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David Oliva

Professor Ditch

English 113B

11 May 2020

Are Authors focusing on Internal or External Happiness?

The happiness that so many people desire to obtain, often varies on their state of mind. Articles

that focus on different environments of happiness are, “The Source 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 finally, “Living with Less. A Lot Less.”, by Graham Hill.

In order to discover how these articles focus on a different space, we are going to analyze each of

these articles thoroughly. Three of the articles that were mentioned have their themes revolving

around happiness, making them focus on a internal space for happiness. These three articles are

from The Dalai Lama and Howard Cutler, Sonja Lyubomirsky, and David Brooks. The article by

Graham Hill, does have his article revolving around happiness, but it’s not in depth with a

person’s mentality, which makes it conclusive that he focused more on external space for

happiness. These articles use different situations, different environments, and different

experiences to prove their own point on discovering happiness. In order for the reader to handle

his or her situation that can possibly affect their happiness in a negative way, authors such as,

The Dalai Lama and Howard Cutler, Sonja Lyubomirsky, and David Brooks suggests

strengthening their internal space or their mind, in order to achieve happiness. The author

Graham Hill, suggests focusing the external space to develop self-control

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on the consumption of materialistic objects and to only focus on the essentials in order to achieve

happiness.

The topic of happiness is quite the attention grabber and these articles lead the way

towards finding happiness. Let’s begin by analyzing the article, “The Source of Happiness”, by

the Dalai Lama and Howard Cutler. These authors focus on various situations where a person

can find happiness. For example, they talk about how it occurs within the mind; with one’s own

inner contentment, inner worth, and pleasure versus happiness. The authors use experience from

two different people compare their resolutions. One person is extremely successful in her job and

has made a lot of money. In the beginning, she felt joyful for what she accomplished but as time

passed by, everything was normal for her, and she didn’t feel as joyful as before. The second

person was known to be a materialistic person, but that all changed when he got diagnosed with

HIV. Like any person, he was devastated about the diagnose, but suddenly he overcame it

emotionally. He started feeling more happier each day and appreciated every moment every day.

A quote from the article said, “Happiness is determined more by one’s state of mind than by

external events.” (The Dalai Lama and Cutler 18). What the authors mean is that happiness

comes from an internal space. Having a good sense of contentment and worth can only occur in

one’s internal space and being happy internally will also help you know the importance between

your needs and desires. The Dalai Lama and Cutler covers what most of the articles are about,

making them similar in a way. Keeping this in mind, let’s continue and begin with the second

article, “How Happy are You and Why?”, by Sonja Lyubomirsky.

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In the article, “How Happy are You and Why?”, by Sonja Lyubomirsky, Lyubomirsky

uses scientific data to prove that happiness varies on how a person has his or her mind structured

to not only handle different situations, but, to also have a mindset on a specific goal. In order for

Lyubomirsky to obtain her scientific data, she interviews three different people with different

back stories and different outcomes. The first person to be interviewed is named Angela. She

never had an easy life with an abusive mother and later to be divorced and left to be a single

mother. This wasn’t the only thing she struggled with. Angela was having a difficult time finding

a stable job to help provide for her daughter. One could imagine all the emotions she might have

been feeling such as frustration, sadness and maybe even loneliness leading to possibly affecting

her internal space of happiness, but, fortunately, it was not the case. Angela is still moving on

with mindset strong on providing for her daughter and at the same time receiving emotional

support from her daughter and friends. The second person to be interviewed is Randy. His life

was not all that great either. He suffered a lot after his father and his best friend committed

suicide. Then, when he got married, he found out his wife was being unfaithful to him, leading to

a divorce. This seems a lot for one man to handle, which could also be able to affect his internal

space of happiness. Fortunately, he managed to pick himself up, and get married again, and this

time, he gets to have stepsons. This helped him feel more happier and now he found out that he

has even more purpose to be happy living. The third person to be interviewed is Shannon. Her

life was completely distinct from Angela and Randy. She had a supportive family leading her to

have a happy life. Then, she moved to college, and everything changed in her drastically. She

struggled to adjust to life in college, since she was living independently and studying at the same

time. She participates in many activities but does not feel any joy out of them. Thanks to these
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interviews, Lybomirsky finally came to a conclusion. Lyubomirsky concluded that 50% of what

determines happiness comes from set points. We analyzed that it took mental strength for Angela

and Randy to move on from their set points, meanwhile Shannon is still struggling because she

never had a set point in her life. This next article that is going to be analyzed talks about internal

space but doesn’t really specify how to be happy.

