“The truth is everyone is going to hurt you. You just have to find the ones worth suffering for.”
Day 29 Morning Scorecard and Life Checklist:
Hedonic Adaptation: Why We’re Not Happy All the Time
As much as advertisers would like you to believe their product will make you "eternally happy," from a brain perspective that is not possible. As soon as you unwrap that brand new toy, your brain gives you an initial bump of dopamine but then very quickly drops those dopamine levels to keep you wanting more. Your brain does this to keep you on edge, always "hungry," to increase your chances of long term survival. This “hedonic treadmill," where we have to keep moving to remain in the same spot, is an unfortunate remnant of our evolutionary past. At some point in history, this internal programming of never feeling satisfied made sense because the berry bush was always going to run out of berries, so we needed to keep moving to stay alive. However, in today's world, it just leads to a lot of unsatisfied people always searching for that next shiny reward. This isn’t the most optimistic news, but at least it might help you accept the fact that life isn’t always going to be "rainbows and puppies," and it's ok to have a crappy day every once and a while.
FACT: When your brain gets a big release of dopamine, it automatically releases CRH (corticotropin releasing horomone) to counteract dopamine’s effect and bring you back down to baseline.
TAKEAWAY: The brain does this to keep you motivated in order to find the next batch of pleasure. Unfortunately, this means happiness is hard to maintain for any extended amount of time.
Remembering the Good Times
Naturally, the brain is programmed to forecast all of the negative options that might befall you. Then when you start to ruminate about these negative possibilities, blood flow to your right prefrontal cortex is increased, causing you to worry more. Over time this makes an ingrained path of worrying in your brain that feeds off itself. So in order to counteract this evolutionary hiccup, we need to occasionally prime our brains with positive memories to divert blood flow in a beneficial direction. Thinking back to the times you are grateful for is a great way to do this. This priming of positive information creates greater blood flow to the regions of your brain that focus on positive emotions. Thus creating a feedback loop, making it more likely blood will flow to these positivity centers in the future.
FACT: Research has shown that an individual's average level of happiness is mostly decided by their genetics.
TAKEAWAY: However, there are many ways to increase your average subjective well being. Research has shown the best ways are through daily meditation, gratefulness lists, and realistic expectations.
“To enjoy the life you’re living you must forget about the life you planned. ”