5 Ways to Resist Hedonic Adaptation and Create Lasting Happiness

Introduction

Have you ever accomplished a significant goal only to feel depleted later? Does the idea of going on a shopping spree makes you extremely happy one day but unimpressed the other day? Then, it appears that you have gone through hedonic adaptation. You might wonder what that is and why it shortens my pleasure. No matter how much happiness you experience, it is never enough. Eventually, you will discover that you have returned to a normal level of happiness.
Hedonic adaptation, a psychological theory, explains why this is the case. It is the idea that, regardless of what occurs to you, whether good or bad, you always revert to a state of happiness. Major happy or unhappy occurrences don't really matter much to your long-term happiness. Each positive and negative experience will pass and you'll return to your baseline level of contentment. Even the tangible things you studied for eventually lose their luster, right?
Like, remember that smartwatch, you spent months waiting for? After a while it just became like your old watch, didn’t it? A brand-new smartwatch is just an everyday item.
So why try to find pleasure when it is so fleeting? Simply return to neutral at this point.

5 Ways to Resist Hedonic Adaptation:

Although almost everyone experiences hedonic adaptation, we can learn to identify its symptoms and develop easy practices that will help us lessen its influence over us. Then what are those practices? Here are 5 ways to resist hedonic adaptation and create lasting happiness:
1. Establish a practice of appreciation (Gratitude):
Gratitude helps people feel happier by removing bitterness and hopelessness. By engaging in a "gratitude exercise," you can train your mind to be more appreciative. List a few items each night for which you are grateful. It's inevitable to have bad days and frustrating times. But there are still wonderful moments in life! Use your nightly workout as a moment to appreciate everything that is positive in your life. You will come to understand what is truly essential as a result of the cumulative effects of this positive thinking. Gratitude is a manageable and enduring practice that assists you in finding worth in all that you are and all that you possess.
2. Practice daily mindfulness:
You can enjoy the little things around you that you might otherwise overlook when you practice mindfulness. By using a mind-body-based strategy, practicing daily mindfulness can help you unwind and alter how you feel about your experiences, particularly the stressful ones. That indicates that you will become more in tune, in harmony, with a generally constant degree of happiness devoid of ups and downs.
3. Try meditating with loving benevolence:
When you meditate with loving benevolence, you develop a deeper sense of compassion for both yourself and other people. Many variants of this kind of meditation are there. But no matter how you choose to integrate it into your daily routine, they all center around the idea that helping others makes you happier and makes you feel incredibly well. This kind of meditation transforms your perspective on life by eradicating unfavourable emotions and replacing them with favorable ones.

4. Develop a more optimistic personality:
Optimism and pleasure are complementary concepts. You're not typically upbeat? Don't be concerned! You can learn how to do that. According to research, happy and unhappy people face the same number of adversities on average throughout their lifetimes. Pessimists dwell on the issue without doing anything, whereas optimists encourage themselves to make positive changes in order to counteract the negative events they encounter. Furthermore, the more you anticipate great things, the more you will encounter them. So, keep hoping for the best and believing that everything will be fine. If you can persuade yourself of this, it will become self-fulfilling. Positive affirmations can help you generate the optimism you require to live a happy existence.
5. Whether they are good or negative, accept your emotions:
Avoiding emotions can result in a variety of psychiatric issues. You might believe that avoiding unpleasant feelings is a sensible and wise course of action. They originate from unpleasant experiences that we would like to ignore, after all. Avoidance offers a brief reprieve. In the long term, ignoring a problem will only make it worse and cause you more harm than acknowledging that uncomfortable feelings are a normal part of existence. They won't go away permanently, and you shouldn't try to. Be courageous and confront life honestly.

Conclusion

Well, it's simpler said than done to find lasting happiness. But the possibility exists. Recognize that success in life is not dependent on material goods. Instead, engaging in employment, strong social networks, and appreciating what you already have are what lead to happiness.
Try the things listed above if you want to get clear of hedonic adaptation. Let's commence today by locating that enduring happiness.