe and Thailand - prevention of HIV/AIDS
- Mexico - prevention of adolescent pregnancy
- United Kingdom - child abuse prevention
- USA - prevention of substance abuse and violence
- South Africa and Colombia - positive socialization of children.
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