The So-Called Good Life: How Chowa Choo Let Go of Work Stress

In brief

Chowa Choo, born in Malaysia and living in Sweden, chased money, status and long office hours — while sleeping badly, worrying constantly and feeling inadequate at work and at home. After taking up Falun Dafa, Chowa learned to let go of work stress and the need to feel important.

Long hours to feel important

Some of us stay late not because the work needs it, but because leaving on time would feel like being less. If you know that feeling, you’ll recognize Chowa.

Chowa Choo was born in Malaysia and had lived in Sweden for more than 20 years. For most of that time, Chowa’s idea of a good and successful life was clear: a lot of money, a high standard of living, a prestigious profession and a high social status.

“This so-called good life was slowly destroying me,” Chowa writes. “I was engaged in an endless struggle for no important purpose.”

“I was always worrying. I slept poorly and never had any peace of mind.”

To feel important, Chowa worked long hours — and, by Chowa’s own honest account, worked them inefficiently. Many of the extra hours were a way of covering up not managing the work well.

Sometimes a job well done or a reward brought a good feeling. “These periods of contentment never last long,” Chowa writes. “I was actually very unhappy.”

At weekends came too much food and drink, a way to convince Chowa that this was a good life. Underneath, there was a constant sense of falling short, “both at work and at home.” The body was keeping score too: insomnia, palpitations, pains in the chest.

If you’ve ever worked harder and harder to feel enough, and felt less and less, you are not alone in that.

Going to school again

About half a year before writing this account, Chowa’s spouse joined a local Falun Gong practice group. Chowa took the chance to attend a video course of lectures by Mr. Li Hongzhi, the founder of Falun Dafa.

At first, much of it went over Chowa’s head. But something in it stayed. “I had never heard anyone explain in such a way the workings of the universe,” Chowa writes. “He explained what it means to be a good person and how one might become one.”

So Chowa decided to start practicing by the principles of Falun Dafa, without waiting to understand all of it.

Changes began soon. Chowa lost weight. The chest pains eased, and the palpitations that had troubled Chowa for many years subsided, Chowa writes, to where the heartbeat could hardly be felt.

“Because of Falun Dafa, I now feel totally alive.”

For Chowa, learning the practice felt “like going to school again. Only this time I am preparing for my real future.”

Taking it lightly

The deeper change was at work.

Chowa began to see that pride, prestige and “other pettiness” had been causing years of physical and mental pain. Once Chowa understood what the teachings say about losses and gains, the old office struggle for advantage looked different — a race in which every small win had to be paid for somehow.

At first, Chowa writes, this new understanding felt quite lonely.

If you’ve started to step back from a race everyone around you is still running, that loneliness can be part of the change, not a sign you’re wrong.

Then, little by little, Chowa learned to take conflicts lightly.

“When a conflict arose, I tried not fight back although I felt unjustly treated,” Chowa writes. “Later I could take it very easy so that I was emotionally unaffected.”

The person who once worked late to feel important now looks at the same office with a softer eye. “Today I am aware of the anxiety and unhappiness that envelopes many people,” Chowa writes. “Sometimes I can feel compassion for those people who are trapped in sufferings caused by fighting for fame and fortune.”

Even in practice, the old habits tried to come back. For a while, Chowa studied Falun Dafa like another school subject, even trying to explain it to friends in scientific terms. At a large Falun Dafa conference in New York, Chowa came to see that this was the wrong way to study it — that it couldn’t be learned the ordinary way.

What was left, after letting so much go, was simple. “The Dafa has given my life meaning,” Chowa writes. “What I have experienced is beyond words.”

The so-called good life had been slowly wearing Chowa down. The new one doesn’t need long hours to prove anything.

What this story may hold for you

• Chowa’s long hours were, by Chowa’s own account, a way to feel important. Perhaps the question isn’t how to work more, but what the extra hours are trying to prove.
• Work stress showed up in the body — sleep, heartbeat, chest. Easing the pressure inside may ease more than the mind.
• Not fighting back, at first, felt unjust. Later it brought an ease no small win ever had.
• Stepping out of a race can feel lonely before it feels free. You might be gentle with yourself in that in-between time.
• A miracle might be the body healing, or the heart letting go, or finding meaning again — or any mix of these.

A free guide for the days stress won’t let go

If this story touched something in you, there are two more like it.

Our free guide, When Stress Won’t Let Go, gathers three true stories of people who were worn down by pressure that never let up — and what slowly changed for them — with a gentle page on how to begin.

It’s free. One email with the guide, then a few short letters. Unsubscribe any time.

Questions readers ask

Q: How do I deal with work stress when I can’t stop working long hours?

Chowa worked long, inefficient hours “in order to feel important,” and slept badly. What changed wasn’t a better schedule but a different idea of what mattered — and learning to take workplace conflicts lightly instead of fighting back.

Q: How can I manage stress when I always feel I’m not doing enough?

Chowa felt inadequate “both at work and at home” and chased status to fill the gap. Through Falun Dafa, Chowa came to see pride and prestige as burdens to set down, and found that letting go brought calm — and, in Chowa’s words, meaning.

Q: Where does this story come from?

From Chowa Choo’s talk “My Experiences on the Path of Falun Dafa,” chapter 7 of Falun Gong Stories: A Journey to Enlightenment (Golden Lotus Press, edited by Lance K. Culp), now hosted on en.minghui.org. The quotes are Chowa’s own words.

A note on health

These stories share personal experiences and inner journeys. They cannot replace professional psychological or medical help. If you are in serious distress or crisis, please reach out to a qualified local counselor, doctor or crisis line.