The various causes of stress in today’s urban society

The word “stress” is defined by the Wikipedia as “a negative concept that can have an impact on one’s mental and physical well-being.” However, stress can be positive sometimes. Sudha Chandran is an Indian danseuse. Although she faces lots of pressure because she lost both of her legs in an accident, the physical and social inadequacies encourage her to continue her dance performances with the help of prosthetic legs instead of giving up her interest. Because people don’t make use of stress, they have lots of problem because of daily stress. “75% of the general population experiences at least ‘some stress’ every two weeks.”(National Health Interview Survey). "Stressed workers suffer a greatly increased risk of heart disease. Stressful jobs have a direct biological impact on the body. Workers under 50 who said their work was stressful were 68 per cent more likely to develop heart disease than the stress-free."(European Heart Journal). Why do people get stress? People get stress because of personal relationships, financial problems and workplace.

 When people are not able to keep a good relationship with others, they tend to be more stressful. When individuals have problem with getting along with others, first of all, they will feel angry and sad. After that they will become lonely because it seems like they lose a friend. For example, a husband somehow is not able to get well along with his wife. Then the wife may believe that her husband does not love her anymore, and he is going to divorce with her. Hence her life may be totally changed. In addition, we clearly see that teens are quite worried about their personal relationships from the followings. “From the study, the five stressors causing the most worry included "school work (68%), parents (56%) friends' problems (52%), romantic relationships (48%), and drugs in the neighborhood (48%)". The five sources of stress most often experienced for the youth in the study included "school work (78%), parents (68%), romantic relationships (64%), friends' problems (64%), and younger siblings (64%).” (Confronting Teen Stress, Meeting the Challenge in Baltimore City)

People are seriously stressed when they have financial problems. As we all know, in reality, people have to work so that they can make a living. Financial problems stress is usually a debilitating mental burden that happens again and again in a chronic way. More likely, adults are stressed because of financial problems. 73% of Americans name money as the number one factor that affects their stress level. (American Psychological Association, 2004) By contrast, children seldom worry about their incomes. However, 30% of children reported being worried about the family's financial situation.( American Psychological Association, 2004). Financial stress has led the list in many polls.
 
People usually get a lot of stress in workplace. Whether they are teachers, architects, or students, they get stressed because of the work. As I mentioned before, people should take advantage of the stress from workplace. It can motivate you to work harder. Unfortunately, most of people are not able to see the benefit of stress in workplace. Therefore most of them suffer from stress. “62% of Americans say work has a significant impact on stress levels”. (APA Survey 2004)"
“Millions of Americans suffer from unhealthy levels of stress at work.” (A study several years ago estimated the number to be 11 million--given events since that time, this number has certainly more than tripled--studies in Sweden, Canada, and other Westernized countries show similar trends.)

In conclusion, there are three main sources of stress. They are relationships with others, incomes worries, stress from workplace. People who have problems with others are possible to get a higher stress level. Most people have another stress because of financial problems. People who do not make use of stress find working stressful. There are other causes of stress. As long as we recognize them, we can make use of them and reduce the negative influence of stress.

How people’s differences in their definitions of success influence their lives.

  There are different definitions of success. And, there are successful people in the world. Bill Gates is consistently ranked among the world's wealthiest people and was the wealthiest overall from 1995 to 2009, excluding 2008, when he was ranked third. Albert Einstein is the father of modern physics and one of the most prolific intellects in human history. Everyone wants to be successful in some way. Michael Jordan, the greatest basketball player of all time, proposes that “I've failed over and over and over again in my life and that is why I succeed. “Abraham Lincoln, a champion for human liberty, proposes that“Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any one thing.” Because of people’s differences in their definitions of success, people are divided into three categories, Puritan, materialist and contributor.

People who follow the puritan mindset work in order to prove themselves. They believe that to be successful, they need to show their value. Helen Keller is one of the people who struggle for proving their value. She can just give up and stop struggling. However she wants to prove that even a disable person has value. She gets in the fight against illness, her spirit and her extraordinary successful experience have been inspired many normal person and disabled people to confront and overcome the difficulties. The reason that people are eager to prove their value is that they regard self -worth as the icon of success. As soon as they reach an achievement, they get more sense of worthiness, and there is always another goal they need to get. Therefore, we see many “puritan” busy with their work. There is a band called “Yes” says that “Prove yourself, you are the move you make, take your chances win or loser.” It obviously represents the importance of “proving myself ” for “puritan”

People who grow up on the material view of success tend to be crazy about money or possessions. This kind of people want to gain as much luxury and money as possible. They will never be satisfied with current situation. It is because they believe that successful people have this stuff therefore they need to have this stuff. They do not realize that successful people can enjoy luxury because they have already succeed, however normal people who have succeed yet should work harder instead of blindly seeking of material. We usually connect materialism to realism. For example, a couple divorce only because one of them is not satisfied with their financial status. Smokey Robinson says “As human beings, we're very materialistic and have all this stuff - furs and cars and diamonds and money.”

There is a kind of people who would like to sacrifice themselves to make the world a better place. They are different from “Puritan” because they strive for others. They are different from materialistic people because they work for a better world. They are the ones who really have value because they come to the world and really make some difference. The contributors believe that as long as they make the world better, even a bit better, it is successful. There is a person we will never forget, Mother Teresa. For over 45 years, she ministered to the poor, sick, orphaned, and dying, while guiding the Missionaries of Charity's expansion, first throughout India and then in other countries. Once, she said that “The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow; Be good anyway.” Although we may not be able to do things like Mother Teresa did, we can simply be willing to help people through their everyday struggles.

In conclusion, people’s different understandings on success classify people into self-value persons, possession persons, helpful persons. Are there any other sorts of opinions about success? Is it possible that somehow self-value persons have agreement with helpful persons? It is clear that there are some negative understandings among people. To correct individuals’ opinion about success, we must make our citizen receive correct view of success by producing relevant films, and so on. We have seen some negative opinions about success. If more and more negative opinions arise, fewer and fewer people will succeed. It is time for you to think about what success means to you.