The article, “What Suffering Does”, by David Brooks, is shorter than the previous

articles that were discussed before, but it still carries a strong argument. Brooks focuses his

article on how suffering is powerful enough to change the way a person acts. A quote that

Brooks says, “Recovering from suffering is not like recovering from a disease. Many people

don’t come out healed; they come out different.” (Brooks 228). The meaning behind this quote is

that suffering can change a person for better or worse; it’s the person’s choice to decide how it

will be. Brooks uses various examples and a perfect one would Franklin Roosevelt’s battle with

polio. Polio is a disease that limits physical movements for the human body. There is no doubt

that Franklin Roosevelt was suffering during this period of his disease, but he eventually

recovered. Once he recovered from Polio, he returned with a new perspective that allowed him to

understand other people’s sufferings as well. Brooks offers a solution that means for people to

use their suffering as experience as something sacred for one’s own internal space. In other

words, place that hard experience into moral context. Even though this article doesn’t offer

solution towards finding happiness, it provides information that can help someone not be held

back by suffering. Let us analyze this last article that focuses on people’s external space.
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The article, “Living with Less. A Lot Less.”, by Graham Hill, revolves around the topic of

happiness versus pleasure. Hill uses his own experience and data provided by U.C.L.A to explain

the importance of being happy with one’s own external spaces. Hill’s past demonstrates hoe

easily he was being consumed by his pleasures after his wealth grew. When wealth was growing,

he started purchasing so many unnecessary things, including houses, that were just his desires

and never his needs. Hill was being consumed by the materialistic objects that he purchased, that

it reached to the point where he stress was increasing more and more. Hill points out that it’s not

just any particular person who gives in to their desires more than their needs. Using data

provided by U.C.L.A. The data explains that 75 percent of families have their garages filed with

unnecessary items that prevent families from even parking their own cars inside their garages. A

quote from Hill says, “Material objects tend to have a tendency to crowd out the emotional needs

they are meant to support.” The meaning behind this quote is that purchasing unessential things

will only grow your desire and never fulfill the needs that are meant to make a person truly, thus,

affecting your external space. Fortunately, he got rid of everything unnecessary to him, after 15

years, and now lives with the things he only needs, making his external space happier.

These four articles focus on a different space in their own way. The only two authors that

are similar towards their focus on internal space are The Dalai Lama and Howard Cutler, and

Sonja Lyubomirsky. They both share their advice on transforming to an internal space of

happiness by having a strong mindset and focusing on what can really help a person be happy to

move on. The author David Brooks also focuses on internal space but, does not use it to help the

reader transform to find happiness. Instead, Brooks focuses on internal space to help the reader

transform to be more prepared to accept suffering when it arrives and learn from it in order to
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move on. Then, the author Graham Hill focuses and suggests that we transform on our external

space to find happiness. Hill argues that buying unnecessary things will only interfere with your

daily lifestyle and distract you with only fulfilling desires instead of needs. Each of these articles

present their argument for their own space that they are trying to focus on, now it is up to us

learn from, and get the best out of these articles.

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Works Cited Page

Brooks, David. “What Suffering Does.” Pursuing Happiness, edited by Mathew Parfitt and

Dawn Skorczewski, Bedford/St.Martin’s,2020,2016, pp.226-229

The Dalai Lama and Cutler, Howard. “The Source of Happiness.” .” Pursuing Happiness, edited

by Mathew Parfitt and Dawn Skorczewski, Bedford/St.Martin’s,2020,2016, pp.15-27

Hill, Graham. “Living with Less. A lot Less.” Pursuing Happiness, edited by Mathew Parfitt and

Dawn Skorczewski, Bedford/St.Martin’s,2020,2016, pp.254-258

Lyubomirsky, Sonja, “How Happy Are You and Why?” Pursuing Happiness, edited by Mathew

Parfitt and Dawn Skorczewski, Bedford/St.Martin’s,2020,2016, pp.141-158