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Most people imagine that happiness is tied to individual choices. For example, where they work, what their job is, whether they live in a place that is leisurely.
But, in reality, happiness does not depend on our individual choices, As it is sometimes tied to the environment we live in, and the people around us.
I'm going to talk about a city called Roseto. It's a city in the United States formed by a group of Italian immigrants.
They formed a closed society, to the extent that they spoke Italian instead of English. Few people knew about them, but this changed when two doctors met in a medical conference.
One doctor told the other that, in his years of being a doctor, he had never had a patient above 60 years of age from this city who had heart problems.
The second doctor was shocked. Because, in that time, the major cause of death was heart disease in the US.
So the doctor decided, along with a group of researchers, to visit the city, in order to figure out their secret to a long life.
And why they do not suffer from the diseases that the rest of the American population suffers from. They also discovered that the people of this city
Only die from natural causes. They thought of three reasons that might cause this long and healthy life.
The first reason they thought of was the diet that these people followed. Perhaps they eat a specific kind of food.
They discovered that, on the contrary, the food they eat isn't healthy. It is, actually, quite fatty and unhealthy. It contains 50% fat.
Do they exercise, perhaps? They do not exercise or play any kinds of sports. They even smoke. Are their genes different, perhaps?
They discovered that there are people from the original city of Roseto in Italy, but they had the same diseases and number of deaths in the US.
Is the area they live in different in any way? They also found that this is not the reason, because there are the same diseases in the areas around them as there are in the US.
After they spent some time with the residents of the city, they began to discover that their secret is social ties that people have forged,
The society that they live in itself. They live in the same house, three generations of the same family under one roof.
The grandparents, their children, and their grandchildren. People have very strong ties together, no one ever feels lonely.
There is always someone to talk to. There is always someone to consult if I have a problem. They talk to each other on the streets.
But, in reality, happiness, is tied to the environment in which we live, the people we surround ourselves with. Whether family or friends.
Happiness is not always built on choices or the things we think happiness depends on.