In a rush. In pursuit. In self-doubt. In agony. In ecstasy. In chaos. These are some words that depict our life or state of mind. Life has become more complex, busy and dizzy. Just take the last five years, i.e., 2020 to 2025. Anything and everything has happened. Covid put an end to millions of lives and billions of people’s livings.
Caged in their houses families went through endless trauma all across the world. Two long years went living in this non-stop pressure cooker.
Just when everybody thought life is returning to normal the serial episodes on war became reality. 2022 saw the Russia-Ukraine war. Israel has been on a killing spree in Gaza and now the war on Iran. The unhealthy geo-politics combined with some of the toughest financial years have made more and more people become disengaged with work, with relationships and with life itself.
“The Mental State of the World Report for 2024” by Sapien Labs highlights concerning trends in global mental health as it draws attention to serious concerns.
The report uses the Mind Health Quotient (MHQ) to measure mental health and well-being, based on data from over 1 million participants across 82 countries. Younger adults (18-34) report significantly lower MHQ scores compared to older adults (55+). Challenges like emotional regulation, social interactions, and cognitive functions are more prevalent in younger generations.
The report says “We stand here in 2025 at a remarkable juncture in history where each younger generation across the modern world has diminished Mind Health relative to the previous generation, translating to a progressively diminishing capacity to navigate life’s challenges and function productively.” This is alarming. This needs attention. This needs solution. If the young are struggling to understand and cope with themselves and life, the world’s future is at stake. The problem with so much going around is that it makes people over-focused on the external and under-focused on the internal.
There seems to be an inner disconnect in the young where they face an identity and direction crisis. This gives way to dissatisfaction, anxiety, behaviour disorders and feeling of not belonging—a classical recipe for depression and mental dysfunctionality. The main contributors to this external focus are:
The outer noise— The outer noise suppresses the inner voice. With the last five years being nothing but amplified breaking news, the din of this crisis banging 24/7 has frayed nerves. All across the world, news seem dismal spelling doomsday. COVID made people imprisoned and agitated. Post-COVID the financial and global stress is making people stressed and frustrated. The conversations and discourses around are more on making do rather than finding the real meaning of life. People pursuing a degree are confused what to follow. Everybody is talking about artificial intelligence. Nobody is really talking about real intelligence of the youth. There is so much discussion on how machines can now learn but little on what the young want to learn. This has created a generation that is now being labeled as “impossible”. The Generation Z is being branded as unfit, misfit, alien etc. When they go to universities they find the studies too boring. When they go to work, they find work a burden. In all this “Out there” action the real person is lost.
The inner disconnect— Most people young or old go through life without really discovering their own real core. The basic journey of “selfrealization” is becoming increasingly clouded by their own inability to find what they really want and their desire to be “wanna be”. The social-media life is virtual but unreal. The “Selfie” is the most misleading presentation of reality. The DP profiles hardly ever match the actual person. The constant competition to look good, look ecstatic, look perfect (of course with the help of all the filters) creates huge dissatisfaction in most people. As people spend more and more time on the virtual life, the gap between what they really are and what they think they should be becomes more pronounced. They constantly look-out for validation, for comparison and for direction. The outside world is too busy posing as the most perfect poster picture person, the ace professional and the happy couple. Their pictures are getting thousands of likes and hundreds of followers. This makes their life look so rosy and exciting compared to people who are mostly dealing with the day-to-day ordeal of routines and relationships. Hardly any time is spent on discovering their own inner person.
What needs to be done is to:
Embrace your imperfections— Perfection is a curse. Perfection is a delusion. The perfect life does not exist. Seeking perfection is the shortest route to misery and discontent. The social media is a dumping of false pretensions. Stop looking at others and start looking within. It is our flaws that make us human. It is our imperfections that make us unique. Behind the happy, loving, laughing images of social media is the dark reality that is as stark as it is for everybody else. Start confronting your own fears, failures and realizing that this is normal. Start accepting your own person rather than comparing, regretting and carrying baggage. Let go of the “if only…” syndrome. Practice the art of forgiving others and forgiving yourself.
Find the light button within— Most people find it difficult to discover their own purpose and passion. What is that makes us lose track of time? What is that thing that makes you forget yourself? Is it painting, writing, helping others, cooking, etc. That is the discovery voyage you need to undertake within. Find out what makes the light bulb of the mind turn on? What is that makes your heart full and happy?
Share and shape— While self-realization does need inner exploration, connecting and sharing with others what you have discovered is essential. Talk to your trusted friends. Seek a mentor. Take help if required from a therapist. Seek information on what you want to do. Set up a flexible plan to go for it. Expect imperfections. Do not give yourself hard targets. Just keep at it.
To live a false life kills life. When the outer forces drive your life, it causes internal disconnect with a disturbing state of being switched off. This creates the need for constant external validation that is a cause of huge emotional upheaval.
The best way to live is to live authentically. That means discovering what really matters to you and living your life in congruence of these values. That then empowers you internally and gives meaning to your life. That then gets rid of trying to live your life mindlessly and meaninglessly. And then, try to help one more person discover the meaning of their life. As Pablo Picasso says, “The meaning of life is to find your gift, the purpose of life is to give it away”.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2025
The writer is a columnist, consultant, coach, and an analyst and can be reached at andleeb.abbas1@gmail.com