For my research essay, I will be exploring the impact that Transcendentalist teachings can have on the mental health of individuals, specifically in those under the age of 25, as a method of reducing levels of stress. Too often the younger generations are exposed to a fast-paced, hectic lifestyle that creates an inescapable environment of stress. This can come from the expectations of teachers, parents, friends, or even themselves. A 2024 study conducted by the American Psychological Association found that 75% of high school students reported feeling stressed, sadness, or fear on a regular basis and furthering on that, the average rating of stress on a scale of 1-10 was 5.8 in children aged 13-17 as opposed to the average of 3.8 that adults reported. Children and teenagers should not have to deal with this level of stress on a consistent basis as this can become extremely detrimental to their health over a period of time. The solution to this growing issue, I believe, lies in the past. The teachings of the Transcendentalists have been outlining ways to live life with purpose, in communion with nature, and with simplicity. By implementing these Transcendentalist ideas into their lives, the youth of today will be able to begin to decrease their stress levels while becoming happier with their lives overall.
Sources:
Thoreau, H. D., Bowman, J. C., ed. (1917) Walden, or, Life in the woods. [Chicago, New York, Scott, Foresman and company] [Pdf] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/17029241/.
Background: This book is one of the key writings of Transcendentalist teachings by Henry David Thoreau. He outlines his time living in the woods while attempting to find the meaning of life and how it should be lived.
How I intend to use it: I intend to use this to draw in ideas from the book to outline exactly what can be done in order to help live a life more in line with simplicity to reduce stress. This will also help me to ensure that I am accurately capturing the essence of what the Transcendentalist movement was all about.
Background: A Harvard University overview on a study published in April 2019 that connects spending time in nature to reduced levels of stress.
How I intend to use it: I intend to use this overview as a way to connect the Transcendentalist idea of communing with nature to the proven study that spending even a little time in nature can help reduce stress. This will strengthen the argument by backing it with science and a study from a credible source
https://www.apa.org/topics/mindfulness/meditation
Background: An article from the American Psychological Association that covers a research-backed method to reduce stress through meditation (connecting the mind with the body)
How I intend to use it: Connect the Transcendentalist idea that becoming more deliberate about the way you live in order to become more connected with your true self with the article topic as a way to highlight that the ideas brought forth almost 200 years ago are now being backed by science as proven methods to reduce stress.
Background: A lecture given by Ralph Waldo Emerson at the Masonic Temple in Boston, MA that outlines the ideas brought forth by Transcendentalism and how they can help a person become more complete.
How I intend to use it: To highlight Emerson’s ideas on individualism as brought forth in “Self Reliance” and to connect that to the American Psychological Association source about learning to become one with yourself.
Background: An article from Cornell University regarding the impact that spending only 10-50 minutes outside in nature can have on the mental state of someone as well as how simple it is to do so.
How I intend to use it: To connect with Walden and the Harvard overview to emphasize just how simple it is to be with nature and just how little it takes to experience the benefits of doing so.
Counterintuitive Fall 2024 
Your plan is admirable and exciting, ElongatedLobster, and extremely broad and complex. You can either take the “wouldn’t it be nice” approach or the “why it’s impossible” approach, which amount to much the same thing. Or you can prove me wrong and find a way to help youth claw back a bit of what Transcendentalists could more easily accomplish in their day.
Choosing a Perfect Reader is essential for all writers, but for you, it will be existential. You simply can’t, in 3000 words, communicate useful advice to ALL readers or address EVERYONE’s anxieties and stresses. If you’re up to the challenge, add a Perfect Reader section to your Proposal here so that, in as much detail as possible, you can start to outline your approach to just one person about how to de-clutter or de-stress or un-frazzle or uncouple from technology or reconnect with the ecology in practical terms, in specific “how to get through the day” terms. In that exercise, I think you’ll find out how you need to say what you want to say.
I heard a radio story over the weekend about a delightful kid in a caring family who was so appalled at the thought of slaughtered lambs that he not only became vegetarian himself at age 9 but demanded that his entire family stop eating meat. Anywhere. At any time. Or at least in his presence. He could not wrest control of his own life away from his 11-year-old brother and his parents, who respected his choice but wanted to make their own as well. His attempt to de-stress created massive complications, deviousness in his sibling (and his dad), deep conflict and resentment in his mother, lying and rationalizing and half solutions throughout the family, and not much resolution.
Help that kid. Or any other kid you can dream up. Avoid platitudes by getting gritty. Far from placidly surrendering to the currents in the river and going where the water goes, deviating from social norms is a tough up-stream slog.