A school that is also a competition, and a remark that lands at work

Society, this reading says, keeps changing quickly, and many people now meet anxiety, restlessness, and a sense of helplessness at work, at home, and in the run of a day. Because that strain can press on mental health, the writer wants it named clearly, and met with some care.

For a teenager, school itself can be the place where the strain starts. Those years are called a kind of golden stretch, and yet study, a poor mark, and the question of going on to university can make them painful. Marks and friendships can also be a pleasure, because a person shows what they can do beside their peers; the same race, and the hard work that goes with it, can wear them down. At work the pressure may be a promotion, or the task a person has to carry. This reading also names a forced resignation, an unfair order from a supervisor, and a shaming or belittling remark from colleagues.

A grandfather’s death before an exam, and the noise you cannot switch off

Friendship matters because people live among other people. It can mean sympathy, fun, and someone to play with; it can also mean a worry about popularity, or a quarrel, or the wish to be recognised. Between partners, a difference of body or feeling can bring jealousy and unease, and this reading even mentions a rise in blood pressure. A family is often a helpful kind of pressure, but a relative’s expectations, a duty, or trouble in the relationship can turn it into something heavier.

Mood, the writer says, can make the same event feel larger than it is. A student who has an exam next week may already feel the weekend closing in; if a grandfather has just died, and a low mood has followed, that exam can feel much harder. Small daily irritations — a meal that is hard to eat, a parent’s nagging, a prick of guilt — do not always raise the level on their own, yet they can pile up. Larger changes are named as well: a serious illness, the death of someone close, a move to another region, a parents’ divorce. They do not always end badly, but because they can turn a life they need careful handling.

Some sources sit outside a person’s reach: an excavator grinding away outside the classroom, a subway packed tight, crime in the neighbourhood. A wound or an illness in the body can work the same way; a chronic headache, or a bad cold, tires the mind as well as the flesh. If other people’s pressure can be a source of strain, so can isolation, because the buffer of a social support — someone to talk with, someone who helps a person weigh a thought, someone who stands with them — is then missing. A temperament that is impatient, aggressive, competitive, ambitious, and full of zeal is said to meet sharper strain, and a higher risk of health trouble, than a quieter one.

A quiet room, a 1972 study, and a group that speaks plainly

This reading sets out four methods, with dates they themselves give, and a short list of ordinary habits. A relaxation practice, dated here to 1975, is meant to loosen tension in the body and the mind and bring a person back to a steadier state. It is suggested when someone cannot keep still, or when a headache has come on. The practice starts in a quiet place, with as little stimulation as possible, and with one thought repeated.

Transcendental meditation is tied, on this page, to a 1972 study by the social psychologists Wallace and Benson, who looked at people in a yogic meditative state. Circulation increased, oxygen use and carbon-dioxide output fell, and sympathetic arousal was held back — a pattern this reading treats as the opposite of a stress response, and therefore as one way through. Biofeedback grew with computers and electronic devices. Heart rate, blood pressure, breathing, and brain waves are read so that a person can see their state and try to steer the body toward ease. Early attempts, this reading says, are often clumsy; the work is compared to operant conditioning, because a person has to learn how to adjust inner organs. An encounter group starts from the thought that much strain is a poor fit in human relations. People meet face to face and are given a chance to speak frankly; the hope is not only relief, but a lift in character. The method is offered to someone whose trouble keeps coming from other people.

A few plain habits are added: try not to cling to winning or losing; say a firm no when a task is beyond you; rise about fifteen minutes earlier; take criticism and look for something in it; keep a proper lunch, and keep work talk out of it; allow that other people can be wrong, without anger. The writer’s own view is that people now meet strain in many forms, and that it often gathers quietly before it breaks. Stress, as defined here, can land as helpful or harmful depending on a person’s stance, perception, and response. The writer still finds the tools and the standards for judging them thin, and wants more study so that people can steer their own strain more surely. The same Korean essay, at fuller length, is on CampusDown.

Sources

1. A class essay on where everyday strain starts — at school and work, among friends and family, in mood, in small irritations and large changes — and on methods for loosening it.
2. Lee Dong-sik, Modern People and Stress, Hangangsu, 1 May 2013, and Modern People and Neurosis, Hangangsu, 20 March 2014, as this reading lists those books.
3. A relaxation practice dated in this reading to 1975; transcendental meditation tied to a 1972 study by Wallace and Benson; biofeedback and encounter groups, as described in this reading.

Last updated: 14 November 2026