“What is ‘Empty Heart Syndrome’? Can we really understand what Empty Heart Syndrome is?”
“The Deputy Director of Psychological Health Education and Counseling Center at Peking University, Xu Kaiwen, pointed out in a speech, ‘Even Peking University has 40% of students with Empty Heart Syndrome.'”
“What is Empty Heart Syndrome? Empty Heart Syndrome is a psychological disorder caused by a defect in values, characterized by feeling life is meaningless, feeling extremely lost in life, and not knowing what one wants.”
“Often feeling tired, lonely, in a bad mood, feeling that studying and living are meaningless, seeing no hope in life, repeating days without results, feeling lost with no hope for the future, feeling a lack of existence, emptiness in body and mind, and so on, are the most common manifestations of Empty Heart Syndrome.”
“So, why do people suffer from Empty Heart Syndrome? Nowadays, the pace of our lives has accelerated, even students going to school are under pressure from parents, only focusing on the grades on those exam papers, neglecting the cultivation of students’ true interests and ways of thinking.”
“Perhaps it is because of these reasons that many students are forced to pick up books under the supervision of teachers and parents, forcing themselves to remember boring and incomprehensible knowledge, their inner selves lacking what they truly want, everything being forcibly injected into their hearts by others.”
“Therefore, when they pass the college entrance examination, enter university, and reach the stage that parents and teachers say ‘Once you get into university, you will be relaxed.'”
“Students break free from the constraints of teachers and parents, the things forcibly stuffed in their hearts are taken out, and they are very happy at this moment, thinking they have escaped that oppressive period.”
“However, when this emotional high settles down, they find their hearts empty, without their own ideals, not knowing what to do after meeting their parents’ and teachers’ expectations.”
“Not knowing what to do besides continuing to force themselves to study and pretend to have ideals, not knowing what else they can do, not even knowing what they will do. Worse still, this is just the initial stage of creating an illusion of having aspirations by numbing oneself.”
“Subsequently, it is going with the flow. In college, with plenty of free time, when classmates are sleeping or playing games in the dormitory, your ‘pretense’ cannot withstand the test of time.”
“Over time, you will find yourself waking up later and later, spending more time in the dormitory, the knowledge from classes not sinking in, seemingly busy every day but actually wasting time on useless things!”
“Having no goals, no motivation, the final result is the manifestation of ‘Empty Heart Syndrome.'”
“In the last stage, they realize they have a problem, knowing they are becoming lazy, decadent, aimless, they will have the desire to change, but habits are easy to form, change is not easy. They begin to search for motivation and goals that can inspire them.”
“The Neglect of Children’s Psychological Health”
“Ridiculously, people like them, because since childhood, their families only focus on the number on the exam papers, never take the initiative to care about the difficulties their children face in studying, never ask about cultivating students’ interests and hobbies.”
“Moreover, they do not spend a lot of time having sincere and equal communication with their children or care about their children’s inner thoughts.”
“Hence, they may not even know what ideals and goals are, perhaps they don’t know at all. They will keep taking what their parents forced into their hearts as goals.”
“The final result is that the child appears to be studying all day, but their minds cannot absorb anything, they lack motivation and perseverance to study.”
“Imagine a person who doesn’t know what they want, besides mechanically following the crowd to do things that are meaningless, purely wasting time and not using their brains, they don’t know what they should do.”
“According to a recent report by Xinhua News Agency, currently 35% of adolescents show signs of mental abnormalities, what a significant proportion of data!”
“We all seek physical health, but many children are physically healthy, but their mental health has long been problematic and has not been identified in time! While ‘Empty Heart Syndrome’ is a disease that is extremely similar to depression, there is currently no cure.”
“Professor Xu Kaiwen from Peking University conducted surveys on first-year and postgraduate students:”
“At Peking University, 30.4% of students dislike studying, or think that studying is meaningless, and another 40.4% of students believe life has no meaning, feel no joy, and cannot create happiness for themselves.”
“It is hard to imagine that this is the psychological survey of children in our top academic institution! If this is the case in a top academic institution, how many students nationwide are facing such problems?”
“During primary and secondary school, they study for their parents, for their teachers, to meet their parents’ high expectations, their interests and the time they spend interacting with society are all dominated by a ‘this is for your own good’ and ‘it’s all for you’ illusion.”
“They lack or cannot find a sense of self-worth, feeling like they are just study machines, what teachers and parents like is just a high-scoring child, they do not feel the meaning of their existence, there is no place in their hearts for themselves.”
“What Should We Do?”
“When achieving a task or a goal, the focus should be on the process rather than the outcome. Learn to enjoy the process rather than pursue the one-sided result.”
“For example, when hiking, if you only care about whether you can reach the summit, you will miss the expectation of beautiful scenery along the way.”
“As a result, our sense of happiness in life decreases. When we focus on the process, we not only get to enjoy the beautiful scenery along the way, talk about the future and ideals, but also double our happiness when we reach the summit, and enhance our ability to perceive happiness!”
“Make friends widely, do not be afraid to meet new friends, everyone has their unique personalities, different ways of looking at things.”
“When you have more friends, you can experience their different perspectives and gradually start to look at problems from multiple angles.”
“All these changes people’s thoughts imperceptibly! The life experiences of new friends will bring you many interesting experiences, enabling you to turn what others have experienced in this world into your own problem-solving experiences.”
“Find your personal value, look at life positively. We should affirm our achievements in certain aspects, for example, ‘I really enjoy singing and I am good at it.'”
“Therefore, we should affirm and continue to love singing, not saying that singing does not align with our regular studies, or even having the thought that ‘interests and hobbies will interfere with studies.'”
“Believe that ‘success and fame are not the goals, but making yourself happy is the real meaning.’ Learning is important, but this does not deter me from pursuing things that make me happy.”
