Living Under Pressure & Manipulation

Living under pressure is like fresh from the ocean shrimps being cooked to food. It’s like there’s this invisible weight on your shoulders, you can’t tell what’s really there but you know it exists. More like, Quang Duc’s self-immolation in Vietnam a midst social oppression; You look serene, but you're letting your insides burn. I couldn’t really fit into each and everyone’s description of it, even if I had the right adjectives and analogies to describe it.

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio from Pexels

 

Truth is, pressure treats everyone differently. Only one thing is certain: No one likes being pressured. Or you could be one of those straight-A students who live for the competition and expectations of others P.S. That’s gonna burn out soon, and you won’t like the smell of it.

 

We’re caught up in the drama of life, face it. More often than not, you’re gonna meet the most depressed souls roaming and just letting their lives slip by (and not in a Happy Hippie way.) The tables have turned, our society is in its most anxious. News Flash: Turns out, technological advancement is not as good as claims first suggested, says an 18 year from the Philippines (ME!).

Pressure can come in any form or shape, not only exclusive to people. It can be environmental, industrial, cultural, societal etc.--I just realized that all pressure has to use people as a vessel to run through.

 

“I once was just a nonchalant boy. Now I have to make big decisions.”

-Some mid 20s Asian dude trying to meditate on the thought that his parents are sending him to boarding school to study medicine when in actuality, he really likes painting.

 

When you perform under pressure, you fail horribly. After interviewing 12,000 people--from Fortune 500 employees to non-negotiable athletes--the author of Performing under pressure, Hendrie Weisinger, concludes how people can shudder and flop like fishes, even the most successful ones.

Also Read: Realizing That We Can't Always Please People

Wherever you are in your life, might it be in your most lucrative, in your sophomore days, or in an indolent and unproductive mid-life crisis, you’re still facing some form of STRESS-- I stressed the word “stress” using uppercase characters because it’s important to distinguish between stress and pressure-- See, stress can be negative or positive. Pressure, on the other hand, is just pressure.

 

Being exposed to some sort of stress every once in awhile armors you to become more prepared, and develop a mechanism in which will be your way of adapting to turmoil. Pressure is just plain disgusting and non-transformative in a positive way. When someone puts a high level of expectations on you to achieve a certain honor, you only do it because you’re trying to maintain their trust.

 

I remember watching “Billie on the Street.”It’s this crazy TV show on TruTv, in which this aggressive guy interviews people on the streets of NYC to compare celebs, and giving them a dollar once they said the correct answer, only the correct answer was up to his judgment. Don’t get me wrong, the show is great, but can you not see how this is exactly what your parents or whoever is trying to make you do?

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“You play stupid games, you win stupid prizes.” That idiom will hit even harder when that epiphany moment stops passing you by. Knock Knock! Can’t you see you’re being controlled and disarmed? Can you even reason with me why you’re doing this except using indisputable for being indecipherable excuses?

 

“No, Carl, this is where you’re wrong. I’m doing this because I’m motivated to. See, I want to get better.I’m doing this because I’m passionate about it!” says you. Do me a favor, waste, and bullshit with somebody else's time other than mine. Aren’t you seeing that you’re making a smokescreen to protect your manipulator? Sporadically, you check yourself and question, “am I happy with this?” but you don’t put depth into the thought that you dismiss it right before the “ting ting!” bell sound.

 



Photo by Lukas Rychvalsky from Pexels

Are you living up to a family legacy? Do you have an activist mindset that they silenced you and only allowed to do as ordered? Or are you like thousands who have a flimsy or bendable mind cause you’re still indecisive of what’s to prioritize, weak enough to always be modest. Whatever it is, you’re conflicted. Not screwed (yet), but conflicted.

1.Why can’t you be more like your sister

2.You’re a school DJ? How unpopular are you that you didn’t get admitted to a club?

3.You look fat in that dress, cut some weight!

4. Do this! Don’t do it in your old-fashioned way, if you want to be friends with us.

 

I’m sorry to burst your opposite-of-awareness bubble here, but if you have ever heard those words in verbatim (or close enough), you need to get the fuck out of that toxicity. You’re living in your worst nightmare where the only escape is by being awoken by a real brotherly slap in the face and be told. “Get your shit together, we’re leaving this shitholel!”