Stress Isn't What the World Does to You
David Oromith · 4 minutes · recorded May 17, 2026
A short extract. David on a line he rejected outright when he first heard it, that stress is not what the world does to you but what you bring to the world, and on why he came to find it freeing rather than a way of blaming people for their own difficulties.
A few minutes taken from The Psychology of Stress and Burnout. David returns to a statement he was given years ago and threw straight back: that stress is not what the world does to you, it is what you bring to the world. It sounded to him like victim blaming, and he wanted none of it. What changed was seeing where the power in it lies. Nothing here says the pressures are imaginary or that the situation does not matter. It says that the part we can work with is the part we bring, and that this is the part actually within reach. The full talk goes on to the psychology of stress as an over-arousal of emotion, and what happens when the demands we perceive outrun the resources we think we have.
Gratitude and appreciation Stress and burnout Compassion (karuna)