Thursday, September 24, 2026
The Invisible Mind Shapes Our Visible World
（見えない心が、見える世界を形づくる）
This morning, I woke up a little after 3 a.m. and read Chapter 16, “Respect Yourself and Respect Others,” in Joy for All, a book by Toshio Maruyama that outlines 17 principles for living a happy life.
I occasionally return to this chapter because its message deeply resonates with me: Love yourself and others. Respect yourself and others. To care for others, you first need to care for yourself. To make other people happy, you need to care for your own happiness, too.
This message connects with my personal mission. I want to be a source of happiness and positive energy, inspiring and uplifting others. To live out this mission, I need to stay happy and positive, full of energy and life.
In this chapter, Maruyama writes about how fear, anger, sadness, jealousy, resentment, and discontent can affect our mind and body. He argues that these feelings can lead to illness, make us miserable, and cause problems in our work and daily lives.
He goes on to explain how we should value ourselves, love ourselves, and respect ourselves. We need to develop our mind and heart (kokoro), make the most of our unique talents, and use those talents to help others and contribute to society.
He says we can achieve great things by learning wholeheartedly, putting our energy into our work, and giving our full attention to what we do. In his view, we grow, make real progress, and find deep satisfaction when we let go of our ego and negative feelings and devote ourselves fully to what we do. That is where true happiness lies.
I find this message powerful and inspiring. What we carry inside often shows up in our words, facial expressions, attitudes, and actions. Our thoughts and feelings affect how we see things—whether we focus on possibilities or problems—and how we respond to them. In this way, our invisible inner world can shape the visible world around us.
Recently, I came across an illustration that captures this idea: if we can bring our mind into order and change our mindset and attitude, we can change how we experience life, even when our circumstances are tough.
This made me think about my own long medical struggle. From April 29, 2024, to February 16, 2025, I spent about ten months in the hospital, underwent eleven abdominal surgeries, and faced several life-threatening moments. Looking back, being alive today feels like a miracle.
During that time, staying positive, strong, and optimistic helped me keep negative feelings from taking over. I made a conscious effort to drive away anger, resentment, grudges, stress, frustration, despair, and sadness the moment they crossed my mind.
What’s more, I took every opportunity to practice gratitude toward the doctors, nurses, and other medical staff, even at times when other patients might have vented their frustration and anger toward them. I worked hard to stay calm and collected even in the worst moments.
Above all, I accepted what I couldn’t change and tried to focus on what I could change.
Why did I deliberately drive away negative feelings, stay positive, and practice gratitude?
Because I believed in the same principle that Toshio Maruyama writes about. I believed that negative feelings repel good luck and make our lives miserable, while positive feelings attract good luck and make our lives happier and more fulfilling.
In a way, I experienced this principle firsthand. The more I tried to keep my mind in order, the more I was able to see hope even in difficult situations. Even when things seemed to be going in the wrong direction, I never gave up hope, reminding myself that pain is inevitable, but suffering is optional.
We cannot always choose what happens to us. But we can choose how we face it. If we can change the way we see things, if we can reframe them, I believe we can turn even misery into hope and despair into happiness.
Perhaps this is how our invisible mind shapes our visible world.