Circumstances are Irrelevant
The more I learn about happiness the more I realize that circumstances are irrelevant. The whole world is in a trance, believing as they do that happiness is somehow inextricably linked to one’s circumstances.
Your life situation is irrelevant to your level of happiness.
The causes of all your emotions are:
-the stories that you tell yourself about the external world (not the external world itself)
-the images that you visualize in your mind
-the self-talk that you perform in your mind
-the executive decisions you make to control your mind (you can decide to be happy)
-how you move your physiology (your physiology is linked to emotional states)
None of the causes above are necessarily linked to your external situation in reality. And by external situation I mean, for example, what the stock market is doing, how much money you have in your bank account, what your friends or relatives are doing, what possessions that you own, your health, etc.
To clarify, what I mean is that your emotions are not NECESSARILY linked to your reality. Sure, plenty of people associate a lack of money with the emotion of anxiety, but what I am saying is that that linkage in not necessary. If you are a Buddhist monk you might associate a lack of money with a positive state of spirituality.
There is no emotion that is inextricably linked to a fact of reality.
So, let’s drop this idea that happiness is related to one’s circumstances, it is a myth that has ran its course.
