Manila, 14 April 2021 — Dealing with unexpected stress and anxiety.

Story

It happened in 1987. Paulo Coelho, a novelist, wrote his fourth book and titled it The Alchemist. The writing took him only two weeks and he was confident it would be successful. Unfortunately, sales were so disappointing that the publisher gave him back the rights after one year. Coelho, however, didn’t give up and kept pursuing other publishers for years. Eventually, his effort paid off, and the rest is history. The book became an all-time global bestseller and launched Coelho’s career as an international award-winning writer of more than 30 books.

So what’s The Alchemist about? In the book, we learn how Santiago, a shepherd boy, has a dream about a great worldly treasure which, he is told, can be found in a country located far away from his own. So he sets off on a long and adventurous journey, filled with both beautiful and harrowing experiences. In the end, however, he returns home to find that the treasure was buried in the very place where he had his dream.

Fast forward to today, when you are bound to experience some unexpected form of stress and anxiety over the Covid-19 pandemic and its restrictions on your life. Tough luck if you, like Santiago, feel the travel urge to pursue your own dream and lift your career to the next level. Chances are that you will need to wait at home for a longer time. For sure, that can be a source of stress. And yet, as Coelho shows in the book, the story may not be all bad. On the contrary, a treasure might be waiting for you where you least expect it, right where you are. And you can discover the treasure when you’re willing to become the alchemist of your own reality and experience.

Challenge

So what to do with your pandemic-induced stress and anxiety? First off, you can decide to come out and admit that you’re stressed, starting with yourself. This is particularly hard for leaders who always see their glass half full, feel committed to serving others, and are driven by a relentless spirit of entrepreneurship. I know what I’m talking about: that includes me.

This week, I had an enriching conversation with a fellow leader in the Grow3Leaders community as part of our monthly theme of leaders taking multiple perspectives in situations. As we shared our experiences dealing with stress, in others, and in ourselves, we reflected on the healthy and unhealthy perspectives that we can take to deal with unexpected stress and anxiety. We reminded ourselves that we have a choice of different perspectives, and as leaders, we want to practice being aware of those so that we can make better choices. 

In taking healthy perspectives to deal with stress and anxiety, we can observe several directions. The first is to shift away from the personal ‘I’ perspective to a collective ‘We’ perspective, mindful of getting out of the ego trips that stress can easily induce in us. Instead, we can embrace gratitude for what we have, including our loved ones, colleagues, friends, and others in our network. Instead of letting our perspective and worldview contract under stress, we can mindfully do the opposite, shifting our awareness from I and Me to We and Us. The second is to balance our body-mind-spirit by spending less time in the mind and more in the body (exercise) and spirit (meditation). The third is to take our consciousness to the next level and realize, at a deeper level, that the treasure we seek is right here where we are, in other words Always Here Already.

Question

Elaborating on the third perspective, there is a lot to be discovered about dealing with stress by expanding your consciousness. Throughout history, all kinds of leaders have pointed us in this direction. Think of Harvard business professor Rosabeth Moss Kanter’s third key of leading positive change by Looking Up. Think how Nelson Mandela reminded us that things always seem impossible until they are done. And author Eckhart Tolle showing us that we only ever have The Power of Now at our disposal. Think too of the mystics we find in every wisdom tradition (religion) who wrote that a richer and deeper experience is available to us than what meets the eye. Guidance to the quality of our consciousness was also conveyed by classic philosophers such as Laozi in China and Nagarjuna in India, who pointed us to a timeless, ever-present, non-dual consciousness that we can learn to access anytime and anywhere. 

Each of these three healthy perspectives, of embracing We, of engaging mind-body-spirit, and of entering your expanded consciousness, can lead you to a treasure that is Always Here Already, like a flower in the palm of your hand. To find it, you don’t have to travel anywhere. You can practice where you are. You don’t need much space. Even for the physical exercise, all you need for TaiJi and using a stepper (and weights or bands) is 1.5 square meters.

So, what healthy and unhealthy perspectives are you taking when you experience unexpected stress and anxiety during the Covid-19 pandemic? That’s the question for this week. I hope that this post has given you some ideas where you can start giving your answer. Want more support? Then consider booking a Free Strategy Session to explore how you can take your leadership to the next level with coaching.