Happiness that Doesn’t Decline
ByHabituation* is pleasure that delivers less satisfaction as time goes on. Let’s say you buy a new car, computer, phone, sound system, or furniture. At the beginning you are ecstatic and feeling good all over. It may be what you have pined and saved for. It may be a reward to yourself for a good deed or accomplishment.
After a month you are still loving it, but it doesn’t deliver the same punch as it did the first week. After six months you are definitely looking for new highs. You have spotted something else you deserve to have and now all you have to do is budget for it or get another big pay off before you can buy it. Once you acquire it, you will feel the same great buzz as you did on your last purchase.
We tend to fill our lives with these highs that then become habituated as time passes. We have the need to feel the rush and these acquisitions fill the bill. The same might also be fulfilled with achievements or even sexual conquests. Sometime a drug or alcohol buzz gives us that desired feeling we had been thinking about all day. Soon into the buzz or a few days afterward, we need more.
True happiness works on a different plateau. It may not always give the initial secretion of serotonin, but happiness activities deliver plenty of the neurotransmitter chemicals like dopamine neurologists associate with happiness. These thoughts, attitudes, activities also leave us wishing for more, but they don’t have to be purchased and they are not destructive. They build a stronger mind, body, and spirit.
Let’s you love to play tennis, run, bike, surf, do yoga, cook, read, write, or help others. In each activity we can get lost in the engagement to the exclusion of all distractions. We are not thinking of people judging us, rewards for the activities, or other responsibilities we have at the moment. This “being in the zone” or “flow” does initiate the production of dopamine, for one, and makes us feel joy and contentment.
We can add one or several of these activities to our daily routine. The result is that we can feel the highs several times a day and each one creates a larger foundation for the total well being that can infuses our mind and spirit. Add healthy eating, and fitness and soon you are a powerhouse of health and happiness.
* The gradual decline of a response to a stimulus resulting from repeated exposure to the stimulus.
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Get a few Life Management sessions to get your life in flow.
Read some great books on Happiness in Resources
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