Friendship improves happiness, and abates misery, by doubling our joys, and dividing our grief. - Joseph Addison
Have you ever noticed that when you are engaging in a conversation with someone, who's attitude is positive and who builds you up, making you leave the conversation uplifted instead of down trodden, that life seems to be easier in the areas where you may have been struggling before? If you've never experienced this, it is imperative that you get around people that will do this.
Good friends and a strong uplifting community are like medicine. Over the past few weeks I have developed a new friendship with someone that is so positive and encouraging. Not only do we have fun in whatever we are doing, but I leave every conversation feeling built up and not torn down. I noticed that over the past few weeks, I have had almost zero cravings for sugar. Coincidence? I think not.
When you go through each day without support from friends who motivate you to stay on track, it makes life extremely hard and we often turn to food for comfort. We were born and rooted in community, and we are relational at our very core. We have come from tribes and small villages thousands of years ago, where we helped one another, but now we have come into a society that glorifies independence. Is independence what we really need to succeed though? On the contrary, when I feel alone, or that I have no one around me I can depend on, old feelings and habits often find their way back, and I start to crave foods that will "comfort" me, taking the place temporarily that should have been filled by the support and love of others.
I don't have many great friends, maybe a handful, but I'm ok with that. The friends I have always support me no matter what. They don't appease me, they speak the truth in love, and they make me want to be the best version of myself that I can be. Depression is something that I have struggled with the better half of my life and I have found that the best medicine to treat it is friendship.
It is very important who you choose to surround yourself with. You are the sum of the company you keep. If you hang around with people that are negative, who are unmotivated, and who see the glass as half empty all the time, you will end up thinking that way too. In order to be successful in any area of your life, you have got to get around people who are successful in their lives too. If you lack happiness, get around happy people, if you lack finances, get around financially stable people. Learn from those around you and be mindful of who you let into your life. Surround yourself with people you want to be like. Billionaires aren't hanging out with people who have no ambition in life to succeed financially, they hang out with other billionaires.
When you start to fill your life with friends and people who motivate you to achieve your goals, life gets so sweet that all the sugar in the world could present itself and it still wouldn't cause you to cheat.