Practicing Happiness

I learned a new, perhaps intuitive, concept called Hedonic Adaptation.

Here is how it can help you to be happy.

Have you come home after a long day, and felt comforted by the familiar smell of home? When it's time for bed, you notice that this distinct and comforting smell has disappeared. Similarly, you slip on a jumper in the morning; and the scratchy sensation of wool on skin quickly fades, as you get ready for the day.

We are made to adapt to sensation. Sensations dull over time because we become numb to things that we feel constantly. This is true for physical and psychological sensations (emotions). Increasing stimulation will only set a new baseline - a new "normal" - which your awareness soon adapts to by becoming numb. To get back that initial feeling, we may be driven to seek more stimulation - more excitement, more activity, more sugar, more salt, more stuff...which we soon adapt to...which triggers more chasing, ad infinitum.

This is hedonic adaptation.

And this cannot be sustained.

Is there an alternative? What if we cultivate our ability to sense and appreciate what is already there? To remind ourselves of aspects of life that once made us happy, and to allow these to make us happy again?

Happiness does not come from endlessly seeking external stimulation. It comes when we learn to savour our reality. It comes when we decide to jolt our minds and hearts out of numbness.

And this must come from within.

Shay

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1 comments

Unknown30 March 2017 at 10:16
Love this concept shay! It's strange that people only realize how happy they were after the thing that made them happy is gone. So important to be grateful for the things that we have in this point in time.
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