Two forces seem to be in a constant battle over the human condition—stress and happiness. This infographic, as bright and as cheerful as it is, really does seem to promise strategies for cutting the stress in our modern lives and for adding more happiness to our daily existence. But let’s look this over and think about it a bit more: Is it truly giving us a path to follow, or is it just a bright decoration to hang over our lives while we live under the chaos of modern life?
Inconvenient, transient, and often taken for granted, stress is really a great, monumental, humiliating, and unending marker of the disordered, unfocused, and profoundly unsatisfactory existence we call life. Of course, no one really wants to live in stress. But can you recall a time when thinking about mental health was actually “in health”? Can you recall a time when what we pass off today as “wellness” was actually “wellness”? Stress is what happens when our lives seem devoid of real meaning and order, an unhappy life. On the other hand, the notion of happiness is a little puzzling. More often, it seems, we hear that happiness is something like a discipline or a form of irresponsible living, the way Junior Mints are a form of living dangerously.
The numeric representation of stress
The infographic opens with a few depressing stats. Almost half of all workers (41%) now say they’re burned out, and a stunning 92% say they feel overwhelmed by their work—6% can’t even get through a day without crying! And these rates are going up. Between 2018 and 2020, the percentage of people who say they’re burned out increased by almost half. This is obviously not okay. But it’s also not just our individual mental health that’s at stake here. When burnout becomes this common, and when it’s this underaddressed, we’re talking serious effects on all sorts of workplace outcomes—productivity not least among them.
The illustration goes beyond simply showing work as a main source of stress. It also pinpoints global instability and personal responsibilities as key stressors. But when it comes to work, we can’t overlook that technology has turned us into “permaworkers.” It has us tethered to our desks in a way that’s just not healthy. And anxiety can be healthy in small doses—it might even act as a potent motivational tool—but ours has been systematically eroded.
Health and Stress
The infographic illustrates how stress affects our well-being, depicting our current state of stress in a slew of physical and mental health problems manifested because of the pressure we are under. If you’re like me, you tend not to think much about what happens to you in moments of high stress. You’re not happy, but you’re not exactly on the way to some please-call-this-number-for-help rock bottom, either. It’s just a mental and physical strain that you’re pushing through. But really, for how long can any of us keep up this facade of chiseling away at our problems without going numb?
Yet, the article skims over this essential point: these symptoms stem from more than just stress. They arise from lives that are monotonous and purposeless, as well as from the structural and existential deficits we mentioned earlier. If you’re feeling constantly on the verge of collapse, it might not be just the outside world that’s oppressing you—it might be that you haven’t built a strong enough internal life to take the battering your external life dishes out.
Workplace Stress
Work stress stems from a few predictable sources—excessive hours, overwhelming workloads, and, well, no support. But you can’t very well advise against something if you don’t also offer an alternative or solution. And providing better alternatives to the demands of modern jobs invites conversations about how we work (and, too often, don’t). It prompts us to reclaim the lost art of rest. We’re so poor at it, our culture at large is constipated with not knowing how to say no, hold up in an all-affirmative, all-the-time society.
Ways to Overcome Work-Related Stress
Let’s now discuss solutions. They include having a stroll in the park and calling a friend to vent. These suggestions are all right, but they hardly get to the heart of the matter. Yes, a walk in nature is a fine way to momentarily elevate one’s mood, but what about the profound, life-and-death questions that some of us are living right now? And what about the paralyzing weight of our unsolved problems that accompany us when we leave the friend we have just unburdened ourselves to?
The proposals seem insincere, like a courteous acknowledgment of self-care that pays lip service to the concept without really trying to fix the systemic issues that lead to the kind of chaos and disorder that causes so many people to feel stressed and anxious. Stress isn’t just about managing symptoms; it’s about dealing with the underlying problems that lead to disorder in your life. And unless these tips actually do something to address that, they are no more effective than putting a bucket under a leaky roof without fixing the hole.
Less Stress: Controlling Stress
The infographic presents a series of stress management activities—like yoga, exercise, and hobbies—that individuals can engage in to battle the unrelenting pressure we all face. These are all constructive and effective methods, but what is actually required for really “combating” stress is not just the aforementioned activities, but the ability to easily integrate them into an already busy life. How do you go to yoga or do any other sort of engaging activity when your day, like almost everyone’s, is filled with a sticky, syrupy mass of demands? The infographic makes it seem as if the act of managing stress is an individual choice and does not seem to acknowledge that poverty, long working hours, and a lack of health insurance all contribute to an oppressive environment that makes it hard for anyone to manage stress effectively.
The “comfort food” section baffles me. To eat a good meal and watch something as “light” as could be a reality show on network TV is not true stress relief. It is simply coping. And it is probably not the best way to cope when your paycheck has just bounced, your wife has left you, or your mother has just died. What we need when we are truly stressed is not a good meal and a network TV show. We need a problem to solve. That is the kind of stress relief that has lasting effects.
Bringing It All Together
his infographic means well but is ultimately superficial. Saying that stress is a significant problem—and it is—doesn’t get at the heart of what stress really is and why so many people are stressed. Infographics like this one risk giving the impression that stress has simple solutions. It doesn’t. Unpack the advice in this infographic, and the narrative we’re asked to accept is that stress is the result of our individual failures to do what we know we should be doing.
To effectively lower stress levels and increase happiness, one must first tackle the basics. This means setting a schedule for each day, taking ownership over the choices that fill it, and devoting a significant amount of time to something that holds meaning and isn’t just a series of moment-to-moment decisions. Stress is actually an indicator, telling you that either your life or your insides aren’t in proper formation. And it’s a better to use the signal to reconfigure your day, in whatever way you need to, to make it more aligned with something that truly matters to you.
