My bit is that the only way to be happiest is to choose to be happy. One of my favorite quotes is "Happiness is a choice, not a consequence." No matter if we are being watched, attacked, or starved there are going to be people who are going to be able to deal with it and others who won't. The one thing we can try to do when things change, for better or worse, is to choose to be happy. That's one part mental, and one part doing what we can do to improve our situation.