How to lead a stress-free life

It is impossible to avoid 100% of stress.

When we consider aging as one factor, no one can eliminate this challenge entirely.

However, other kinds of stress can likely be avoided.

First, what kinds of stress factors do we face?

・Economic

Credit cards

Housing purchases

Student loans

Car purchases

Speculative investments

These debts and risks are major causes of stress. It is necessary to minimize them as much as possible.

・Personal

Intelligence (IQ)

Emotional Intelligence (EQ)

Knowledge

Skills

Confidence

Perseverance

Endurance, Resilience

Charisma

Commitment

No one possesses most, if not all, of these entirely. Some are innate, like IQ and charisma, but other aspects can be learned and improved over time.

・Social

Work and relationships can easily be imagined as stress factors.

Here, let's consider social resources for alleviating stress:

1. People who love you dearly.

2. People who trust you.

3. Someone who will vouch for you.

4. People who are open-minded toward you.

5. People who teach you knowledge and skills.

6. People who believe in your potential.

7. People who will share things with you.

   
   

If you have a few such people, including family, stress can be significantly reduced.

Hannah Arendt, "The Human Condition"

Let's think about being stress-free, drawing on "The Human Condition" by Hannah Arendt, a political philosopher and thinker from Germany.

Arendt identifies three human activities as essential conditions of human life: "Labor," "Work," and "Action."

• Labor Activities necessary for survival.

• Work Creative or productive activity.

• Action Dialogue and interaction with others.

And as the equivalent or foundation for these three activities, she lists Wealth and Property.。

• Wealth

Money and material possessions.

Is fluid, inherently contains the fear of loss, and leads to stress such as dependence and attachment.

• Property

(e.g., Trust, Security, Home, Community, Inheritance, Tradition)

Social Capital (capital in human relationships).

The cultural fabric woven by people and place.

Arendt distinguishes between Wealth and Property, asking us what we should prioritize.

In the early Greek thought that forms the basis of such considerations, what was most despised?？

It is dependence.

Dependence on wealth.　

Economic and social dependence or attachment, personal inferiority complexes, etc. No one is free of stress. However, excessive craving brings suffering upon oneself. Lacking confidence and independence, and as a result, adhering too strictly to logic, leads to excessive rationality.

What is lacking in us today?

From "The Human Condition," it is perhaps creative/productive activity (Work) and interaction/dialogue (Action).

If we can revive opportunities in society to exercise these two activities and complement each other, I believe we can reduce stress.

There will likely be stress in the process of complementing each other, but the process of dialogue and creation can lead to both self-formation and mutual growth.

If too much emphasis is placed on Labor, we become bound by rules and regulations.

Rules are also said to represent a kind of despair regarding humanity.

However, it can also be said that precisely because humans have the capacity to recognize their own imperfections, they have engaged in dialogue, created rules, and earned trust.

People with whom you can exchange wonderful, heartfelt smiles.