Root Cause Analysis

What strategies do you use to cope with negative feelings?

Application of RCA or Root Cause Analysis for identifying, understanding, analysing and resolving an oft recurrent problem is an effective tool.

Feelings , positive or negative, are reactions to internal or external stimuli. They are generally confusing because there is not one but many which are invoked at a particular moment. I believe RCA needs to be applied to human situations as well in order to declutter the mind, provide a scientific technique to reach to the crux of the matter which has given rise to a bag of chaotic thoughts and feelings, facilitate the right mental posturing to observe one’s own self in a detached manner, take a stand and demolish the demons and preserve the angel within us.

It sounds easy but its not. Experiences reveal that situations faced by humans are unforeseeable and unpredictable. Every situation requires a different approach commensurate to reactions elicited by it. Inspite of the variants certain thumb rules can be propounded which may seem generic in nature yet come handy as referrals.

I had an employee whom I tolerated for five long years thinking he would improve in good company and a well paid job. How wrong was I! He deteriorated as the salary became handsomer fanning his greed with a higher purchasing (read squandering) capacity. I do not believe in throwing my employees out on the drop of a hat. The native adage is nobody should be kicked in the stomach. Going by the same I tolerated him. He too did not wish to leave because he was having a cushy time under my employment. Moreover, there was no taker for him. However, he thought he was cut out for higher pedestal in life. Why am I giving this example? Because a bad person emanates bad vibes. By enduring him I continued with his negative aura which suffocated me to such an extent that one fine day, after half a decade, I threw him out of job and heaved a sigh of relief. It was like reclaiming my own life.

Moral of the story : In order to get rid of negativity identify the cause and uproot it as soon as possible.

When mother was diagonosed with COVID soon after discharge from hospital I told the attendant to go home and return after the gestation period was over. As a result, I was couped with mother in the deathly silent flat with a deadly disease eating into not only mother’s body but both our lives. I had heard that people suffered from depression during COVID due to various reasons and would wonder what was the correlation between the two. I understood when I ostracized myself from immediate family as a precautionary measure. The isolation unnerved me. As dusk would fall and the surrounds became maddeningly quiet the exact feeling that tormented me was a sense of acute loneliness as though the world had come to an end.

By the end of the second week the feeling was too overpowering to shrug off. Though my friends and family always said that I was very brave it was the shocking outcomes of COVID – the uncertainty, social segregation and the unwavering focus on the diseased patient – shrouded our existence in a thick fog of melancholia. As soon as the gestation period got over I sought the physician’s permission to get back the attendant not only to assist me to take care of now convalescing mother but ward off the thought of being left alone with a devouring ailment.

Essence of the Story : Mental composure is necessary to battle the “death eaters”. In case fighting it out alone seems a daunting task there is no shame in seeking assistance of others.

However, the journey did not end with my mother coming out of danger which itself took inordinately long. I seemed to lose control over my inner strength to recoup and recover. The negativities, a fall out of the disease, as it was alluded then even by doctors, considering the stigma attached to it, carried on like a miasma of gloom, apathy and erosion. There came a time when I, in one of the regular visits to mother’s neuropsychiatrist for treatment of her dementia, confessed my state of mind. He strongly recommended medical support but I was not keen because such treatments took long and had other side effects on the body. I was also afraid of drug dependence so often heard of in such cases. But he insisted that it was necessary and if not remedied now might develop into something bigger. I relented. Though I got cured within a short period he advised me to continue with some of the lighter doses given the high level of stress I suffered due to mother’s erratic health graph.

Heading for retirement, I told him I would like to stop the medicines as now at least one stress factor (related to work life) was going to be less. He agreed and decided to taper the dosage.

Conclusion : Medical help whenever necessary must be taken without dwelling much over the taboo it is being seen as.

Mental health is as important as physical health. Exercises to keep mentally fit is as much required as exercises to keep physically fit. Negativity is not a mythical experience. It is real. All of us suffer from it, time to time, with or without realizing. But once the catalyst is detected serious and immediate action is required to douse it. Analysing the anatomy of negative vibe is the next step. Once it is within grasp the requisite is to take social or medical help.

Although I have given a few very extreme scenarios from my personal life which heightened my stress level and resultant negativity. There are certain short term measures as well which I take recourse to on day to day basis.

Self observation is a must to figure out how you are reacting to certain people, places and situations in life. If I do not feel comfortable in anybody’s company , any place or situation life puts me in, my first reaction is to avoid or isolate myself from those people, places and situations. This is not escapism. Prevention is always better than cure. By not being there I safeguard myself from all those stmuli which may prove detrimental to my mental well being. Compelling one self to continue company of negative people, places where negativity throng and situations which promote awkwardness, discomfort and friction within oneself resulting in disastrous self doubt and brooding over it endlessly, isn’t it better to be in company of happiness, peace and ease?

There is as such no strategy for combating negativity though I have used the term posturing in the beginning of the post. I guess it is more of an instinctual and intuitive study.

More important is to be alert, in contact with your core and sensitive to the needs of your mental and physical well being.

A certain amount of detachment is of prime requirement to impartially assess your own self than others.

Understand your own requirements – what makes you happy, at peace and comfortable.

Invoke good thoughts.

Invest energy in good deeds.

Channelize excessive restlessness into creative modes.

Retain optimism and memories which have led to positive results, joyful moments and worthy achievements.

Cloak yourself in these memorable high points of life rather than wallow in self pity.

Remember idle mind is the devil’s workshop.

Maintain a routine and engage in meaningful work.

Recreate the past. Recall what all used to make you joyous in childhood. Try indulge in those activities. I re-read those books which I used to read as a child. Yes, your are right. Even children’s books. Similarly, I re-watch those movies, serials or cartoons which are part of my childhood memories.

Keep some time of the day for self introspection, meditation and exercises of spiritual upliftment.

I read good books, listen to soulful music and spiritual discourses and write a lot. I also look for newer sources and intiatives of engagement to keep myself busy (like doodling and doing riyaz ) and away from negativity.

Sometime social networking with virtual friends also help a lot.

What do you do to be away from negative forces?

Let me know…..