People who continue to appreciate a positive change and derive varying experience from that change are likely to sustain a happiness boost...We think what it really comes down to is, whatever this change is, it should remain present in our life experience and supply positive daily experiences. - From a research study at the University of Missouri and the University of California.
Good examples from the study:
Bad example:
Good examples from the study:
- Newlyweds that go out for dinner and plan trips.
- Acquiring a painting and purposefully enjoying your painting every day.
Bad example:
- Buying stuff. Retail therapy. The happiness fix doesn't last so we have to keep buying.
I think it's way more complicated than this. For me, it has to do with having and cultivating a deep, loving spiritual core, a sense of humor about ourselves, and an attitude that searches for the positive in life - daily.
It also means choosing to be not happy some of the time. I love a lot of folks. Passionately. When they suffer, I suffer. Wouldn't want it any other way.
An interesting thing happened on our cruise through the Baltic. The phone in our stateroom rang. In the 15 seconds before I answered it I had calculated what time it was in Florida and Georgia (the middle of the night) and the kind of crisis it would have to be for someone to call us half way around the world.
In that 15 seconds I was anything but happy. But the deep down joy of having a large family was, by far, an overriding factor.
By the way, the phone call was from the ship's photographer.
Instead of being angry or upset, I spent the rest of the evening feeling grateful to be with Dave on the high seas, dining and dancing. I had a real happiness boost.
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