Chennai: Stay home, plan and do a list of activities during pandemic times. Let there be no fear, says management guru Professor Vijaykumar Jayaram (VKJ).
Speaking to ‘News Today’, he says, “I am reminded of Amitabh Bachchan’s famous movie dialogue ‘Jo dar gaya samjho mar gaya..!’ Meaning decoded as – understand the fact that the one who gets scared is as good as dead. Technically speaking a panic attack can become as dangerous as a heart attack if it is not identified correctly. Under co-morbid conditions panic can turn fatal. The irony is that, the symptoms for panic attack and that of a heart attack are almost the same! The only difference, in a heart attack the symptoms continue even after 10-15 minutes of panic attack treatment and that’s where the golden hour begins for a first time heart patient.”
VKJ says, “Nowadays, the TV playing morbid clips and sensational news continuously for 24 hours, has led the nation into much confusion and national stress. Such negativity and fears are further fuelled by select international media regarding conditions and shortages creating a chain reaction of public panic. It becomes disastrous when unethical market opportunists start to hoard and black market the essentials. The print media is far better, probably because they are not live 24/7 and their editors try to make sense without repeating the same news again and again.”
How to detoxify or limit yourself to the above negative news exposures? Ask him, he says, “Stay home, plan and do a list of activities. Activities can be dancing, cleaning, washing, reorganising furniture, gardening, exercising etc. Learn the secret, to use actions to control the worrying mind and its subconscious levels against dwelling on the negatives.”
Og Mandino’s ancient secret scroll says, “weak is one who allows the thoughts to
control the actions and strong is one who forces the actions to control the
thoughts.”
Fix yourself in this philosophy and proceed to win. ‘How to control the fear feeling or panic attack? Use the M-B-A (Mind Body Awareness) technique.”
VKJ adds, “Mind – first step is to watch the thoughts creating the fear and shift the thoughts to something more pleasant and reassuring. For example, visualise a story or a place or a trip you liked. Visualise and replay a funny incident. Just forget about the fears or anything that is bothering you at the moment, just drop them and move on with your thoughts towards pleasantness. Hear relaxation music. Take deep breaths, inhale aromatic fragrance. Even if you are unable to change the thoughts initially say to yourself ‘it’s Ok no problem,” keep trying.
Body – As you change your thought pattern, for the body, have some water, checkĀ if you are feeling hungry, shift to a more comfortable position, loosen-up yourĀ fingers, arms, legs, stretch yourself, take full deep relaxed breaths (something the pandemic has taught all of us to do) or even answer nature’s call if need be!
Above all else pamper your body with some good aroma. Try sniffing a peeled lemon skin or an Ayurvedic pack made up of diet-camphor, clove, ajwain plus any suitable oil like eucalyptus or winter green.
Awareness is the final key to solving panic or fear attacks. At the beginning, boldly move your awareness into your fears and quickly dispose them off as weirdĀ imagination which will not occur. And next move your awareness onto somethingĀ more pleasant or a funny incident or onto the things you love.
With the body, mind and breathing feeling relaxed now move on to your plannedĀ activities. Try to maintain this awareness on all your activities, even if it is lost- no problem you can revive this relaxed state of awareness or happiness as long as you remain fearless.
Learn to laugh it out with friends and family members. Sit together for dinner and lunch. Remember to switch off your TV. Food digestion and TV news are a bad combination! This is your life and you will not allow anything negative to set in without your permission, he winds up.