Possibilities Newsletter | July 2025

"Pushing down on me, Pressing down on you"

As a junior lawyer in my twenties, before internet or mobile phones, I lived in the office. Sexual harrassment was rife and unchecked, partners threw pens at us and the workload was relentless. To keep ourselves sane in the rinse-and-repeat cycle of work, we'd share jokes and sandwiches in the wee small hours while waiting for answers by fax (FAX!). We'd play pranks, give each other stupid nicknames and on weekends - if we got them- we'd blow off steam or collapse in front of the TV together

As a backdrop we had AIDS, nuclear escalation and the first Gulf War. "Under Pressure", by Queen and Bowie, was written a decade before. And let's not even go to the pressures on the previous generation. It's clear that stress was ever thus. But in this era, it feels like it hits different.

It was Youth Day in Singapore this month and in August, when students often get the exam results that determine their future, there's International Youth Day.

Meanwhile, the FT, is asking "why are young adults in the English-speaking world so unhappy? whilst also calling out the destabilising force of 'old men in a hurry' determined to leave policy legacies the awful consequences of which they won't live to bear.

'Unhappy' doesn't begin to cover it. The US is experiencing a teen mental health crisis. In Singapore the leading cause of death among youth is suicide.

Psychiatrist for adolescents, Dr. Neha Chaudhary, commented in an article for CNBC:

"It’s a population‑level cry for help."

"These are the days: it never rains but it pours"

Why were the stresses we faced in our twenties seemingly less anxiety-inducing - exciting even?

Western psychology couches the difference in terms of how an individual responds to stress. Therapists, coaches and Instagrammers have popularised ways to reframe stress cognitively, manage stress emotionally and regulate the nervous system so that stressful conditions can be experienced as positive 'eustress' rather than stress overload.

Whilst awareness of resilience building tools and techniques is useful, it may also, paradoxically, pile on additional pressure:- the pressure to be okay.

The truth is that whatever our individual stress factors and coping mechanisms, the anthropocene, is a pressurised period to be living through. Philosopher Tim Morton has even coined a term for the invisible forces we feel pushing down on us: "hyperobjects".

Morton explains that what we call our 'world' has changed and that the radical individualism that insists our fates and suffering are defined by our personal choices fuels an illusion that we are powerful and can take 'control' of our lives.

This blinds us to the hyperobjects that are shaping the trajectory of our futures: climate emergencies, pandemics, oligopolistic economies, disruption from technology and fragmentation of real community and society. But though we can't necessarily see them, we can feel their effects.

Hustle culture pushes our youth to 'optimise' themselves with productivity protocols. New age-y spiritual influencers encourage them to leave their woes for the universe to handle. But we're neither machines to be 'hacked', nor magical pixies able to float above the realities we are served.

As social beings with hopes and dreams for ourselves, our loved ones and the world we live in, narratives that insist our fates are in 'our hands alone' alienate us from each other at a time when joining hands gives us the best chance of the support and power we need to alleviate our collective pressures.

In other words, how do we tell our youth: it's not just a 'you' thing?

"Love dares you to change our way of caring about ourselves"

As research for this newsletter, I asked AI:

"what is the latest research on how to create eustress from stress?"

The first answers were about taking actions individually, e.g. cognitive reframing and changing mindset.

But then I asked:

 "What about how we can do better collectively to create conditions which turn stress into eustress? Is there any good research about that?"

Turns out there is: citing studies from Hong Kong, Singapore, India, China and South Africa, Gemini 2.5 Pro, concluded:

"While much of the popular discourse on stress focuses on individual coping mechanisms, a significant and growing body of research explores how we can collectively create environments that foster eustress—the positive, motivating stress that leads to growth and fulfilment.

This research spans organizational design, community development, and cultural studies with particularly insightful contributions coming from universities and researchers outside of the traditional Western framework*

*message us if you would like links to these studies

So whilst we should of course take actions to cope with individual stress, we also play a part in shaping our communities, social systems and cultural values to create collective resilience: our youth needs us.