Staying sane at work — Tactic #2 –Balance for the imbalanced

Mark Soth

“Staying sane at work” is so chocked full of topics, it’s hard to know where to start.  Going insane is a much easier topic. It sort of happens naturally sometimes….well, actually in both cases; staying sane and going insane.  Why is that? You can be hit with 800 things (good or bad) in a day and feel invigorated.  A different day something (maybe just one thing) doesn’t go as expected and you think you are going to bust a blood vessel.

It all comes down to our inner state.  You could look at it as a state of consciousness, an ability to see beyond the issues, a balance, a perspective.  All are true. All are our view of the world.  A number of great seers, philosophers, gurus, teachers have said something to the effect; “The world is as you are.”  If you are worked up, negative, frustrated, then the world or your surroundings seem that way too. If you are positive, optimistic, forward looking, etc. then you tend to see things as having those qualities.  OK for many of you this is not news.  And if it is news to you …..you say….OK ………so what? I am in a shitty mood and everything looks bleak.  Yeah …..so what? What can i do with that tidbit of information?

Think about this.  Another seer once said, “the mind can’t have a mood on an abstract basis”. OK  I admit it doesn’t just jump out at you and give you an AHAA !  But here is what it means and how it can help. 

 Sometimes you just feel crappy. Period.

When you do, everything will seem crappy. No matter if the situation truly is or not.  The mind can’t just feel crappy (on an abstract basis) it has to attribute that mood to “something”.  “Something” can be a situation, a person, a discussion, etc.  How does this help? Well sometimes just knowing it is NOT the “thing”,  can be liberating.  Avoid making decisions based on your transient mood and you can avoid living with the consequences and  the painful cleanup.

I am not suggesting it is easy to do this always. But sometimes it is.

Step back and ask yourself if the feelings you have about a situation are something that came from the situation or are they as a result of how you are feeling in general. Has your mood colored the process of looking at things objectively?  We are always in control of our choices. Our choices can be our reactions to external events. Our reactions to external events can be (usually are) colored by our  internal landscape. Just knowing that can help on an intellectual level.  I will leave the topic of “gaining inner peace” for a later post.  But inner silence is the best way to “deal with ” all that is thrown at us in a workday.  Inner silence goes way beyond intellectualization or rationalization.  Again…..later. 

But before we leave the intellectual/ mental  side of things…. consider the following if you are feeling like a victim. If you are feeling out of control……that is a clue. It is time to stop. Stop intellectualizing the situation, get out of your head, go beyond the situation, gain perspective, and the only way to do that is to gain silence.     STOP.       Easiest thing to do and yet so “hard”.  Lots of methods: meditation, yoga, exercise, even music or art can take you out of your head.  We can explore these topics later.  What do you do to stop the noise?