Tila took a slice of chocolate cake from a box and offered it to me. “I must confess that I have a soft spot for food, so be prepared for food to enter our conversations regularly!”
I accepted the cake with a smile, “My stomach and heart will always welcome anything to do with chocolate!”
Tila took a piece of cake for himself, too. “I made this cake today from a recipe I found on the internet, and I hope you like it. I made it last week too, but it was too sweet. So this time, I halved the amount of sugar mentioned in the recipe. Do you think the sweetness is okay?”
“It’s really delicious, and the sweetness is perfect”, I said truthfully, with crumbs falling off my mouth.
Tila continued, “The secret of a good recipe is change. When cooking, you follow a recipe and then modify it based on the results. Last week I made the cake exactly according to the original recipe, but as you know, it was too sweet. I therefore added a note to reduce the sugar next time I make the cake. So when I made today’s cake, I did exactly that, and as you agree, reducing the sugar made the sweetness just right. If I did not change the recipe, the cake would have come out exactly the same as last time, too sweet. A similar concept applies to our minds. If we think in ways that cause unhappiness, then unless we change that way of thinking, the unhappiness will remain. Just like with recipes, we need to improve how we think if we are to change unhappiness into happiness.
Many come to me asking how to find happiness. But they come with a closed mind, unwilling to try to change how they think. They stick to their existing unsuccessful recipe in search of happiness, which, of course, does not work. The ones who do find happiness are the ones who accept to try and change how they think.”
Tila ate a piece of his cake and continued, “So when you come to see me to discuss how to be happy, remember to open your mind to change. With that approach, we will surely find the perfect mental recipe for happiness.”