A to Z Quick Chat 91 | Do you believe that happiness is a choice, or is it influenced more by external factors?

In this episode of The A to Z English Podcast, Jack is joined by May, Layla, and Hendrick as they discuss the following question: Do you believe that happiness is a choice, or is it influenced more by external factors? 00:00:01 Jack Welcome to the A-Z English podcast, where Jack and Social take you on a journey from learning the basics to mastering the nuances of the English language. Our podcast is designed for non-native speakers who are looking to improve their English skills in a fun and interactive way. Each episode covers a wide range of topics. 00:00:23 Jack From grammar and vocabulary to slang and culture to help you navigate the English speaking world with ease. 00:00:34 Jack Welcome to the A-Z English podcast. My name is Jack and I'm one of the hosts of the podcast and today I am without social but do not worry, I am with May from Malaysia, Hendrick from Indonesia and Leila from Saudi Arabia. So we 3 for the price of 1. 00:00:54 Jack Can't complain with that, so steal. 00:00:57 Jack UM so. 00:00:59 Jack What we're going to do today is a quick chat episode and I'm going to read a question to you and then I want you guys to just, you know, think about it and tell me what, what your opinions are. There's no right or wrong answer to these. These are just opinion questions. But the question is. 00:01:19 Jack Do you believe that happiness is a choice, or is it influenced? 00:01:26 Jack By external factors and I'll read it one more time. Do you believe happiness is a choice that we make? Or is happiness influenced by? 00:01:41 Jack External factors, things that happen to us. 00:01:44 Jack In our daily lives. 00:01:48 Layla It's close. 00:01:52 May Costume make a decision for me. 00:01:57 Layla I am. 00:01:58 May But I most probably I will go for. 00:02:04 May External factor as well. 00:02:07 Jack OK. 00:02:12 May It is true that we can choose to be happy. However, our external, the external factor most of the time affect as well. 00:02:26 May For example, if the environment we are surrounded with full of, like crisis, anger, everybody's fighting so. 00:02:37 May I mean, it is hard for us to feel happy. How are we going to laugh at our time? Because our environment is so stressful. 00:02:46 May So we can't be pushing away all these things and laugh on our own. 00:02:52 May So I think that is hard. 00:02:54 May To happen it is, I mean it. 00:02:56 May Is unlikely to happen. 00:02:59 May So on, but on the other hand, if we are in a very healthy environment, healthy surrounding. 00:03:08 May So certainly we will easily feel happy. 00:03:15 May Without any reasons, without finding the a reason. 00:03:19 May To be happy. 00:03:22 May And the environment. 00:03:24 May For me, the the environment we are at. 00:03:30 May If will give us effect as well. 00:03:34 Jack OK, so for you may you're kind of trying to figure out like is it the chicken what came first, the chicken or the egg, right? It's like does happiness come first and you choose it and it doesn't matter what the external factors are or do the external factors make you happy? 00:03:55 Jack And so your happiness is is dependent on the external factors like what the people around you, some good luck, happy things happen, you know, good things happen to you. 00:04:09 Jack It sounds like you're you're more on the second the second one. 00:04:14 May Yes, I I want to the second option and we for sure we can decide where they want to be happy and and so on. 00:04:23 May But then we. 00:04:26 May When we. 00:04:28 May I mean, when you were a child, what can we do? What could we do unless we are? We are an adult and we move out from the the unhealthy place. So then we can decide. 00:04:47 May So when people always say happiness is our choice, if we decide we want to be happy, we. 00:04:52 May Can be happy. 00:04:53 May It is true part. It is partly true. 00:04:56 May But then it is also depends on. 00:04:59 May Where we are. 00:05:00 Jack OK. OK, good. Alright. So you're you're