It’s 15 August, but are you really free?

“We keep ruining our mental well-being with these baseless societal expectations”

“Happy Independence Day”, roars everyone.

Instagram stories, WhatsApp forwards, and this message is everywhere.

Are you independent? Are you really free? Are you sure you’re not being run by the irrational nonsensical beliefs that this society has infringed on you?

When was the last time you were totally in the present moment, without on any drugs, and were having your best time without feeling guilty about it?

We live in a state of constant fear and illogical worries.

I need to earn more money

I need to get that promotion

I need to find someone who will love me

I need to get married by 28

No one would respect me if I didn’t get a good job…

These are some of the common worries from the neverending book of Worries.

We keep ruining our mental well-being with these baseless societal expectations.

Just think about this.

There’s a kid, who has been told his whole life that study hard, get good grades, go to a great college, get a lavish job, and your life will be sorted.

This is something that he hears from everyone, including his teacher, parents, relatives, friends…

The friends gather around after their coaching classes and discuss the pressures of study.

You will often see kids on both sides of the spectrum. There are some who take this indoctrination very seriously and personally and try to give their best in the exams.

Then there are kids who just have fun all the time, barely pass their exams and just live life to the fullest. These are the kids that are frowned upon and parents usually advise them to stay away from such kids.

Obviously, kids listen and maintain a certain distance from these so-called “Bad Kids”.

They then keep mingling within the friend group that is under total indoctrination that runs on the mindset that “ If you don’t get good grades/college/job/partner/house/car, you will not be respected”

Respect plays a huge role in our consciousness. Our brains are programmed to stay in a tribe of similar convictions.

It is terrifying to even think that you will be abandoned by your tribe and left alone because surviving alone during primitive times meant that you will almost certainly die.

Now obviously you are not gonna die even if you are abandoned by everyone you know because now we don’t live in an environment filled with life-threatening predators.

We live in a considerably civilised society where you have all the necessary means to thrive, let alone barely survive or die.

SO

To avoid this abandonment feeling, kids fall back to people pleasing, and just mindlessly keep following society’s expectations.

What happens if you do that?

Nothing really… Maybe everything turned out well for you.

But did you hear about the kid who committed suicide because he couldn’t get a good rank in the exam?

Or about the student who hanged himself because he couldn’t get his dream job when all his friends got theirs?

Or about the guy jumped in front of the train after a break-up thinking that now no one would ever love him again?

Or about the gay kid whose parents abandoned him so he jumped off the roof?

Or about the girl whose nudes got leaked and she killed herself because she was afraid of what this evil wretched, atrocious society would say?

Again, the list is too long.

People are suffering… dying!

I was there too! But I escaped…

And I will try my best to help escape others.

Until then,

Happy Independence Day!

Fix your Beliefs, Fix your Reality.

Question Everything!

Sarthak Mirchandani