📖 Introduction
Many teachers silently struggle with overwhelming stress, emotional exhaustion, depression, anxiety, burnout, and pressure hidden behind the classroom.
Although teaching is often viewed as a stable and respected profession, many educators quietly carry emotional wounds, family pressure, perfectionism, fear of failure, and deep loneliness inside.
This deeply moving meditation testimonial shares the story of Joo-Hwang L., an elementary school teacher who developed severe depression only one year after beginning his teaching career.
Although people around him admired his stable profession, internally he felt emotionally trapped, exhausted, anxious, and disconnected from both students and himself.
Even looking students in the eyes became difficult.
Through meditation and deep self-reflection, he gradually discovered the emotional wounds, suppressed stress, insecurity, family pressure, anger, anxiety, and desire for recognition that had quietly shaped his entire life.
As he learned to let go of those painful memories and emotional burdens through meditation, his depression slowly disappeared.
His relationships improved.
His classroom atmosphere changed completely.
And for the first time, teaching became meaningful and joyful again.
This meditation testimonial beautifully demonstrates how meditation can help relieve depression, teacher burnout, anxiety, emotional exhaustion, social anxiety, stress, and emotional wounds while restoring peace, confidence, compassion, and emotional freedom.
💬 Meditation Testimonial: “Meditation Completely Changed My Life as a Teacher”
By Joo-Hwang L. | Elementary School Teacher
🌧️ “I Became Depressed Only One Year After Becoming a Teacher”
In 2005, Joo-Hwang Lee graduated from a teachers college and immediately began working as an elementary school teacher.
People around him congratulated him constantly.
In Korea, becoming a teacher was considered one of the most stable and respected careers — especially during difficult economic times.
But none of those compliments meant anything to him.
Because internally, he was suffering deeply.
Although he had chosen teaching voluntarily, the reality felt completely different from what he had imagined.
He says there were days when he would stand facing the classroom chalkboard during lessons and quietly mutter to himself:
“I really don’t want to do this anymore.”
🏠 “Home Was Not a Place of Rest”
Returning home after work did not comfort him either.
After years of living independently, moving back with family felt emotionally suffocating.
Home no longer felt like a place to rest, but rather a place filled with pressure and expectations.
Because he had a stable teaching job, he felt family members expected things from him without truly understanding his struggles.
The stress became overwhelming.
After just one year of teaching, he developed severe depression.
⚠️ “Even Looking Students in the Eyes Became Difficult”
Everything started feeling frightening.
Even making eye contact with students in the classroom became emotionally exhausting.
After work, he often locked himself in his room crying.
Eventually, he visited a psychiatric clinic and began taking medication.
But nothing truly changed.
At some point, he began realizing:
“This is how people end up thinking about suicide.”
That winter, through a teacher training program, he encountered meditation for the first time.
✨ “The Bright Faces of the People There Shocked Me”
The first thing that surprised him was the atmosphere.
Everyone practicing meditation seemed genuinely bright and peaceful.
He remembers thinking:
“In a world this exhausting and stressful… people like this actually exist?”
That alone gave him hope.
🌌 “I Finally Saw the Darkness I Had Been Carrying”
As he reflected on his life, he began understanding where his suffering came from.
He saw:
- A childhood spent constantly watching others’ moods
- Emotional suppression inside a difficult family environment
- A deep obsession with earning recognition because adults had been disappointed he was not born a son
He also discovered that many of his parents’ emotional patterns had unconsciously become his own.
- His father’s explosive anger
- His mother’s anxiety and constant worry about money
All of those emotional patterns and painful memories had accumulated inside him.
And he realized he had unconsciously carried that stress into the classroom as well.
💔 “I Hurt Students While Believing I Was Helping Them”
Looking back at his teaching, he says he felt deep regret.
The stress he carried from home often spilled onto his students.
Sometimes he spoke harshly to children while convincing himself he was “teaching them for their own good.”
But honestly examining himself, he realized much of it had actually been emotional defensiveness and frustration.
He says he felt ashamed realizing how negatively he had viewed others while carrying so much darkness inside himself.
🌱 “As I Let Go of Those Memories, the Depression Slowly Disappeared”
He cried often during meditation.
And as he continued reflecting on and letting go of painful memories — what he describes as accumulated “mental photographs” from life — the depression slowly faded.
People around him began commenting that his face looked brighter.
💞 “Now Students Ask Me to Be Their Teacher Again”
His family relationships also improved dramatically.
Especially with his father, whom he had once found extremely difficult to be around.
Now they spend much more time talking comfortably together.
People around him often say:
“You seem so much brighter and more relaxed now.”
Some even jokingly ask whether he has started dating.
🍎 “The Children I Once Resented Became Precious to Me”
The biggest transformation happened in the classroom.
The students he once found exhausting began appearing completely differently to him.
He says:
- He no longer projects his emotions onto children
- He no longer dislikes students based on his own stress
- He naturally notices their strengths more than their flaws
As a result, he praises students more often.
The classroom that once felt heavy and tense is now filled with much more laughter.
And when students write letters saying:
“I wish you could be our teacher again next year,”
he says he feels overwhelming gratitude.
🌿 “The Change Was Simple — I Learned How to Let Go”
He says even interacting with strangers became easier.
The social anxiety and emotional barriers that once exhausted him gradually disappeared.
Now he easily becomes friends with people he has only recently met.
And when asked how such dramatic changes became possible, his answer is simple:
“I learned how to let go.”
“And I actually let go.”
