Life educator, motivational speaker, and bestselling author of “Buddha At Work” that made waves across 4 continents, globally acclaimed life coach Geetanjali Pandit is back with a revolutionary podcast titled JUST CHILL!. Streaming on Audible, Geetanjali explores the facets of work-related stress and anxiety, and how to bring down the levels significantly in this chat show. Featuring iconic names like Lucky Ali, Vineet Nayyar, Major DP Singh, and many more, PEAKLIFE gets in conversation with the transformative speaker on her new venture.
1. Why did you decide to introduce a podcast based on work-related stress? What ignited the inspiration for this project?
I think the reality and the intensity of work-related stress led to the show to provide relevant answers and models. In the course of my corporate career as a CHRO and even prior to that in my Human Resources avatar, I ended up coaching and encouraging a multitude of colleagues and helping them cope with stress and anxiety. Almost all of these problems were stemming from their own approach to work, colleagues and difficult people or bosses, office politics, and sometimes even personal situations impacting performance.
To share this absolutely honestly and in the spirit of giving credit where credit is due, let me tell you that it was Audible that reached out to me just prior to the start of the pandemic with the idea to create a show for them that has relevance for just about everyone. They chose the topic and format of a chat show. And asked me to make it for them. So even though the idea of the work stress-related audio show was conceived just weeks before the pandemic, it became even more topical and vital to help people cope better with stress and reduce their anxiety once the pandemic set in and lockdowns and uncertainty became such a huge part of life for all of us.
Our purpose (Audible’s and mine) was to share practical tips that impact different facets of stress, especially at work. Just Chill! is an exploration of both attitude and approach that can be the difference between suffering work and working with pleasure.
2. Since all 12 episodes of Just Chill! are available to the audience, do you have a favorite and what made you choose the guests that you did?
So it’s really been absolutely amazing to create and put together Just Chill! from scratch. This was my first foray into the audio space. I had some strengths going into space. The first is my own experience and research which takes me straight into expertise on practical ways and means of managing work stress and bringing it right down.
The second was my clear intent to script it in a way that brought the maximum support and diverse experiences to the audience and actually demonstrate to the listeners that they are not alone in coping with stress. Faiz Ahmed Faiz said, “aur bhi gam hain zamane main mohabbat kay siva”. I can say with equal conviction – aur bhi professions hain zamane main with tremendous stress, since everyone in the corporate sector is convinced that their stress is huge and probably unbearable. For instance, for almost 70 plus percent of the people in corporations, a key stressor is the relationship with the boss. What happens when the Prime Minister himself is your boss? So this became a dimension to explore further. And my guest for this segment was the illustrious Padmashree Dr. Bibek Debroy, the Chairman to the Economic Advisory Council to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He spoke eloquently of how he manages his relationship with his ‘reporting manager’ the Prime Minister. No small feat!
With many more conversations with awe-inspiring personalities Just Chill! is a rich source of not only inspiration but practical advice and tips to cope with and ease out stress and anxiety at work.
3. You’ve been walking this empowering journey for 20 years now. What would you say has been the biggest shift in people’s mindset to attaining work-life balance? Do you think the pandemic has made it easier or harder to maintain?
The biggest shift in the mindset to attain work-life balance today is the intense desire to be able to do so. There is a clarity that people have about the need to do so. However, most people struggle with it. Aspirations in life and aspirations for a certain quality of life have never been higher than they are today. Each setback or delay in our aspirations being met is the cause of more emotional stress. The entire culture seems very driven to be more. Get more, have more, be more. So of course, stress keeps building up and rising. And the more stressed we are, the more we drive away what we are seeking. Too much stress stops us from thinking well or living well. We often end up making the wrong decisions. We live with a higher degree of impatience which starts to erode our relationships with others and with our own health.
I think the pandemic has mostly made it easier to maintain work-life balance provided of course, there is clarity on what is critical and important to us. For instance, it became crystal clear to me that health had to be the priority for me moving forward else I would be inviting a lot of disease in a few years time. Some of which have started now. With the pandemic on I was able to research, focus on and start taking the steps to course correct. With a host of people still following the hybrid model of work, there is an opportunity to reexamine priorities (as in what is important to them) and work on those.
And since I work with thousands of people in the matter of work-life balance, I want to say that we don’t have to have the perfect day in order to feel that there is balance. Just doing the right thing – may be just the one thing for a sustained period of time can bring balance to life.
4. Personally, what is your philosophy to ‘Just Chill!”?
For me, there are many things to do each day. I derive a great deal of pleasure from writing. So I need to research, study and read a lot. It gives me a thrill like no other. I am obsessively fond of books and movies or series that fall into the category of police procedurals – like the police solving murders, crime and so on, and international intrigue and conspiracies. I am extremely influenced by my father in a whole lot of choices in life. He was a police officer – an IPS officer who went on to do marvelous things in his working life and so, on some level, I just feel closer to him by going over books and things that he would have liked. I lost him a few years ago so that’s my way of continuing to bond with him.
I simply love cuddling, chatting, and playing with my daughters – I have two of them. It may sound contrary to popular thought, but for me, great work is my best way to chill. Spending time with a few friends (at a time) and enjoying good food in their company is yet another. I love music and listen to it as much as I can. I find meditating to be liberating and empowering. I love cooking and hosting friends and family. I can chill also by decluttering my home and my space. I do that very consciously at least twice a year. Sometimes even three times. The whole idea is to make life simpler and more minimalistic. I love getting a good body massage done and prefer the Kerala massages as a great way to detoxify and get rid of aches and pains, just to keep the lymphatic system moving.
I don’t try to have a perfect day – all lived in perfect balance. I do try – and mostly succeed- to do a few things for my health, for feeling empowered, for my happiness each day. This is like a conscious choice off the menu of life.
5. Lastly, what message would you like to share with those new to the ‘Just Chill!’ journey?
The first thing I have to suggest is STOP. Stop being all things to all people and all stakeholders in your life. We need to spend time, each day, very consciously with our own selves and understand what is important to us. Not what others tell us is important to us – be it friends, parents, society, social media or whatever. Pause and think how you want to define your work and your environment. What is the value that you wish to create on a consistent basis?
The second, start small. As I wrote in Buddha At Work, “Not all goals need to be major, life-altering ones. There is always place for smaller milestones on your list”. Most people focus on the big ticket item and forget to take the small steps that add up over a period of time.
The third suggestion I have is for folks to understand that life’s interconnectedness means one small shift can have a seismic effect – both for good and bad. Set a positive course. Change one habit and watch it ripple out and make your life bloom in many ways. Don’t try to change everything all at once. Be at ease with yourself and it will create a life of greater ease all around you. Relationships will be better and results will be better in every area of life. And of course, start by listening to Just Chill! on Audible!
Listen to the podcast here: https://www.audible.in/pd?asin=B09HJJ5WP6&source_code=APITMIOSAPP082416000I
