Burden is something that is encountered by every individual in their lives. The definition of burden may vary according to the culture we have been brought up in and the family system that exists within our society. Burden as I think is something that can become a hindrance in our life and cause problems. It is something that sits on our shoulder and stresses us out. For some people small things can become a burden but for others major things can be an everyday activity. Burdens can be of many types, it can be emotional, psychological, physical, financial and social.
Living in an Asian society, we bear very different types of burdens. As we all know that the family system that prevails within the Asian continent is that of a joint family. All people cannot adjust to this system. In a joint family, the kids usually bear the burden of taking care of their elderly grandparents with or without their will. Financial burden is something we all can relate to, no matter what part of the world we live in. we all want to make our ends meet and to have enough money to cover the basic necessities and then have some money left for other activities.
There are social pressures on us to behave a certain way. Our society expects us to do some things and if we go against them, those acts or that behavior becomes a burden on our shoulders which we have to carry around.
Emotional burdens are also faced by everybody but they differ according to the culture. For example: an emotional burden on an individual living in Asia might be to ensure that he gets his daughter married off to a good man as soon as she turns 20. This can also be referred to as a social burden. On the other hand, an individual living and brought up in a Western society may not face this burden; his emotional burden may be relevant to his girlfriend.
Psychological burdens are not easy to define. This is relative to every individual and their experiences. For me a psychological burden will be any upcoming activity or chore that needs to be done. As long as I do not finish that chore, it would remain as a psychological burden.
It is not possible that there is any individual who has not thought of something as a burden. For a student, their studies and the exams can be a burden. For a man who has a family, there will be financial burdens as he would want to support his family. Being a part of society we all have social burdens. A married couple in Asia will have emotional burdens as they would have fights and try to make it up to each other. Politicians face the burden of running the country and taking the right decision at the right time. For people who work, they would have burdens related to work. Every individual thinks that their burden is the most and nobody else is experiencing the same thing but what they don’t know is that it is the same for everyone.