About happiness ~short notice through the Bago survey~

Hi, it's Genki.
Through my survey in Bago city, I started to think of something. It is a simple question. What is happiness?

 The reason why I think this kind of thing is that I found not all the people but even many poor people in Bago seemed full of vigor and looked satisfied with their current living condition. At first I thought that they must be unhappy without enough income, good houses, and other many services which we can get in Japan. But somehow they looked happy of living everyday life with their families. It was a little shocking to me.

 In Japan, even though there are many services and things around us, I find myself feeling less satisfied. Just for example, I was happy just playing in the park with my friends in my elementary school days. But I can’t feel happy only to do it now. Other example is that I cannot fully content with my new iPhone even though I was really happy when I first got my cell phone with much lower performance in my junior high school days. That’s because I now tend to think like “more and more” and becoming greedier. Because of high speed in technique improvement, I noticed myself thinking in a way that newer and better things will come soon. But I may never be able to feel satisfied as long as thinking in this way.

 People in Myanmar have a room to kindly accept me, who is from completely different environment and quite stranger for them. If I was them, I could never do that. I a little envy them because I would never feel how they seem to feel. But now I think it is important to be able to content with what we already have and what we already are for our happiness.

It is just what I thought through the survey. As a first step, I’m thinking to start from appreciating all the environment around me including my family, friends, and other many things.

 It is a short notice and a memo. I’m sorry for the long sentences.

 See you next time.