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Meagan Berberian

Professor Beadle

English 115

29 September 2018

The Thing We All Seek, Yet Can’t Seem to Understand

You are the only one who knows how truly happy you are, how content you are with your

own life. Have you ever wondered what controls how happy you are? Does the amount of joy

you see in life come from objects, people, your situation, or your naturally given disposition? In

the articles “What Suffering Does” by David Brooks, “Living With Less. A Lot Less” by

Graham Hill, and “How Happy Are You and Why?” by Sonja Lyubomirsky, talk about the

overall topic of happiness adressed by Brooks and Lyubomirsky through an internal space and

Hill through an external space. Brooks argues the way we endure suffering directly affects our

happiness, therefore we can transform this emotional space by not holding onto our bad

experiences but by growing from them; Hill argues that objects contribute nothing to a persons

happiness and therefore suggests we can transform this materialistic space by not focusing on

items but relationships and experiences; and lastly, Lyubomirsky argues that happiness is

controllable, she suggests we can transform this psychological space by taking actions within our

own hands.

In the article, “What Suffering Does,”​ ​David Brooks argues that humans are fixated on

fulfilling their lives with happiness, yet tend to focus on all the negative things we have

experienced. .“The big thing suffering does is it takes you outside of precisely that logic that the

happiness mentality encourages. Happiness wants you to think about maximizing your benefits.
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Difficulty and suffering sends you on a different course” (284). Here Brooks has observed that

when people have negative experiences, we tend to hold onto them. By doing this we completely

shift our mindset of happiness and go down a path of grieving which has a critical impact on

everything we do. Brooks refers to theologian Paul Tillich when he states, “People who endure

suffering are taken beneath the routines of life and find they are not who they believed

themselves to be… suffering gives people a more accurate sense of their own limitations” (285).

From this quote, we can see how Brooks makes the point that as humans we tend to let suffering

embody us, instead of using bad experiences as a process of growth and personal development.

David Brooks focuses on an internal space because he is addressing the topic of happiness from

the emotional standpoint of how we respond to sadness. Brooks suggests we can transform this

space by not completely consuming ourselves by our negative experiences but by growing from

them. Brooks writes outspokenly for all people to evaluate how they choose to reflect on their

experiences and how they carry it with them in their pursuit of happiness.

Graham Hill in, ​Living With Less. A Lot Less. ​argues that material objects do not

provide happiness in one's life. Hill​ s​ hares his personal experience of becoming consumed with

materialistic objects and how that lifestyle has taught him how relationships, experiences, and

work fulfill your happiness rather than things. When recounting on his life, Hill states how his

“success and the things it bought quickly changed from novel to normal. Soon I was numb to it

all. The new Nokia phone didn’t excite me or satisfy me. It didn’t take long before I started to

wonder why my theoretically upgraded life didn’t feel any better and why I felt more anxious

than before” (309). Here, Hill makes the point that essentially, all the objects we seek out are

inevitably unimportant and hold no real value. We see a man who became successful, wealthy,
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and consumed with the so called finer “things” of life. Yet, these material objects did not

contribute to Hill’s overall level of joy, in reality he shares how these things made him more

stressed. Hill makes the realization that “Intuitively, 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. I

like material things as much as anyone...But my experiences show that after a certain point,

material objects have a tendency to crowd out the emotional needs they are meant to support”

(311). It was through experiencing the things that did make him truly happy, that Hill realized

objects have no correlation in heightening an individual's content for life. Hill’s main point

comes down to the plain fact that material objects have no emotional value. He also shares how

he downsized and rid of many luxuries all with maintaining the same amount of happiness, if not

more. Hill makes his arguement on happiness through an external space, because he examines

how humans let material objects try to account for their level of joy. Hill suggests we can

transform this space by downsizing and focusing on love, relationships, experiences, and work to

fulfills one’s life.

In the article, ​How Happy Are You and Why?,​ Sonja Lyubomirsky argues that happiness

comes from one’s mindset. She examines happiness through a psychological standpoint and

claims a large portion of our individual happiness is controllable and can be changed.

Lyubomirsky states that “If you’re not happy today, then you won’t be happy tomorrow unless

you take things into your own hands and take action. To understand that 40% of our happiness is

determined by intentional activity is to appreciate the promise of the great impact that you can

make on your own life through intentional strategies…” (185). Here the author makes the point

that 40% of our happiness is within our own control. Yet if you want to make yourself happier,
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you must take action for yourself and you have the room too. Here, Lyubomirsky factually states

“Your genetically determined predisposition for happiness (or unhappiness) accounts for 50

percent of the differences between you and everyone else” (186). The purpose Lyubomirsky has

for including this fact in her article is to argue that yes, maybe half of the scale of our individual

happiness is genetically determined, but that 40% that is within our own grasp can make a huge

difference and that falls on no one other than yourself. Lyubomirsky also conducted a series of

studies around happiness and found that the two people examined who have had harsh lives,

negative experiences, and bad childhoods still seem to be happy and fulfilled. Meanwhile the

other woman in her study who has a healthy family relationship and nice lifestyle seems to be

easily annoyed and depressed. Moreover, a study she conducted with identical twins confirmed

her statement that “happiness is largely genetically determined.” Lyubomirsky presents her

argument through an internal space, because she psychologically examines uncontrollable and

controllable parts of our mindset that pertains to happiness. The author states how everyone has a

genetically obtained disposition yet we can transform this space within the matter of our own

hands to be happy or not. Happiness is within our own grasp regardless of circumstances or

negative experiences.

In conclusion, we can see how David Brooks, Graham Hill, and Sonja Lyubomirsky’s

articles all relate on the topic of happiness and how we confide in certain beliefs of certain things

that control how happy we are, but in reality do not. These articles stray from each other through

the different spaces each author condones. Brooks examines happiness emotionally and therefore

through an internal space, Hill materialistically through and external space, and Lyubomirsky
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psychologically through an internal space.

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Works Cited

Brooks, David. “What Suffering Does.” ​Pursuing Happiness,​ edited by Matthew Parfitt and
Dawn Skorczewski, Bedford St. Martin’s, 2016, pp. 284-287.

Hill, Graham. “Living with Less. A Lot Less.” ​Pursuing Happiness​, 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​, edited by Matthew
Parfitt and Dawn Skorczewski, Bedford St. Martin’s, 2016, pp. 179-197.