"Be independent......Study well so that you don't need to rely on anyone financially". We have heard this sentence over and over again specially as an important guidance for life from parents to their children.
Parents want their children to be self sufficient and independent. But they only focus on financial independence. Is this enough? Well, you will be surprised to hear that according to a research done by the American Psychological Association, people in the 18-33 age group suffer from the highest levels of stress in the United States. Further, according to the Mental Health Foundation UK, 60% of young people (aged 18 to 24) have felt so stressed by the pressure to succeed that they have felt overwhelmed or unable to cope. Moreover, 47% of young people have felt so stressed by body image and appearance that they have felt overwhelmed or unable to cope.
What does this mean?
Being financially independent alone will not help any more. The definition of independence will need to be expanded to include a very important factor 'Happiness'. When one learns to be happy on their own without relying on others to make them happy, one achieves an enormous level of peace and contentment leading to being truly independent.
How can one be happy on their own? The two important pillars for being self-happy and emotionally independent are:
1. Accept yourself as you are. Body image and appearance should not be your defining factor and should not whatsoever have any impact on your confidence levels. Take efforts to be fit as well as to look decent but don't let your skills and image hide behind these factors resulting in living an unsatisfied and unhappy life.
2. Do things that you are good at and that you enjoy doing. Stress comes when one tries to try to fit in some place or run constantly in a rat race or do things they are not good at/ do not enjoy doing. Instead when one engages themselves in doing things one is good at or by doing things that one really enjoys, life becomes much more pleasant as one would be living with an intention to give their best to serve the society and the fear of losing or not succeeding disappears along with the stress.
Therefore, encourage yourselves and everyone around you to be responsible for one's own happiness (and not depend on others for this) to be fully independent rather than being financially independent only.
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