The environment plays a crucial role in physical, mental, and social well-being and also modulates our feelings, mood, behavior, growth, potential, and productivity. Our happiness is influenced by our environment. There are three aspects of the environment which include social, cultural, and physical.  The social environment has a great impact on our emotional wellbeing. Social environmental factors refer to socioeconomic, racial and ethnic, and relational conditions that may influence a person’s ability to cope with emotional well being. Let us assume that a person loses his job or goes through a divorce. Having supportive friends and family during this time is vital to his/her ability to cope with stress. This can be best exemplified in the current scenario of Covid19 pandemic ravaging the economies around the world. Another example is if we at any point of time in our life have ever lived with negative minded people, or have a toxic boss or work colleague, we can probably understand how much influence that type of people have on us. Data from studies carried out by the World Health Organization reveals that around the world around one in four people generally has suffered from any particular kind of mental illness at some point in their lives. Such kinds of disorders can form in people due to a blend of causative reasons like upbringing, various stimuli to which the person has been exposed which come from the Social environment. So, the Social environment is one of the contributing factors in modulating happiness and psychological wellbeing.

Happiness is not just a personal experience; it is affected by individuals around you. So, it depends on where we live and how we live, our workplace, and the people we surround ourselves with. People with a more supportive family are generally happier and more successful in life. If people in our environment are pleasant and like-minded then it enhances our work productivity and growth. Ultimately, other people, especially those in our immediate environment play a crucial role in happiness.  The UN annual World Happiness Report shows that our cultural environment or the historical backdrop of the country we live in has a significant effect on our well-being. This determines how people in each country or even in different parts of a large country like India or the USA view their lives. The factors that affect most people’s happiness are strong economic growth, healthy life, the expectancy of living long, trust, generosity, quality social relationship, and freedom to live and work as they prefer. These factors are connected to the country’s government policies and its cultural values. A responsible government in a country with sound culture is very crucial to happiness for the people or the citizens.

World Happiness Report of 2020 ranked the countries around the world by their subjective well being for the first time and looked into how the social, urban, and natural environments in a combination bring out happiness. Finland has been ranked as the world happiest nation for the third consecutive year. The report declared that the reason for happiness is the quality of life, freedom to make life choices, trust towards the political and social institution, healthy life expectancy, and level of available support from friends and relatives in times of need. Generosity is also very crucial in the overall emotional wellbeing as it helps in developing a sense of positivity community engagement. Finns together with their neighboring countries scored well in happiness because of these reasons.

Apart from the happiest countries, the report also looked at the places where people are unhappy. Afghanistan was named as the unhappiest place. The reason given by the president of Afghanistan is that the acts of terrorism by the Taliban on the native Afghans and the ones who are rebuilding it are hampering the prospects of peace, prosperity and happiness. It is a clear example of the stubborn attitude and appetite of the Taliban for continued violence and against the overall peace process or happiness.

India is a new entrant to the bottom ten groups; the reason is a combination and build-up of social, political, and economic stresses. There have been numerous reports of human rights violations since J&K was put under lockdown. There were also numerous cases of atrocities during the protests against the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act. We also witnessed recently in February 2020 how the national capital was suffering due to the communal riots in northeast Delhi which lasted days. Because of all of these and other factors, the Indian economy has been struggling to even barely crawl and thereby overall fall in general happiness.

Our connection with the nature could be the best remedy for all kinds of problems as studies have shown that greeneries in your immediate environment boost your emotional health. This has a direct positive impact on happiness, emotional and psychological health, and well being. People are happier when they are in contact with nature, especially when they are accompanied by family or friends. We live in a society where people spend more time indoors and online, especially children. They are missing social experiences and interactions with nature. These are affecting their mental well-being which leads to depression on a long term basis.
Physical or Natural environment forms the third and inevitable pillar of our overall environment. According to the IPBES report, urbanization can increase isolation from nature, which prevents people from getting mental health benefits of being surrounded by the natural environment. According to the World Happiness Report, Finland has always been at the forefront of technological innovation, but they know happiness cannot be found on computer screens. They claim that their secret is their nature, very literally.

If we take a bird’s eye view of the Gallup polls, it would help us understand the importance of the environment on happiness. Gallup is an advisory and analytics firm based in Washington D.C., USA. It conducts a poll in more than 160 countries to get the idea of how the respondents feel about their environment. In the combined study from 2009 to 2011, it was found out that 62% of the respondents prioritize protecting their environment over economic growth, which means the environmental protection matters to them in the context of their own happiness and satisfaction. Human activities have many devastating impacts on the environment. Water pollution occurs due to the release of unrefined industrial waste and other unsafe elements into the water. Air pollution is in an aggravated state due to the uncontrolled discharge of harmful smoke containing pollutants from vehicles and industries. Many of the human diseases are becoming more prevalent due to water and air pollution like ischemic heart disease and trachoma. Environmental pollution is impacting negatively on many factors of our daily life.

Covid19 pandemic and the resultant lockdowns around the world have pointed out in many ways the importance of natural environment in our lives. An analysis of the air quality index found that across India, the population’s life expectancy would increase by 2-5 years if pollution is reduced by following the WHO guidelines. There is a research body in Washington D.C.-IFPRI- International food policy research institute, which found out that while the air pollution in China increased from 2007 to 2014, it resulted in a fall in the happiness perceived by the citizens of that country by 22.5%. Everyone must put in a little effort to bring positive change to mitigate the destruction of the environment. We should take initiatives and follow rules that make our environment clean and safe. A good environment brings happiness to life. Exposure to the natural environment has mental and physical benefits. It improves our mental well being, reduces stress, and encourages physical activity which is very beneficial for our health and happiness and thereby longevity. We feel pleasant while breathing in the fresh air and swimming in clean water. Everyone feels better when there is sunlight, exposure to sunlight release mood-enhancing hormone known as Serotonin which helps in boosting our happiness and helps us to remain calm. Serotonin decreases in level with an overall reduction in exposure to Sun which in turn can lead to depression. At night; a darker environment triggers the brain, to release another hormone called melatonin from its pineal gland. This hormone is known to help in the sleep cycle and development contributing to overall physical health.
The eighteenth-century poet Samuel Johnson had rightly said “Deviation from nature is a deviation from happiness”. So, it’s important to keep our environment clean and maintain nature’s balance to live a healthy, jolly, and peaceful life.