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Richard Gutierrez

Professor Beadle

English 115

5 March 2019

Project Space Essay

Space is something talked about when thinking of physical necessities and objects. All

creations need space, establishing it as one of the most needed tools for invention and

innovation. It is used in all perspectives of writing to create context and portray ideas to the

readers. The articles “What suffering does” by David brooks , “Living with less..” by Graham

Hill and “How happy are you” by Sonja Lyubomirsky, portray forms of space that can affect

one's happiness. Each author emphasises their own space and effects on them, as well as

identifying the key to happiness and what space needs to change in order to achieve that.

David Brooks, in the article “What suffering does”, starts off by illustrating to the readers

that people always look forward to happiness, but always look back at pain. And that in the long

run it is those suffering moments one has experienced that form ones future self. While Brooks

focuses on an internal space he explains that suffering has an impact to one's self awareness that

causes one to take action. Brooks states that at first, the pain and “suffering drags you deeper into

yourself”(2), revealing new possibilities and capabilities. Brooks gives examples of how people

have dealt with their own suffering through time and how the outcomes has affected history,

from Abraham Lincoln during the civil war to mothers who've lost their child and started

organizations that grow to be nationwide are examples that suffering betters people. Brooks

states “The suffering involved in their task becomes a fearful gift”(4) . Emotions can have a

strong hold on people and can control them easily, when someone suffers you often see them fall
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before you see them rise. People come back changed, with emotions that push them to work

harder in every aspect, which is the change that Brooks believes is the key to happiness. Brooks

warns the readers that “recovering from suffering isn't like recovering from a disease, many

people don't come out healed…”(4) which ties back to internal space, dealing with emotions

perspectives and morals many people can change drastically through pain. Examples of this are

given to us in tv shows and movies, which only supports the idea that Brooks argues for.

Graham Hill in the article “Living with less, a lot less” explains his transformation from a

life with overwhelming possessions to a more happy and free living environment. Hill became

wealthy soon after he had sold his website. With a new chapter starting in his life he was very

eager to buy what he had earned. A house in Seattle with over 3000 square feet, filled to the

edges with furniture gadgets and cars. It wasn't long until Hill’s dream life turned into his

nightmare. His job left him no time to deal with or organize any of his belongings. Hill became

so busy that he hired a personal shopper. His personal shopper would go take photos of items at

the store and purchase them if they were to his satisfaction. Hill states “my theoretically

upgraded life didn’t feel any better”(2) and it gave him a question to answer. He was successful

and had the better things in life but could not figure out why he wasn't as happy. Over time, his

home piled up with products that were unnecessary and eventually carried no use to him. Since

he flew to another city when conducting business Hill figured to buy a second home to have a

place to stay. Soon he found himself worrying about two homes, roommates and all of his

possessions. Hill makes reference to a UCLA conducted research on families and found that

“Mothers stress hormones spike during the time they spent dealing with their belongings”(3).

Some of the families who participated in the research couldn't park their cars in the garage

because of how cluttered it was. Since reading the study, Hill has removed most of his funky
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gadgets and found a new home that is only 420 square feet. He has found himself living a

happier, stress free life. With such drastic change in Hills life it is hard to picture many people

making these same efforts for happiness. Graham Hill went on to travel the world, and started a

self movement to reduce any amount of carbon waste he could to better his emotions. He

believed materialistic things took up space in one's mind, cluttering it instead of supporting it.

Hills overall message is about reducing the space one takes up physically in order to free space

in one's mind.

Sonja Lyubomirsky writes an article that explains the research she's done on happiness.

She's interviewed several people in order to isolate what makes people happy. Through her

research, she has determined happiness to be a scale. Two of the people she interviewed found to

be on the higher end of the scale, while the third was more towards the lower end. A women

named Angela happened to be interviewed by Lyubomirsky, and was a happy person.

Throughout the interview, Lyubomirsky starts learning about Angela’s experiences. It turns out

that she has been suffering most her life, through physical and emotional abuse, which includes

being divorced shortly after her baby was born. Even through all this tragedy, Angela was a

overall happy person, which ties back to Brooks claim on how suffering can better you.

Lyubomirsky states that “We are unable to find lasting happiness by changing our life

circumstances”(7) which eliminates any external variable from being the path to happiness. And

instead Lyubomirsky argues that her findings shows how having a strong goal has been a

recurring theme when interviewing people who ended up on the higher end of the scale.” Genetic

basis for happiness is strong, very strong”(12) says Lyubomirsky. Since studies were done on

twins separated at birth, and was found out that both twins had around the same level of

happiness even though they lived different lives. Lyubomirsky suggest that happiness is found in
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one's behavior, and that being goal oriented serves as motivation to keep supporting yourself

through life. To support her argument she states that is the very reason every self improve

strategy works because of their recurring theme of having a set goal. It is important to note that

consistent sustained effort is present in one's behavior to be happy.

Lyubomirsky , Hill, and Brooks have all been affected enough to dive deeper into the

unknown causes for happiness. Even with being in different situations Brooks, Hill and

Lyubomirsky find happiness to be a internal issue. Hill even mentions in his article that gadgets

meant to improve your well being end up destroying it, and that the key to life is knowing the

work you have done is meaningful. From twins separated at birth at to a successful businessman

buying condos, happiness is something wanted by everyone. And it is something difficult to

achieve as brooks stated “You can't control what you feel, but you can control what direction you

go in”.

Works Cited

Brooks, David. “What Suffering Does.” The New York Times, April 7, 2014,

https://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/08/opinion/brooks-what-suffering-does.html.

Accessed Feb. 21, 2019.

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Hill, Graham. “Living With Less. A Lot Less.” The New York Times, March 9, 2013,

https://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/10/opinion/sunday/living-with-less-a-lot-less.html.

Accessed Feb. 21, 2019.

Lyubomirsky, Sonja. (2007) The How of Happiness: A Scientific Approach to Getting the Life

You Want. New York, NY, US: Penguin Press.