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Cindy Vargas

Professor Ditch

English 115

24 September 2019

Internal and External. Inside You and Around you.

Happiness has different meanings to everyone, whether it is success or being surrounded

by the people that you love, everyone expresses happiness using internal and external spaces.

There are two types of spaces, external and internal. Internal spaces are inside everyone like the

way people think or process things, it is the mindset. External spaces are the environment, the

surroundings around people. In the articles, “The Sources of Happiness” by the Dalai Lama and

Howard Cutler, “How Happy Are You and Why?” by Sonja Lyubomirsky, “What Suffering

Does” by David Brooks, and “Living With Less. A Lot Less” by Graham Hill, these authors

focus on one thing, happiness. They explain different ways people define happiness and describe

ways to find that happiness. When they are speaking about this, they talk about spaces both

internal and external and express how in some ways to transform it to help them find that

happiness in life. Most of the authors like, the Dalai Lama and Cutler, Lyubomirsky, and Brooks

focused on internal spaces like your state of mind and they suggested that having the mindset of

being happy will help accomplish that. Whereas Hill focused on external spaces and explained

that having less materialistic objects and focusing more on the things people enjoy doing will

help them reach that happiness they strive for.

The Dalai Lama and Cutler bring up concepts in their article, “The Sources of

Happiness” that they believe people should do if they want to find happiness. These are all

internal spaces. The comparing mind is one concept that people tend to do that Lama and Cutler
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point out, which is the concept that people are never satisfied with anything because they are

always comparing themselves and what they have to what other people have. They always tend

to compare themselves to people who have more, but they would actually be happier if they were

to compare themselves to those who have less. In the article, Cutler mentions an experiment at

the State University of New York at Buffalo, subjects were asked to complete a sentence “I’m

glad I’m not…” After five times of doing this experiment the subjects experienced an elevation

in their feelings of life satisfaction (24). When the subjects answered this question, they were

comparing themselves to people who have less than what they have, and this made them feel

grateful for their life. According to the Dalia Lama and Cutler, if people were to change their

mindset, they can improve their life satisfaction, making them happier.

Inner contentment is another factor or concept that the Dalai Lama and Cutler state in

their article, they believe people need to have this to be happy. Some people always desire things

they don’t need, for example, the newest car. According to the article, there are two methods of

achieving inner contentment: by obtaining everything they want and desire and the second (the

more reasonable one) is to not get what they want but be grateful for what they have at the

moment. As stated recently those who have this mindset are one step closer to being happy. Inner

worth is another internal space of happiness, to have sense of self-worth means that they have

that warm side of themselves where they are affectionate, compassionate and satisfied with who

they are as a person. In the article, the Dalai Lama speaks his thoughts on inner worth and states,

“Because that person has another source of worth, another anchor, there is a less chance that of

this person’s becoming depressed if his or her fortunes happens to disappear (29).” When a

person with fortune but no sense of self-worth loses everything he has, he will have nothing and

be unhappy because he does not even value himself, he will likely fall into depression. With
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someone who does have a sense of self-worth and also loses everything, they may continue to be

happy because they found something else to be happy with, not just the fortunes, they are still

satisfied with how they are as people. Transforming these internal spaces will help them find

happiness.

Another author also had the same concept of internal spaces being related to your mindset

and how you view things. In “How Happy Are You and Why?” by Lyubomirsky, her definition

of happiness is that it is a state of mind and how we perceive everything. She goes on to provide

a pie chart showing what determines happiness which has seen on the chart 50% is set point 40%

is intentional activity, and 10% is circumstances (184). According to Lyubomirksy’s chart half of

happiness is determined by the people themselves. People ultimately decide who and what they

have in their life, whether it is people or the energy. If they feel that they are suffering in the

inside because of someone they can choose to let that negative energy go so they find happiness

within themselves. Intentional activity takes almost about the other half of the chart because

behavior has a great impact on how people live their life. People tend to behave based on the

perspective of life, some are grateful for their life and some are not. For example, Lyumbomirsky

interviewed two people, a happy person named Angela, and an unhappy person named Shannon.

Angela went through a traumatic childhood, but she still managed to find something that makes

her happy, her daughter and she had a hard life, she pushed through because she has the mindset

to be appreciative of what you have in life at the moment. Shannon on the other hand had an

uneventful childhood. Nothing bad or traumatic happened in her life but she still feels unhappy

and she depends on others to bring her happiness and a sense of self-worth. They had two

different behaviors and mindsets because of what they have experienced. People changed their
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view of life when they suffer through something and gaining this mindset they are transforming

their internal space to help find happiness.

