It is in fact only a few external events that influence our happiness, while most of our happiness is induced by our own mentality.
By mentality, I mean the way we feel in our heart.
We tend to think that our happiness or unhappiness is chosen by external events, but in reality, even if we are in a similar environment, whether we feel unhappy or happy is up to each individual.
For example, there are people who lament that their family was poor when they were children and that they are still in a difficult situation because their family was poor.
On the other hand, there are those who think positively that even though they were poor, they were able to get by with all kinds of ingenuity, and that this led to their future success.
Even if we live in a similar environment, it is not the environment that makes the difference between happiness and unhappiness, but the mentality of the person concerned that actually makes the difference between happiness and unhappiness.
If we have a mentality of always wanting something, always counting the lack of this or that, we will become unhappy.
People who constantly count their shortages are the ones who have the mentality of unhappiness.
On the other hand, people who are good at counting what they have been given, saying, "I have this, I have that, and I have been given this much," are people with a happy mentality.
In this way, happiness and unhappiness are not determined by the environment, but by one's own mentality.
Mentality is not something that we are born with and can never change, rather it is something that we can change at any time by being aware of it.
You can change your mentality today by reading this article.
As such, human beings are given the freedom to change themselves.
When we feel that we are not being given enough, we start to ask for more and more, and when we start to take from those around us, we become more and more unhappy.
People who are grateful for what they have been given and want to give back to the people and the world around them are happy people.
Translated by Yuki Naito
