Why we are all so “stressed” these days and why mental health is so important in life

Your morning begins relaxed with a cup of coffee and a round of yoga. But the relaxation quickly disappears, as your desk planner glares at you out of the corner of your eye. For days, it feels like your to-do list is getting longer, not shorter. And there it is again: the stress. Where has the time gone, and how will you ever manage to tick off everything on your list?

Does this situation sound familiar? Don't worry, you're not alone! Many of us suffer from stress and feel like time is just slipping away. But why is this? Do we really have more to do these days, or are we creating this stress ourselves?

Studies show that we work less than we did a few years ago. So it can't be the workload. It's more to do with how we use our free time, and we can all admit this: on our mobile phones. We scroll through Instagram and TikTok, refresh our Pinterest boards with new inspiring pins, and it feels like hours have passed. Scientists have discovered that our perception of time has accelerated even more with the use of smartphones. Test subjects who read an advertisement for the latest iPad perceived time as passing faster than those who had read an excerpt from a non-technological novel. Added to this is the constant feeling of FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) that Instagram and other social media platforms instill in us every day. Your favorite blogger is sunning herself in a 5-star resort in Ibiza, your boyfriend is meeting up with his classmates for a barbecue, and your best friend is on a yoga retreat in the mountains. It seems as if everyone else is making much better use of their time than we are, and we're falling into leisure stress. Even though, as mentioned before, we work less and have more time on our hands, it doesn't seem that way to us, as we simply have far too many options for filling our free time at once.

This cycle of stress seems never-ending, because the younger generation seems to love work: welcome to hustle culture! Wake up at 5 a.m., finish the first workout, go to one of four jobs, do the second workout after work, then watch online courses on "starting up" until late at night, sleep for a bit, and then repeat. We feel like we always have to be doing something, using every second efficiently; otherwise, we're lazy. According to sociologist Max Weber, this has something to do with our culture: "Wasting time seems to us the worst of all sins."

With so many factors at play, it's really no wonder that we often feel stressed and that our to-do lists keep getting longer. But that's not all. Stress also affects our mental health, as the constant tension prevents us from truly relaxing. This means we sleep worse, we become irritable and nervous, and don't feel truly present. Our ability to concentrate is also impaired, and as a result we are more likely to make mistakes. This, in turn, erodes our self-confidence; we feel as if nothing is working and everything is collapsing around us. In the long run, this can lead to burnout syndrome, but can also cause other serious mental disorders such as anxiety, panic attacks, or depression.

So, what can we do to be less stressed and at the same time maintain our mental health without throwing everything into the mix? We'll tell you all about it in our next blog post!