Happiness and joy

Since young i have always firmly believed that happiness is a choice. But is it?

There is happiness and joy.

Happiness is that state of being u are in.
Joy is the feeling that is associated with happiness.

But can u feel joy without being happy? or vice versa?

Joy is more temporal. It can arise from a joke among friends or seeing something funny happen on the train. It is a passing feeling that need not necessarily stay. One can by joyful for a moment yet enter into an abyss in the next.

Happiness is the state of mind. It can be constructed by how you view your circumstances to be in. I know that many people argue that your circumstances shape your happiness, but i beg to differ. I believe that circumstances though unchanged, can be viewed from a different perspective that can inevitably affect your happiness state. You can choose to mull over bad stuff that happen to you or complain about the shit that life throws at you, but you can still choose to not it affect you.

This sounds unconvincing coming from someone who is living in a 1st world country with considerably well-off status. But I have also seen people who are worse off than us from first world countries and yet still are in a much better state of happiness than us. They accept their situation and make the best out of it, if a better opportunity comes along they will try for it, if they fail then they will try again the next time. There is no mulling over spilled milk or failures.

Inevitably, with a proper state of mind, one can be happy and from that happiness springs forth joy. Joy that is pure of heart.

So I still believe that happiness is a choice. So what is yours today?