Whilst I’m more likely to recommend ‘Surrounded by Idiots: The Four Types of Human Behaviour’ by Thomas Erikson for all of us who navigate the challenges of human beings in the workplace, I have just had my mind blown by ‘The Highly Sensitive Person: How To Thrive When the World Overwhelms You’ by Elaine Aron Ph.D.

This is not necessarily a book I’d recommend for every professional, evidently only about 15%-20% of human beings are highly sensitive, but if you have a sneaking suspicion ‘the world overwhelms you’ more than your average homo sapien, it’s definitely worth a read.

However, here is a line that I thought was universally applicable: ‘Part of maturing into wisdom is transferring more and more of your sense of security from the tangible to the intangible containers’. In other words, rather than feeling secure by the recognition of others, a job title or our bank balance, we are able to feel secure through mental practice (amongst other intangible containers). Rather than feeling overwhelmed at the thought of for example, challenging a colleague, pitching for a crucial mandate or our funds’ performance, it is far easier when we have an intangible container at our disposal.

As Aron points out, there are countless accounts of people who maintained their sanity by relying on their own intangible containers under extreme stress or danger.  Brian Keenan’s horrifying account of being kidnapped in 1980s Lebanon in ‘An Evil Cradling’ vividly comes to mind. He escaped the horrors of experience by revisiting family holidays in his mind alongside his spiritual practice.

The modern workplace can be a place where most of us will feel deeply insecure or psychologically unsafe at times. For most of us, it is rare we are in physical danger, yet quite often we will experience a work scenario as mentally or physiologically ‘do or die’.

From my experience, the very best intangible container for modern workplace (and life) to manage stress is meditation. I know, I’ve said it before but I’m saying it again.