Finding happiness in your environment is a significant issue. My experience is that it has a profound impact on my sense of wellbeing. As I walk the streets, I cannot help being affected by my surroundings.
How does the environment affect our emotional wellbeing?
Even though England is far richer than Africa, it can be a more depressing place to live. This is unexpected as there are no shacks in the surrounding neighbourhoods. On the contrary, the streets are lined with terraced houses that were built to last. Despite that, there is a sense of sadness and squalor in the atmosphere. Perhaps it is the clouded grey skies that convey as sense of grim heaviness.
Suburban roads are defined by rows of enormous garbage bins standing at the front doors of all the houses. It is also common to see abandoned mattresses and broken furniture discarded in heaps on street corners. This is a unique aspect of the indolent prosperity of western society. People in some neighbourhoods are too lazy to transport their rubbish to the appropriate places.
This type of behaviour contributes greatly to the surrounding unpleasantness. It would never happen in Africa where local communities are so poor that any discarded item is immediately taken and appropriated.
I have to admit that I miss the bright blue skies of Africa.
The sodden grey British climate is difficult enough to endure without having to traverse my way through the garbage littered streets. I had hoped to develop an affectionate familiarity with these surroundings. Unfortunately, this has not happened. It depresses me to venture out of doors and walk the grimy streets and so I stay at home.
Going for a walk or meeting someone for coffee is no fun in a grim dilapidated place.
Is there a solution?
If there is no other way to solve the problem, the only option that remains is to look for an environment that is more pleasant.
There are many beautiful places in Britain but it takes courage to change.