I'm 15, I'm burned out on Orthodoxy. What should I do?translated

Reader question:

Good afternoon. I burned out on Orthodoxy. Asceticism, rules, canons, fasting, strict advice from the elders, feats, frequent church, demands for holiness, self-denial - become a robot in a headscarf. I'm a teenager, I'm not a robot, I'm a human. It seems to me that I am always sinning, at every step. Everything makes me angry. You need to go to church every Sunday, otherwise you will disrespect the Sabbath. Father demands heroic deeds. I don’t see joy in Orthodoxy. I want to be an ordinary teenager, and not a monk in a cell. What should I do?

Gleb

Priest's answer:

Priest Evgeniy CHEBYKIN

Hello, Gleb.

What you write about in your letter can happen to anyone, so I ask you not to worry too much about this. Everything will definitely be fine!

I think now you just need to give your body and psyche a rest and, so to speak, reboot.

Temporarily reduce your prayer rule to a few prayers and do something interesting and useful. Sports, for example, and studies.

I am sure that if you do exactly this, then in a couple of months you will return to normal again and everything in your life will return to its place: prayer, deeds, and everything else.

At the same time,…