Realize about hedonic adaptation.

It is when you are in a state of pleasure and your body is starting to adapt to that situation. After a while, you will become accustom to the pleasure that it starts to become a norm for you.

Psychologists notice that human being, after the adaptation, will start to look for something with a higher pleasure rate. And the hedonic adaptation behavior will repeat itself.

By taking a break from the pleasurable experience and resume it after that, it will help to increase the pleasure in the same experience. The break helps to abrupt your self adaptation to that particular experience.

Example: “traders should consider taking breaks from trading when they’re making money–not just when they’re losing. By adjusting to the experience of making money, traders are likely to lose a sense of satisfaction and instead seek further (and possibly imprudent) gains through more (i.e., over) trading.” Read more here.

I can understand the phrase “Human beings are never satisfied” or “We keep looking for something more” now. Maybe by being aware about hedonic adaptation, we can be a more grateful person.

Image by lusi