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Ashley Hines

English 114 A

10/1/2018

Essay 1

As a society we are constantly chasing after the promise of happiness, but over

all we have a difficulty understanding of what happiness actually is or how to achieve it.

There is lots misconceptions about happiness leading people to believe in concepts that

are not necessarily true, some more popular ones are; the idea that happiness is an

item that can be bought, living with less emotional pain intern equals happiness, or even

childhood will depict your happiness in adult life. These ideas can aid in the precute

happiness, but alone they will not make you happy. Though the articles; “What Suffering

does” by David Brooks, “living with a lot less” by Graham Hill, and “How Happy are You

and Why?” by Sonja Lyubomirsky we will view a new perspective on happiness and our

ideas on it. Although the articles by Brooks, Hill, and Lyubomirsky are seeming to be

extremely different and very in style, context, and arguments they all have the same

overarching theme of happiness and how they believe it can be achieved. All the

articles deconstruct what it means to be happy in different ways and hint at the well

known philosophy that happiness is a difficult journey not a destination, unlike most

people seem to believe.

In today's materialistic society happiness is often weighed by what you can

afford, happiness is believed to be bought, example; ‘if I buy x then I will be happy’
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(pepsi lecture). Graham hill challenges this idea by using ethos and discussing how he

had everything that would seemingly make him happy but “started to wonder why my

theoretically upgraded life didn't feel any better and why I felt more anxious than

before.” (pg 309 Hill ). He then dives into how minimalism helped him declutter his mind

by decluttering his life. Minimalism is a lifestyle in which one chooses to fall out of the

materialistic lifestyle that is glorified by today's society and only own the minimal

necessities needed for living. “Material objects have a tendency to crowd out the

emotional needs they are meant to support” (pg 312 Hill) Minimalism helps people

focus on what they have and not what they lack, witch in turn illuminates the argument

presented previously though the pepsi debate of people feeling the need to own

something to be happy. Minimalism on its own will not make someone happy but

preaches the idea that happiness can be found in any situation and gives you the space

to discover who you are and what really makes you happy, for Hill this ment the

relationships with his loved ones and travel. Everyone will have a different experience

on what makes them happy which is why it is important to go through process of self

discovery.

It is believed that one who is truly happy doesn't face challenges or suffering in

life, intern suffering is seen as a burdon and in ways counterproductive to the “goal” of

happiness. In the article “What Suffering Does” written by David Brooks, the contrary is

stated by discussing the grave importance of emotional turmoil. He describes a time of

suffering as a journey of self discovery that can lead to happiness and emotional

fulfillment. Throughout the article Hill hints at the idea of needing to to lose oneself to
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find oneself. “...people who endure suffering are taken beneath the routines of life and

find they are not who they say they believed themselves to be.” (pg 285 Brooks).

Although suffering will not directly make someone happy, it sets the steppings stones

for a person to develop emotional maturity and allows them a time of self evaluation.

Through self discovery people can then learn what individual things bring them

moments of joy and incorporate that into their day to day life giving them an overall

satisfaction with themselves. Coping with pain and life's troubles is difficult and there is

no guaranteed strategy to succeed at heart acce but there is beauty created within all

the pain, I like to refer to this beauty as self discovery. “Instead of recoiling from the

sorts of loving commitments that almost always involve suffering, they throw themselves

more deeply into them. Even while experiencing the worst and most lacerating

consequences, some people double down on vulnerability. They hurl themselves

deeper and gratefully into their art, loved ones and commitments.” (pg 287 Brooks)

In the article “How Happy Are You And Why” written by Sonja Lyubomirsky the

idea of happiness being a matter of perspective is explored in detail. Lyubomirsky had

people rate their happiness and the results were extremely shocking, although some

people have a surfacely happy life or seem to have all the “criteria” to be happy, they

were still unhappy. “Many of us, especially those who are not very happy, believe that

our unhappiness is genetic and there's nothing we can really do about it. To the

contrary, glowing research demonstrate persuasively that we can overcome or genetic

programing..” (Lyubomirsky pg 186). Though her studies we come to the conclusion that

although no ones life is perfect and everyone deals with tubbling issues, how we view
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our problems is what affects our happiness not the problem itself. As depicted in the

ancient chinese symbol of yin and yang, similarly you cannot have happiness without

suffering for they always live within each other. As an individual you can choose to

focus on the good or bad portions of your circumstances. For example let's say you eat

the same type of pasta every day, you like pasta but at a certain point the excitement

and joy when you then go to think of dinner is no longer there or you may even begin to

despise pasta; but now let's say you haven't eaten pasta in quite a bit of time, when

deciding pasta is your next meal you are excited and it brings you joy. Although the

pasta itself is mostly neutral the way the pasta is vied inflicts different emotions on the

consumer, this experiment can be carried into many parts of our lives and proves that

we have control over how we feel. Happiness is a matter of perspective on the

emotional turmoil that is bound to happen in our lives. Through this article the reader

gains a feeling of control over their fute and feelings of hope.

The idea of happiness is a difficult one to grasp, and is extremely tainted by

media and outside influences.There are many things that give us temporary happiness

such as narcotics and other stimulants, but in reality they do not give us emotional

satisfaction.“In a nutshell, the foundation of happiness can be found in how we behave,

what you think, and what goals you set in your everyday life” (pg 196 Lyubomirsky)

Happiness is different for each individual witch is why it can be so confusing and seem

ungraspable. Through all these articles its proven that happiness is a lot of work and no

matter the circumstance anyone can pursue happiness. Happiness does not on its own
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mean no emotional turmoil, is not something you can buy and a worry free childhood is

not needed.
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Bibliography

Brooks, David. “What Suffering Does”. Pursuing Happiness, Bedford ST. Martins, 2016

Hill, Graham. “Living With a lot Less”. Pursuing Happiness, Bedford ST. Martins, 2016

Lyubomirsky, Sonja. “How Happy are You and Why?” Pursuing Happiness, Bedford ST.

Martins, 2016