Why is it so hard to be happy? You strive to find happiness; you plan your entire life in pursuit of goals that you believe will make you happy—getting a college degree, traveling the world, making more money, helping others, creating a masterpiece, etc….
But why is it that even after achieving those goals you soon find yourself despondent again?
The answer may be that your state of happiness is completely predetermined by something beyond your control. No, not God or karma, but psychology. Researchers are finding evidence that everyone exists at a baseline of happiness encoded by experience, personality, and genetics. Another determinate of happiness is the evolutionary process that requires adaptation to environmental changes so that people may overcome any situation and return to a habitual state of being. Therefore, regardless of what happens—winning $16 million in the lottery or becoming paralyzed in a freak accident—biological and psychological factors will cause the return of that habitual state, the baseline of happiness.
At this moment, your baseline of happiness might be affecting your reaction to this information.
Do these findings depress you because you realize that your current state of happiness is the happiest you’ll ever be? Or do these findings liberate you because you realize that if your level of happiness is predetermined then it doesn’t matter what you do in life, you’ll still be as happy or as unhappy as you are now?
2 comments:
so plot your happiness against time and you have a curve. the 'baseline' is arbitrary and constant; your happiness fluctuates, but doesn't necessarily oscillate, around that line. Decisions we make at any given moment determine determine the momentary happiness; the first derivative determines the slope of the curve at that instant. it's possible, then, to steer your curve above or below your baseline, depending...
Lily, are you reading Living with Our Genes: The Groundbreaking Book about the Science of Personality, Behavior, and Genetic Destiny, a book by Dean Hamer and Peter Copeland? It sounds as if you might be. I started it a few weeks ago, then was interrupted and haven't returned to it.
Today we unravel noun strings, tomorrow DNA strings :)
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