Can Happiness Be Approached Without a Social Group? 

Social groups are a very important part of our lives. But to think that social groups are necessary for happiness is not right. In fact, it is important to stay alone. From our very childhood, we are taught that staying alone means that we are less popular or influential. If we don’t have a large group of friends with us, it means that we are a loser.

People think the larger the group of friends you have, the more popular and/ or influential you are. But it is not really about the number; it is about the depth. It is not about how many friends you have, but rather about how many friends you have whom you can be comfortable with. We definitely need friends and family in our life, but we also need to be alone sometimes. We should be able to confront ourselves and our thoughts. We should never make the involvement of others the only way to happiness. People nowadays don’t want to be alone with their thoughts.

In a research study, people were given an option between staying alone with their thoughts for just 15 minutes or taking a high-voltage shock. Can you guess what people opted for? Most opted for the shock as it would end soon and they just don’t want to be with their thoughts.

This is not right; we should be able to spend time alone and accept ourselves and our thoughts. We sometimes may feel lost and doubt our very existence. This happens because there are so many people and their brains around us that we start to lose our point of view.

We must shut down the outer world for some time and embrace our opinions and thoughts. This allows us to understand ourselves and accept ourselves as we are. We should take a moment to shut down everyone around us, analyse things ourselves and reach a conclusion that will make us the happiest. This will not only give us happiness in the future, but also give us the satisfaction of analysing and concluding things on our own.