The Key To Sustained Happiness: Now Who Doesn't Want That?

There is a recent study carried out by Cornell University psychology professor Thomas Gilovich who has proven that the path to happiness is to avoid adaptation. Now how do you do that?

The answer is that you do the unusual.

Your body wants adventure, travel, new experiences and new kinds of food. All of these possibilities hold the promise of a much longer lasting state of happiness held in the anticipation of new events, experiences, the having of those experiences and then the memories. I call it “Blowing off your erotic cobwebs”. To wake up our happiness and our sexuality, we need to put ourselves completely in a new place.  It’s the secret sauce. 

What is true is that humans adjust to “the new” and “happiness” very quickly. Those new boots or new phone? Remember how happy it made you? Maybe not. Things bring only momentary happiness. We adjust and it just becomes another thing. But according to this study, the same does not hold true for experiences. Maybe that’s why we throw parties -- like big weddings so that we can remember the happiness of union long after the “adaptation” of living together sets in.

So, do you want sustained happiness? Stop buying and do things instead. Go on an adventure. Experience new things and new experiences. Allow yourself to be a little scared. It will wake up all of you including your libido. When we buy stuff, we have to do it over and over again to achieve happiness. But the memories of leaving home and setting out on an adventure stimulates our brain and our hormones — and the result is a happiness in the memories and experience that can stay with us much longer. 

Now, who's coming with me on my next adventure?

Loving you from here,

Pamela Madsen