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Andrea Perez

Professor Ditch

English 113B

11 May 2020

The Meaning of Happiness

Happiness for people can mean different things, for one person happiness can mean

having all the money in the world and being successful in life; for other people happiness can

mean being in the right head space and not needing the materialistic things in life but more of

how you feel emotionally. Happiness can either mean fully changing your life style, by going

from living a lavish life in a big house to finding comfort and happiness in living in a 420

square-foot home. Internal and external space is something everyone struggles to find the

balance to. Sonja Lyubomirsky, David Brooks, His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Howard Cutler

all focus on transforming internal space while Graham Hill focuses more on transforming his

external space because, he feels like living with so much does not bring him happiness.

Lyubomirsky, The Dalai Lama and Cutler, and Brooks focus more on changing your internal

space in order to achieve happiness, while Hill focuses more on minimalizing and changing his

external space in order for him to achieve happiness.

Growing up many people have different experiences in life. People who had a tougher

childhood are happier than those who had it easier in life. Many people can go from having the

perfect life to all of a sudden growing up and not feel anymore happiness, but others can go

through the hard struggles in life and be happier than ever. In the article “How happy are you and

why?” by Sonja Lyubomirsky does a genetic research where she talks about why someone who

has nothing to complain or struggle about in life is more unhappy than someone who had the
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worst childhood experiences. She gives real life experiences that make her believe happiness is

internal; she talks about how many people can go through challenges in life they come out being

the happiest and most content with their life’s, while others who didn’t go through challenges are

now struggling with finding that happiness. This shows that it is all about the mentality and

headspace you put yourself in, and it makes you look at the bigger picture. Lyubomirsky says

“happiness is not out there for us to find. The reason that it is not out there is that it is inside us.”

(Lyubomirsky 147) This means our happiness is not something you go look for out in the world,

but rather it is something that you have to search inside of you. Lyubomirsky suggests that even

though people might believe that their happiness can be found in buying new homes, cars it

ultimately is about searching deep inside of you and finding out what truly makes you happy.

Lyubomirsky states “there is no happiness without action” (Lyubomirsky 157), she is saying that

if you do not change your mentality or your course of emotion you will not be fully happy in

your life. By doing that and changing your mentality and how you view things in life, it will

transform your internal space and help you achieve that happiness. In order for you to find

happiness you have to take initiative/action and do something to make yourself happier which

would be to change your mentality. Most people think that happiness will automatically come to

you, but in reality, you have to search for it. Overall Sonja Lyubomirsky suggests we change our

internal space in order for us to achieve happiness.

For many people striving for happiness is something they all look for; most of the time

you have to get through the bad things in life, before you experience the good; and overcoming

that would make you stronger and happier. In the article “What Suffering Does” by David

Brooks he states that “people shoot for happiness but feel formed through suffering” (Brooks

226), what Brooks suggests is many people believe that because they have gone through tough
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times in their life they will never be happy and they let that take over their mentality which

would lead them to think they’ll never find happiness. It is normal to have that struggle because,

everyone goes through it; but it is how you get through it that will show your growth in finding

internal happiness. Brooks states “… trying to redeem something bad by turning it into

something sacred…” (Brooks 228) meaning the struggle you went through emotionally can be

turned into something sacred and valuable like knowing you overcame that and have started to

find your happiness. Many people feel ashamed that they went through that tough time in their

life, but it can always be turned around and be seen as overcoming it and finding the right ways

to become happy internally. Brooks gives different examples of people who struggled for a long

time, but eventually found happiness by it. Showing how parents who lost their child due to

things they can not control would start up foundations to support those causes, or how Lincoln

sacrificed himself for the Union. All these examples show how although they went through that

struggle, they overcame it and found some sort of happiness by changing the way they think and

see things. Brooks states “Recovering from suffering is not like recovering from a disease. Many

people do not come out healed; they come out different.” (Brooks 228). What Brooks means by

this is that the trauma and suffering these people go through does not make them healed, but it

makes them see life in a different perspective. This shows how changing your internal space and

how you view things can help you achieve happiness.