Suffering is sometimes seen as a bad thing because you never truly want to see someone

going through something that is hurting them, but it can be something good if it helps them

become happy. In Brooks’ article, “What Suffering Does”, his concept is that sometimes

suffering is good because it can help people see things from a new light, meaning that it changes

their mindset which is an internal space. When people go through something traumatic or tragic,

something good may come out of it, they may learn to see the world in a different way which can

possibly be good. They have a better mindset about the world they live in and how they want to

live it. Brooks references a historical figure and states, “Think of the way Franklin Roosevelt

came back deeper and more empathetic after being struck with polio (284).” This person

experienced something traumatic and he became a better person because of it, he changed his

ways as his person by becoming more empathetic. This also relates to people who experience

trauma, they became more empathetic and appreciate life more. People can change more with the

way they take suffering, Brooks mentions in his article, “They hurl themselves deeper and

gratefully into their art, loved ones, and commitments (287).” Sometimes the suffering is too

much for people to bare, so they drown themselves in it, causing them to become more

dependent on other people and other things that they do to bring them this happiness that they are

seeking. Suffering can cause some people to change their mindset, which is their internal space,

and can benefit them if it helps them to transform it into a way to learn to be grateful for life and

find happiness in the world.

Happiness in external spaces are expressed more in how people live in their environment

and what people decide to have around them physically. In the article, “Living With Less. A Lot
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Less.” by Hill, he explains his own life experiences relating them to how other people think that

you will be happy if you have all these expensive things, but they don’t need all these

materialistic things to be happy. He expresses the external space, surroundings and environment.

He compares how much houses have grown because of all the unnecessary things people want to

have and fit in their homes. Hill claims, “The average size of a new American home in 1950 was

983 square feet, by 2011, the average new home was 2,480 square feet (310).” The size has

grown rapidly because people tend to desire many things and these things require space. People

think having a bigger house will give you more space for anything they want but these are all

materialistic objects. At the end of the day they have no value. He realized when he entered into

a relationship with someone and started traveling that they do not need all of the most expensive

things. What they really need is to live their life without attachments to objects holding them

back. Even when his relationship ended with that woman he was already changed. He lived

smaller and traveled light. Hill states, “We know that the best stuff in life isn’t stuff at all and

that relationships, experiences and meaningful work are the staples of a happy life.” Living with

less helps people achieve that happiness because they learn to live without it, they learn to value

the moments they have with themselves and the people around them, they learn to value life.

They transform their external space so they can have the endless amount of happiness that an

attachment to an object will never bring them for as long as they live.

His Holiness The Dalai Lama and Howard Cutler, Sonja Lyubomirsky and David Brooks

focused on internal spaces while Graham Hill focused on an external space. The Dalai Lama and

Cutler explained the concepts and mindset people should strive for if they seek happiness.

Lyubomirsky went on to define what happiness and that genes can be a factor. Brooks discussed

that suffering can sometimes be good because it causes a person to see from a new perspective.
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These authors focused on an internal space explaining that happiness is found within the person’s

mind, inside them, and they can transform this space to make them have that mindset that they

can be happy with what they have and how they are living life. Hill explains that all people need

is themselves and the things they enjoy doing, they do not need all the materialistic things they

all desire, that will not bring them happiness. Some people just express their happiness

differently through internal and external spaces and they transform these spaces to help them find

happiness within their life.

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Works Cited

Brooks, David. “What suffering Does”. Pursuing Happiness: A Bedford Spotlight Reader. Edited

by Matthew Parfitt and Dawn Skorczewski. Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2016, pp. 284-287.

Cutler, Howard and Dalai Lama. “The Sources of Happiness”. Pursuing Happiness: A Bedford

Spotlight Reader. Edited by Matthew Parfitt and Dawn Skorczewski. Bedford/St. Martin’s,

2016, pp. 21-33.

Hill, Graham. “Living With Less. A Lot Less.”. Pursuing Happiness: a Bedford Spotlight

reader. Edited by Matthew Parfitt and Dawn Skorczewski. Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2016, pp.

308-313.

Lyubomirsky, Sonja. “How Happy Are You and Why?”. Pursuing Happiness: a Bedford

Spotlight reader. Edited by Matthew Parfitt and Dawn Skorczewski. Bedford/St. Martin’s,

2016, pp. 179-197.