According to expert psychologists and philosophers from all around the world, there is one element they all agree to be crucial for long lasting happiness.

They all agree that strong relationships, be that with a childhood friend, family or a partner, are the key to happiness.

Gretchen Rubin, author of ‘Better Than Before: Mastering the Habits of Our Everyday Lives,’ says:

“I was surprised by how much evidence there is that to be happy, and even to be healthy, we really need to have strong relationships with other people.”

Relationships are underestimated in the modern society.

Especially relationships that have been established while we were growing up.

People nowadays are mostly focused on the betterment of the self, in fact, over focused. This results in the opposite outcome than the one they are seeking.

When they start bettering themselves – eating better food, exercising, meditating – they assume by default that there is something wrong with everyone else who doesn’t live like that. And because of this assumption they see most people as negative, even the ones that might simply live a different lifestyle.

They start cutting away negative people from their life, not giving enough credit to their relationships. And sometimes they cut away their most precious relationships, because they want to better their lifestyle, not realizing that exactly those relationships are the key to their happiness.

“one thing, absolutely, that ancient philosophers and contemporary scientists would agree is that a key, and perhaps the key to happiness, is relationships.” says Gretchen Rubin.

A relationship is a doorway into someone else’s world.

When you let someone else share their depths and when you share yours, a part of your worlds merge.

Both of your worlds become bigger. Both of you become more than you would have ever been alone.

Strong relationships show us that there is something beyond the physical, that there is a connection defying time and space relying solely on our love for each other.

We need to feel that we belong with a group of people, we have to be able to get support, and most importantly, we need to be able to give support in order to feel a deeper type of happiness. The strong relationships we establish give us the space for all of this.

If you want real happiness focus on improving your relationships with the people that really matter to you.

Instead of being overly focused on bettering ourselves, maybe we should focus a little in strengthening the relationships we have with other people.

Because, what’s the point in being a better version of yourself if you have no one to share that with. Especially the people who mean something to you.

Through your relationships, people will be inspired to better themselves too. You’ll show them a better way.

And you won’t be just happier but your life will have much more meaning, because you have relationships that are bigger than the people included.

Source: http://globaltimes.info;