It’s fairly well known that people today are more stressed than they were in previous years. Perhaps this is why there’s been such a big push to get people to love themselves and meditate and engage in other stress relief activities. The only problem I have with this is that a lot of these suggestions are almost impossible to implement in times of actual stress. And even if they are helpful, they won’t be helpful forever.
People say, go take a bubble bath or go on vacation or talk to a friend. But what about people who barely have time for a shower? What about the people who can’t afford to go on a vacation? What about the people who don’t have friends? It is so irksome how people make de-stressing seem so easy when in actuality, it can be quite difficult. It is easy to relax when things are relaxing. But who has time for such elaborate relaxation techniques when things get hard?
I will admit, there are simpler exercises that do work. Mindfulness meditation, for example, has been on the rise and yes, being mindfulness and all that fancy being in the moment stuff is helpful. But after a while, you just get tired. You can only be in the moment so long before you start to break down. There comes a time when people need to evaluate why they need to be in the moment in the first place.
In my opinion, instead of throwing all these coping skills at people, we should address the reason why we need them in the first place. They say people are more stressed, more anxious and more depressed compared to a decade ago. Why? Why are people so stressed and why are we treating it like it’s normal? Why is it normal to be stressed and not sleep? Why is it normal to push our bodies to the point of breaking? I don’t know the answer to these questions but I do hope for the sake of society we address them and address them quickly.