The pursuit of Happiness and the concept of Hedonic Adaptation
We are living in a society where everyone has established a positive cause and effect relationship between materialism and overall well-being in their mind. The struggle to strive for better is a positive thing indeed but we have made it so negative and demanding by continuously comparing our life with others that somehow in this process we have lost our happiness somewhere and become more like robots than that of humans.
This constant comparison to others in pursuit of happiness have made our life miserable and made us prone to certain physical and mental health issues like depression, anxiety, panic disorders. It is said, “It is not how much we have but how much we enjoy, that makes happiness.” (Charles Spurgeon)
We always think that if we get this specific “thing”, it will make our life better and then when we achieve that specific “thing”, we become hedonically adapt to that thing and again go back to that zero point where we feel we need more and more of this if we want to feel happiness.
What is Hedonic Adaptation?
It is the process of becoming habituated to a certain stimulus whether it is positive or negative in a way that the emotional consequences of that stimulus are diminished with passing time.
Our minds are built to get used to stuff. We just have these minds that adapt over time and habituate.
we cannot just sit on a couch and think like “okay, that’s it. My life is perfect and I do not need anything anymore to feel happier because yeah, I am already so happy”. If I sum up the above sentence into one word, it would be “Contentment”.
Human beings are the species who seldom feel contentment with their present life and are in constant race of having more and more than the rest of the people around them. Be it our grades, job, car, house, relationships, we always compare our life to some salient standard. And we think if we cannot reach to this standard, we will be a failure.
The stuff we think is going to make us happy, actually is not the source of happiness. It might sound cheesy but there are studies that provide evidence that these certain things do not make us happy for a long period of time and have a negative relationship between goals that are monetary in nature and the subjective well-being.
So the question is how do we avoid hedonic adaptions and feel more contented?
In order to overcome hedonic adaptations, there are certain strategies which will rewire your brain functioning:
1. Savor your experiences- It simply means step outside of an experience and review, acknowledge and appreciate it. This can be done by sharing our experience with other people, telling them your story
2. Avoid Social Comparison- This strategy has its basis coming from cognitive behavioral perspective (CBT). It’s called “Stop Technique”. Just ask or force yourself to stop comparing.
3. Practice Gratitude- Make yourself a journal and jot down the things you are grateful for. Make it your routine and you will see how it will thwart the hedonic adaptation and make you able to feel utter joy in life. It will rewire your brain to think about happy things daily and you will feel positive in return.
4. Get rid of social media- Yes it is very difficult nowadays to stop using social media but evidences suggest that social media is constantly providing you reference points and you compare your life and stuff you have with the life and stuff of other people. This practice is ruining your happiness. Delete social media at least from your cell phones in order to get rid of this hazardous addiction.
So to sum up you may get happiness from material things but it would be temporary. In order to make the most of it, there are some techniques you need to practice. Hope they will help if we actively practice them in our lives. Like Dalai Lama said, “Happiness is not something ready-made. It comes from your own actions”.
