★Selected by the publication support program for the best contents in 2022

★Thoughts are a tool we should use when we need them, and we should master our own thoughts.

★The author, starting from the perspective of ordinary people, uses comics and the story of the protagonist, Nan Gaomin, to reveal the unhappiness that ordinary people experience due to social competition, economic pressure, and appearance anxiety, despite the appearance of economic prosperity and material abundance. The book offers a range of practical psychological techniques and methods to help readers break mental stereotypes, reducing unnecessary mental stress and internal friction.

★This book is closely related to the psychological issues and life challenges commonly faced by people in modern society, making it highly relevant and valuable in practical applications. It also encourages readers to re-examine their own thinking patterns and lifestyles, thereby inspiring deeper self-reflection and growth.

★The comics, combined with an Eastern style background and design, provide readers with a unique aesthetic experience and a healing reading experience, helping readers find a moment of tranquility and relaxation amidst busyness and stress.

Nam Gomin is a typical office worker who is in his thirties. Like many other office workers, he is overworked in the run-of-the-mill routine and lives under constant stress to perform better than others at work. To make the matter worse, he recently broke up with his girlfriend. To deal with his overwhelming stress, he decides to visit Haru, a thought expert. After listening to Gomin’s problems, Haru explains how he should think about the way he has been thinking: how to understand the inertia of thoughts and how to escape from it, how not to draw conclusions and see problems as they are, how to avoid stereotypes which comes from the uncritical and repetitive thought process, how to stop oneself from overusing the mental ability of comparison, how to simplify one’s thoughts and doubt the conclusions of one’s thought process, and how to see and accept others without overthinking them. Haru also explains the limit and faulty workings of thoughts using examples, persuasion, proofs, and even shock therapy. With Haru’s help, Gomin becomes freed from obsessive thinking and faces his compulsive belief that happy life is problem-free life. He believed that his efforts should bring him happiness and success, but when it didn’t, he was overburdened with worry, fear, sadness, low self-esteem, insecurity, helplessness and even self-loathing by constantly comparing himself to others and finding himself falling short. Finally, he realizes how he has constantly beat himself up by trying to reach for faulty ideals, and by overcoming them, he is able to see himself as he is.

As people pursue happiness and success, they often experience sadness and desperation, and they struggle with fear and anxiety when they go through failures. People try to erase thoughts which are not of happiness or success, as they are unable to accept the fact that even those thoughts are a part of their life. This graphic novel deals with problems and thoughts that everyone has had at least once in their life, but by presenting them with pictures and humor, it makes it easy for readers to ponder more deeply. Haru is the guide in this book whose background illustrations are drawn like traditional Korean landscape paintings like an invitation to a forest of wisdom or healing. As Gomin discusses his ex-girlfriend and boss whom he hates, the book makes it clear that no one in our relationship can be perfect or fits perfectly to our expectations. People might seem progressive, bossy, outgoing, or reactionary, but these traits are just their façade to hide their vulnerability and inadequacy.

Giongwooan Hong
Since he was young, Hong Kyoung-won liked comic books and animations and also liked to spend time daydreaming. he wanted to be an adult, doing what he wanted to do, but he found out that reality was much tougher than he had expected. Despite disappointments and fear he has experienced in life, he also felt intrigued and challenged by those hurdles which life presented him with. After crying and laughing over them, he realized he was able to take another step forward. he writes and draws, hoping to introduce to readers books that will empower them or give them a moment of rest. After studying comics and animation at Sejong University, he worked on Team Leader Kang Overcoming Discrimination and Ashtanga for Kakao Webtoons. he received the Best Bucheon Manhwa Award for Living in a Forest in the category of children’s comics in 2020.