The Hindu Business Line : Take a break to breakout

CONFLICTS, like solid waste, are inevitable. So, just as one can reap wealth from refuse, can you convert conflict into clarity? Yes. And you can move on to extraordinary performance, or `the zone', assures The Break-Out Principle by Herbert Benson and William Proctor, published by Scribner (www.simonsays.com). This is a self-help book for executives who are sapped out by stress. It was in 1908 that it was found that as stress increases, so do efficiency and performance. Called the Yerkes-Dodson Law, it showed a dome shaped curve to reveal a decline in performance when stress became too great. Don't let stress kill you.

To start with, check if some `tapes' are running inside. What? "Many if not most of the problems we face in terms of blocked creativity and productivity, sub-par athletic performance, flawed health, or even stunted spirituality can be traced back to unresolved destructive or negative thought patterns — such as nagging anxieties, stress-related emotional baggage, or circular, obsessive `mental tapes'."

Breakout is rooted in our self-healing capabilities, explain the authors. "Only about 25 per cent of medical complaints that bring patients to healthcare professionals can be diagnosed and treated effectively by drugs, surgery, or other scientifically based medical procedures. Most of the remaining 75 per cent will eventually improve as the body responds on its own, without medical intervention."

To trigger breakout, choose a meaningful word or phrase that can be repeated silently on a single exhalation, or out-breath, suggests the book. But not everybody may prefer a japa like this, so choose long walks, jog, playing drums and so on. "What's important is that the repetitive activity be non-stressful and sufficiently regular and long-lasting to enable you to break the former, limiting mental patterns." That should also explain why golf is a popular escape for top executives.

Part II of the book is about `the six peak experiences', viz., self-awareness, creativity, productivity, athleticism, rejuvenation and transcendence. Don't be baffled when you run into "some kind of barrier or dead end in your daily life" when your "usual activities, achievements, or values" seem inadequate and "your worldview falls short of being able to provide you with sold answers". You're at the portals of exploration, comfort the authors.

In the second peak, they would tell you, "There is no such thing as an uncreative person." It is just that brains of some highly creative people "may be wired in such a way that they can make unusual associations and come up with new ideas faster or more frequently than others."

Creativity leads you to the third peak, viz., productivity, that is, finding innovative ways to do an efficient job. "While weaker companies emphasise production of goods and services and the generation of profits, the companies with greater staying power recognise that the organisation is actually a community of human beings. As a result, they approach their company like `careful gardeners', who encourage growth and renewal, but without endangering the employee `plants' they are nurturing." In the fourth peak, athleticism, authors would exhort you to know your IZOF — `individual zone of optimal functioning'.

This is the ideal emotional range just before play begins, "where the athlete's nervousness is intense enough to produce an effective competitive edge and alertness but not so intense as to impair performance." Next is rejuvenation, something that flouts common thinking that our systems waste over time. When you achieve breakout, your emotional and physical health improves; you become more energetic and confident, assure the authors, but also become less prone to backaches, headaches, angina pain, and so on.

Worth taking a break, to breakout.

ManageMentor@TheHindu.co.in

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