WHAT TO DO WHEN MULTITASKING WEARS YOU DOWN?

We live in a time where speed and accuracy are essential. Sometimes accuracy is sacrificed for speed. In order to get there as quickly as possible, we get into scrapes but we still keep doing it and patting ourselves on our backs.

Now scientists and doctors say that multitasking is bad for your brain.

What!?

We need to change again? Just when we had the last word on micro management and multitasking, now scientists are ready to kick us in the back once again it seems.

Why is multitasking bad?

According to doctors, it makes the brain focus on too many actions at the same time forcing it to perform equally well at the same time. (Well, I never thought the brain would experience side effects.) Now the brain can only take so much. The brain is a complex organ capable of performing many actions but I suppose when each one is opposed to the other and we do for the most mundane of actions, it can take a toll it seems.

Beethoven, according to recorded history, was capable of holding even 20 compositions in his head while he arranged all the scores of each musical instrument in his orchestra so that it blended together in one beautiful symphonic composition. (Even the ones in my Bhagavad Gita class for children understand what it is like to be a genius and know when they should give themselves a break.)

Perhaps Beethoven was an exceptional being, capable of doing astounding work or it could be that we are juggling such dissimilar actions that it does not accord our minds the time for assimilation and understanding.

It is no wonder that many of us are suffering from some form of

• Mental fatigue

• Mental delusion

• Disappointment

• Depression

• A general feeling of being too tired to wake up from bed

“naṣhṭo mohaḥ smṛitir labdhā tvat-prasādān mayāchyuta

sthito ‘smi gata-sandehaḥ kariṣhye vachanaṁ tava.”

(18:73)

Arjuna said: My delusion is destroyed, I have regained my memory through your grace, ‘O Krishna! I stand firm, free from doubt; I will act according to your word.

Arjuna’s Mental Fatigue

Imagine that Arjuna was suffering from mental disillusion about 4000 years ago. He had to juggle several roles.

He was a Kshatriya warrior and a prince of the Pandava family as a son of Pandu.

He was a married man with a wife and children. One of his sons was the ill-fated Abhimanyu.

And he had to fight his cousins, uncles, nephews, grandparents, godfathers, cousins-in-law, nephews-in-law etc.

The full brunt of actually facing them in a battle did not dawn on him until the scene of the first day of battle.

Arjuna’s Multitasking

He realised he had to compartmentalise being a family man and become a killing machine.

What a horrible realisation!

He had to become a warrior and become dispassionate while facing death.

And that became his biggest challenge in life.

Arjuna became mentally depressed and tired. He threw down his bow and arrows and refused to fight, retreating to his tent where he sat in an acute state of distress.

Multitasking wore him down

Multitasking wore him down and he could not focus on the most challenging of all his actions. As a Kshatriya, he should have been used to fighting against all sorts of enemies but facing his loved ones in a huge fighting arena was too much even for him. During our Bhagavad Gita classes in Yishun, we regularly discuss the various effects of stress on us and the Gita’s wise words that guide us throughout.

If the mighty Arjuna himself could lay down his bow and retreat, what are we?

Time to Take a Step Back

Perhaps it is time for us to take a step back and focus on one action at a time. Multitask if they are small actions but leave the bigge

r ones to be handled one at a time.

During our Sunday classes for children, we always examine how the Gita can help us in practical terms. Understanding the effect of the Gita and how much it can help us in our daily tasks can be an immeasurable gift.

The Ancient Gita can be Surprising

The Gita may be over 4000 years old but it is astonishingly young. Give yourself a break and take a leaf out of this ancient text to illuminate your way through your gloom. Hindu classes for children as well as for adults can be a useful tool to guide us in our navigation of mental challenges. Give it a try and take a step back. The ancient text can yield some surprising truths that extend far beyond the Dwapara Yuga to our 21st century.

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