Changing your internal space in order to achieve happiness is very difficult for many

people. When you are living your everyday life, you may think that having expensive things can

satisfy your craving for happiness, but in reality, that pleasure is only temporary and true

happiness is long term. In the article “The Source of Happiness” by His Holiness the Dalai Lama

and Howard Cutler, they state “happiness is determined more by one’s state of mind than by
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external events.” (The Dalai Lama and Cutler 16) Although you may have all the money in the

world if you are not emotionally content or happy than all that money would not be worth

anything. Being in the right head space is more important than having all the luxurious things in

the world. The Dalai Lama and Cutler also say that people confuse happiness with pleasure like

sex, where that physical pleasure is just temporary, but happiness is forever (The Dalai Lama and

Cutler 24). What they mean by this is that although you think that pleasure is real happiness, it

wears off and what actually matters is your internal happiness. The Dalai Lama and Cutler also

give an example about a man who has AIDS he says “I feel happier than I ever have, I just seem

to appreciate everyday things more” (The Dalai Lama and Cutler 16) showing that although this

man has a disease, he is happier than he was before because, he appreciate things more showing

how his happiness is determined by his internal space. The Dalai Lama and Cutler want people

to see how happiness doesn’t have to be about having pleasure, or all the money in the world but

more about how you feel on the inside and your way of viewing life in a different way. This

shows how your internal space is being transformed because, you do not need the materialistic

objects in your life to make you happy, but rather how you are feeling in the inside.

When you have so much going on in your busy life and you are very successful, you may

feel like you are happy with all the materialistic items you have. But sometimes all the external

objects you have might not satisfy you mentally or emotionally which can lead you to not feel

happiness. In the article “Living with Less. A lot Less.” by Graham Hill he states “My life is

unnecessarily complicated” (Hill 255). Hill is a very successful man, but he wasn’t satisfied with

how he lived his life or how he felt emotionally; he felt as if so many things in his life were very

complicated for no reason. Hill decided he wanted to completely change that. He went from

living in a luxurious 3,600 square foot home to living in a very small and minimalistic 420
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square foot home. He had a huge home and decided that if he can change the external space of

his life, he can happier. Hill is changing his external space so he can capitalize on his happiness,

by changing his lifestyle and his living habits. Hill argues that “my space is small, but my life is

big” (Hill 258) which means that although he is living in such a tiny home, he feels much

happier than how he felt when he lived in such a huge home. This shows how even though he is

not living in a huge home, he finds happiness in living in a smaller home. By Hill changing his

external space it has helped him find happiness. Hill felt like living such a big life was too much

for him and knew that it did not make it happy so he changed his external space and made it so

his life would be simpler and less complicated.

Happiness can be interpreted in different ways; it can be by externally moving every

unnecessary item in your life like getting a smaller home, or getting rid of your cars. And it can

also mean internally overcoming your struggles in life, or being in the right head space to make

you feel happiness. Brooks, The Dalai Lama and Cutler, and Lyubomirsky all focus on the

internal space in happiness by showing how you can overcome obstacles internally and by

showing growth leading to you transforming your internal space, while Hill argues on external

space in happiness by showing that having too many things can make it very overwhelming and

unnecessary, so by cutting that out you’ll find happiness which leads to transforming your

external space.
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Works Cited

Brooks, David. “What Suffering Does.” Pursing Happiness, edited by Matthew Parfitt,

Dawn Skorczewski, 2020, pp.226-229.

Hill, Graham. “Living with Less. A lot Less.” Pursing Happiness, edited by Matthew

Parfitt, Dawn Skorczewski, 2020, pp.254-258.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Howard Cutler. “The Sources of Happiness.” Pursing

Happiness, edited by Matthew Parfitt, Dawn Skorczewski, 2020, pp.15-27.

Lyubomirsky, Sonja. “How Happy Are You and Why.” Pursing Happiness, edited by

Matthew Skorczewski, 2020, pp.141-158.