Caring yourself and experiencing life

张珂嘉

Do you know what is the biggest factor contributes to adolescent death in China？ According to the statistics from the magazine The Economist， the suicide rate of Chinese teenagers has ranked first in the world . In China， about 100，000 teenagers die of suicide each year which is equivalent to two teenagers taking their lives every minute. According to another survey ，Chinese youth suffering from mental disease like depression is up to 24%.It is really a fact that the young generation are under considerable psychological pressure and can hardly find ways to relieve their depression.

So why is that case？ The old generation may argue that today's young people never worry about food and clothing. Not like people from the 60s or 70s ，they didn’t have mental problems because they cannot even be adequately fed. So they can hardly understand the anxiety from the youth and sometimes even blame freedom for making people think too much and regard it as something guilty. Actually I’m not quite agree. In fact， there are two kinds of reason in the world. One is scientific and technological reason， which explores nature， grasps the way the world works and pursues truth. The other is called value reason， which studies society， individuals， and advocates goodness and beauty. These two kinds of reason are at opposite ends of the rational balance and constitute the human ability to understand and transform the world. However， since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution， human beings have tasted the huge economic benefits brought by the development of science and technology and have been making it   a unprecedented stage. However， the research on human beings has not made breakthrough progress， and is even ignored by most people. From the fallacy of psychological counseling to the neglect of philosophy， sociology， psychology are enough to prove the balance is already tilting. So we seem destined to be more and more lonely. How to preserve temperature in the "iron cage"made by the overdeveloped science and technology era is the most important but neglected topic in this century.

Teenagers today were born on a speeding train，new things emerge and change so quickly and they are always pushed by the outside world to learn more to keep up with the times， but can hardly spare time for their inner heart to grow .Their self-consciousness begin to awake ，but their limited energy and time not allow them to form their values completely .So the imbalance between the time and the individuals appear. The feeling is just like what is said by the old professor Morrie： “So many people walk around with a meaningless life. They seem half-asleep， even when they’re busy doing things they think are important. We really don’t experience the world fully， instead ，we are doing what others do and what others want us to do.”

If we cannot escape and change the society， how can we light a light for ourselves in the cage woven by the social order？ Here are some of my thoughts

Do something useless. Since childhood， our teachers often asked us to read less "useless" books， do less "useless" things， say less "useless" words. And the majority of parents' logic is even more simple， things that do no help to exams， are useless. We learn from an early age that "useful" is the core of the social contract， and therefore "useless" becomes immoral. This "usefulness theory" made me miss out on many of life's treasures. We live cold， hard lives， but we even think we're efficient. Until one day， I was reading an essay on happiness， and it talked about the importance of non-instrumental goals to happiness. When I think about it carefully， it seems that the happiest time is useless time. Because at that time， we live in the present moment and breathe for the sake of breathing. At that time， it is the expression of our true self， the expression of our nature. People are no longer driven and alienated by purpose or interests， but in the most natural way to enjoy life. This can help boost people's happiness.

What’s more ，it is necessary to have the ability of self-awareness and self-reflection. The philosopher Spinoza said "as long as we have a clear and definite understanding of pain， we no longer feel painful." As far as I’m concerned， the best way to kill pain is to be aware of it， feel it flowing in your body， and then deeply analyze it and reflect on it， just make it your research object ，find out the reason it makes you painful and even more ，why do human beings have such emotion. Not only when you are in pain should you think ，but you should keep it as your daily habit . When a piece of news comes out， try to form your own opinion of the news instead of spending long time reading the comments on the internet. With attitudes towards life formed in your mind， you have just built yourself a great wall which defend you from being affected by the  outside .Descartes said ，I think therefore I am ，always think rationally and deeply ，you can be more transparent and less painful.

Also， making peace with yourself by acknowledging your limitations and shortcomings. Face the things you think is evil in your spirit directly. Human’s suffering comes from their desire and the things they avoid being. Not allowing oneself to be dark， not allowing life to be complex contributes to most of the psychological problems. To see what on earth we are avoiding is very difficult， even very painful. But only in this way can we see the source of the voices that are constantly questioning and blocking us. Break the useless lock and explore yourself， define yourself， choose yourself. Only in this way can we be "people" in the true sense. It is better to be a gentle beast than "useless innocence".So， "live in your truth， live in the truth of life."

The way of life can be free and beautiful， but unfortunately we lose the direction. We learn to be efficient， but we also isolate ourselves. Technology， which should have brought abundance， has left us behind in our desires. Our knowledge makes us question everything. Our "cleverness" makes us ruthless. We think too much and feel too little. We need humanity more than technology. We need gentleness and goodness more than knowledge.As a middle school student full of desire and thoughts for psychology， what I can do is limited. I just hope that some people can read this article， realize the lack of "research on people and society" in today's world， and try to do something to get people better.