Elevate your baseline (Part 1)
What is "hedonic adaptation"?
One of the great benefits of studying psychology is that you are able to understand and identify what’s going on with you, your thinking patterns, and emotional state. This ability to objectively name a certain phenomenon in your thinking and behavior can create a space between your thoughts and your true self. And with this space and knowledge, you can actually live the wisdom of “I am not my mind and my thoughts”. I feel extremely grateful for the opportunity to study this fascinating science and continue on my self-growth journey.
One of the theories frequently discussed in Positive Psychology is “Hedonic Adaptation”. This phenomenon suggests that people’s level of happiness, after being moved in either a positive or negative direction, eventually returns to a baseline level, where it was before the experiences causing the rise or dip (Psychology Today, Hedonic Treadmill https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/basics/hedonic-treadmill). Researchers conducted a study in 1971 on a group of lottery winners and a group of people who experienced terrible accidents with life-changing effects. Their finding was that “lottery winners and accident victims both returned to their pre-event happiness levels within a few months or years” (Positive Psychology, https://positivepsychology.com/hedonic-treadmill/).
Essentially, we come back to our happiness or wellbeing baseline after experiencing a temporary “high” that comes with fulfilling a desire or accomplishments such as buying a new house, a new car, getting a new job or a promotion, buying a new dress or a new bag, getting a major project or a client, and even getting married to your high school sweetheart. The point is, after anything major or minor, familiarity kicks in, we go back to our normal routine, and our minds adapt to the positive change or pleasure. (I’m only focusing on the positive/pleasurable experiences for this post.)
We come back to our baseline emotional state after experiencing temporary “highs”.
I actually wrote about my own experience of waiting for a new desired professional opportunity, finally getting it and then realizing that the moments of ecstasy were rather brief and I felt exactly the same way as I felt before. This was two years ago. Read more here What happens when you get what you want
I adapted to my new wonderful reality of getting the professional role I wanted. Make no mistakes, I still totally enjoy the work I do but the highs provided by this external event have since then come down. I adapted to my reality of becoming a homeowner in the US. This was definitely a big thing, but as our brains become familiar to novelty, the excitement and ecstasy do not sustain indefinitely.
Is it good or bad? I don’t know.
Well, it would have been wonderful if we all could stay in such a “high” state forever, but I do see many unintended consequences of that!
Whether this phenomenon is good or not, I don’t care, but it is indeed very good to understand this. You see, so often we get lost in a negative spiral, complaining about things not going well, blaming others, comparing ourselves to others and feeling small and we totally lose sight of what once was true for us and is already here. Romantic relationships and marriages also fall prey to this phenomenon (this demands a new post - adding it to my list!)
Reminding ourselves of the truly awesome accomplishments that we’ve had, the wishes fulfilled, congratulating ourselves for those once again (doesn’t matter if they happened a year ago or 10 years ago) and genuinely feeling grateful to those once more can bring us out of the negative spiral sometimes we fall into.
And another question and idea I would like to propose:
If our brains adapt to even major positive events and our emotional state comes down to our baseline, then won’t it be more helpful to simply work on elevating the baseline itself?
To be continued in the next post! I just realized that this is such a good trick to stick to the habit of writing weekly :) I know what I’ll be writing on next week.
The Invitation
I invite you to bring to your attention a truly remarkable accomplishment or a wish fulfilled and to which you have got deeply accustomed today that you don’t think much about - may be getting the professional opportunity you desired or buying your home or marrying your soulmate. Now congratulate yourself for that once again and genuinely feel grateful for it once more.
Well, this is definitely one of the ways you can elevate your baseline! More to come next week.
Have a miraculous weekend and a wonderful week ahead!
P.S. If you like my writing, please do share it forward with your family and friends. That would mean a lot!
With joy & gratitude,
Namrita