Happiness is my neighbor

All human beings want to be happy. Certainly, everyone seeks happiness according to his or her perspective and that is respected because at the end of the day each of us has the right to choose how to lead our lives. Of course, I will always disagree that anyone's happiness depends on the unhappiness or misfortunes of others. This is completely unacceptable to my mind and heart. I will respect all those who seek their happiness without harming others even if I do not share their views. For example, whoever believes that happiness is to be found in money, beauty or prestige, I respect them even though I do not share that criterion.

My philosophy of life with respect to happiness is to feel good about myself. I have achieved this by striving to spread love and comfort to all that surrounds me and that obviously wants to be reached by the affection I want to transmit. Recently I was having a conversation with a lady I met while sitting in a square talking for a while. Lately around here it is getting very hot and that is the main topic of conversation, after talking about the weather and the havoc that is happening on the planet because of the great prevailing pollution, the lady felt in confidence with me and told me some personal problems. I listened to her attentively and the only thing I told her was to have a little patience and ask God for wisdom to face the problem.

The lady was so grateful that I took the time to listen to her and seeing her more at ease made me feel happy. So one of the ideals in my life to be happy is to do what I can to help others if I can. There are so many people who need to be heard and although I am not a psychologist, I am a human being with feelings and I know how important it is to have someone who listens to you with empathy in difficult times. Therefore, something as simple as listening to someone who has problems and being able to help them feel better brings me an abundant sense of well-being.

Another thing that brings me a lot of happiness is letting nature embrace me. When I have close contact with a flower, an animal or an amazing sunset, endorphins and serotonins are activated in me in an incredible way. I consider myself a child in the middle of nature, I don't lose the capacity of astonishment when observing such a variety of species, landscapes, it's like seeing art live and it's totally free. This leads me to do everything in my power to make the necessary time to immerse myself in these scenarios that are true oases for me.

Happiness is within my reach, closer than I imagine. Seeing my cat doing pirouettes, having my parents by my side and feeling loved is the ultimate. Of course, life is full of heartaches but I don't focus on that, I choose to direct my attention to what makes me feel good and when problems come I think about what lesson I should learn from them. Although it is not always easy, at the end of the storms I see how I grow as a person and that also generates happiness. In short, I consider that happiness is my neighbor but to enjoy it I should not ignore it and much less take it for granted.

All photos are my own, taken with a Realme 7i.