Woke up in the tent. I left my girlfriend and do not plan on going back. I woke up around 8:30 a.m. and put a post out about human relationships as it relates to human happiness after I saw a long study of 85 years.
https://www.zmescience.com/science/news-science/what-makes-you-happy-redone/
Money is needed to survive in this country. A person needs to work and be wise with their money to have access to better options and comfort later in life. What I have learned about Massachusetts social service networks is a person can subsist indefinitely in this state on social services. You have free healthcare, free food, as well as free shelter/housing for a good portion of people. I believe all people should be guaranteed shelter. Sure some people have physical or mental disabilities that prevent them from having a quality of life the majority of people can access. What I’m saying is, when I spend a lot of time with people that live outside, they constantly struggle with relationships. They had toxic relationships with the people they interacted with such as other homeless people, their relationship with the systems that sustain them are flimsy and based on provision, there’s also the relationships people build with intoxicants, places, and things that become toxic.
This is something I used to talk about a lot with people I worked with that struggled with addictions. I’ve known about the importance of relationships and how the human mind will literally build a relationship with anything. Different animals have different survival tools. Relational thinking is the survival tool of humans. Association is how our mind strings and retrieves memories. I’m saying now, maybe I’m wrong, but I’m going to hold this position. If a person has strong, deep, quality relationships no matter where they live on the spectrum of the socioeconomic ladder they are going to be happier from day to day. If a person has poor, superficial, what’s-in-it-for-me, toxic, relationships or if they’re lonely their life is going to be sad.
I feel structured today. What I’m realizing is that for me without plans, goals, routine I spiral out into despondency. I think healthy structure coupled with effective relationship building can help a person experience a life of meaning and quality. It doesn’t seem that for most people happiness just develops on its own. It’s a process of effort and by adding these elements and effectively working towards greater quality in planning, goals, routine and valued relationships one finds a place where they are satisfied or if they are ambitious the ability to continue in sustainable accomplishment.
I was also given what I took as a sign from nature. To show that I had grown wiser from my experiences over the last year. It came in the letter A.