General
Happiness Is a Choice
Imagine two screens in front of you, side by side—one on the right, the other on the left… The screen on the right constantly shows negative news. Every day, it reports on how the economy is struggling, how living conditions are getting tougher, how traffic accidents and crime rates are rising, how society is deteriorating, environmental pollution, and so on. It broadcasts the most disheartening news nonstop.
Which of the Two Screens!
On the screen on the left, however, only positive news is shown. It tells stories about how people help one another, how those who work hard achieve success, positive developments in society, and so on. Which of these two screens would you prefer to watch?
If you constantly watch the screen on the right, how does that make you feel? What do you gain from watching the screen on the left? The answers you give to these questions reveal what your life is really like. “I constantly focus on negative events, and I live my life in a negative way,” or “I constantly focus on positive events, and I always live my life in a positive way.”
When you’re in “It doesn’t matter to me” mode, you’re aware of the negative events in life but don’t let them affect your own life. Most importantly, you don’t view life through a negative lens. Yes, negative events can happen—whether in our own lives or in the lives of others. No one’s life is perfect. But you can still maintain a positive outlook on life. Whichever you choose, that’s what you’ll experience.
Build Your Life Through Small Choices
The things that make us happy or unhappy are our choices. We live the way we choose to, based on what we choose to focus on. With every small choice we make, we’re building our future. We choose one of two things: to be happy or to be unhappy. Once you realize that happiness is a choice, it becomes easier to be happy.
There’s something I often say: Bad is actually good. How can bad be good? If we can learn from it, that’s great. Sometimes things don’t turn out the way we expect, and we might call that situation “bad.” But then, as time goes by, we realize that it was actually for the best that it didn’t happen, and we say, “It’s a good thing it didn’t happen.” What matters is being able to see the silver lining in a bad situation and moving forward by learning from it. That is what it means to choose happiness.
I believe a more sharing, more just order will be established—one where everyone will be happy by empathizing with one another. Night has never lasted forever. Just as there is night, there is also day. We are going through a period of night, both in our country and in the world. But day will certainly come. And I can feel the warmth of the sun’s rays, even if I cannot yet see it. I can already sense the light created for us in the universe within the minds and hearts of our children and future generations. I know that our children will create a world far, far more beautiful than the one we live in.