Misery and happiness are found in the same places.

Looking out into the vastness of the world can make it easy to feel lost and distant if one is the first distance from the Self.

In many ways, the world reflects our inner self. When we look at something, we’re projecting a part of ourselves upon it as a means of context and relation to it.

As we do this we build our view of the world around us in such a way as to become identified with it.

One’s perception becomes one’s reality.

Take a view of mountains and the ocean for instance.

For many seeing such a place may reflect happiness about being alive to appreciate such things. Yet for some this same beauty can be a source of terror and misery. The fear of the unknown, the fear of drowning, the fear of falling, and the fear of being attacked by a creature beneath the waves or in the hills are just as possible as the feelings of tranquillity and happiness in awe of nature’s beauty.

These two extremes however have nothing to do with the environment itself – they have to do with how the individual perceives it.

The nature of the expanse remains as it is – as beautiful as it can be deadly yet often only one extreme is present within.

Our relationship with ourselves functions in the same way.

The human condition has endowed us with the ability to be both beautiful and deadly – each extreme entirely within our control.

This same condition also governs our ability to find happiness. There are exceptions, but most of the time we have the choice to be happy or not to be regardless of the state of the external world.

It is not about the stimulus, it is about oneness and wholeness – things that each of us can strive for in our own way.

Happiness is not about what’s outside – it’s about making peace with what’s inside and how this peace can then be cast upon our surroundings.

Without such peace, we focus on all the hidden dangers and our fear. We also lose sight of the immense beauty of what is right in front of us in such a mindset.

Be one with yourself whilst seeing yourself as a complex yet complete being, and you will be one with the beauty of the complete and complex world in which you exist.