So I must be a little skeptical about the idea that my internal world is a more important determinant of my happiness than my external world. After all, my attention seems so focused on my external world. Yet it is an interesting idea. Our focus on the external world actually consists of internal perceptions and thoughts. We live in a constant stream of thoughts .
Thoughts directly determine emotions.
Underlying mental models and structures. Causal power of these mental structures. When a child is born, it knows almost nothing of the world around it. Soon it discovers many new sights, sounds, and feelings. The child learns to recognize patterns from these stimuli.