Because the framing is useful, I used to think that being happy was entirely a choice. Because it gives me something to hold on to when it seems that everything is moving. Then something happened to someone who happened to be close to me. Someone I respected and genuinely faithful.
I watched him go through some months of financial pressures, health crisis, and his family almost divided. Though his mindset was still intact also the gratitude journal. But he was still falling apart little by little.
After I witnessed this. I won't lie. It broke a part of my argument. It didn't destroy it. But the crack was big enough that it allowed reality to set in me.
What I believe happiness to be is probably both things and neither fully. Because it all boils down to our mindset, with what I have seen and experienced. I have seen how some people are very peaceful and happy even in difficult situations and when they don't have it all figured out. And I have seen some people who have everything, yet they are miserable.
I am sure others would have witnessed this too. But when we tell someone who has not eaten for a day, who barely has a place to sleep, someone who has lost hope and is faced with disappointment that happiness is a choice, they are simply not making it correctly; correctly, it is not wisdom. And people always keep their distance from that kind of thing.
And now, my belief is very simple. The situation around will always determine what will be. And our mindset will always determine how long we can stay in it before it affects us. Both are real. And the best thing we can do is to stop doing as if one is important than the other.
Thank you for reading.
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