If You Just Went Through A Break-up or A Traumatic Life Event, Don't Worry, Your Mind Has An Immune System!

in #psychology7 years ago

It's often the case that after a break up, people fail to see the point in life anymore, and in the moment, it's hard to argue with someone who feels this way why they're wrong. But what most people don't realize is that the mind can adapt to just about any situation it finds itself in.

There's a study that's been repeated many times, and finds that regardless of whether something positive or negative happens in your life, within a year, your happiness and levels of satisfaction with life will be exactly where they were prior to this incident. This study was done on lottery winners and paraplegics, or people who have lost a limb, be it an arm or a leg. They measured their satisfaction levels right after this traumatic event, and and one year later. They found that regardless of how happy or sad they became in the short term, humans can get used to and adapt to anything!

So, if you're feeling depressed or ecstatic, it probably won't last long. The trick if you do win the lottery is to not change everything you want to change in your life at once. Do it 1 by 1, and get as much satisfaction from each item that you can. So rather than going out and buying a house and car and hot tub, etc. Do them 1 by 1 and stretch the dates out as much as you can until you're no longer getting any satisfaction from them.

There's also definitely an argument to be made that material wealth will only make you so happy, and science shows that above $70,000 dollars a year for most people makes a very slight increase in satisfaction. Note that I didn't say that more money doesn't increase satisfaction. There isn't any point on the graph where more money reduces satisfaction, although it is apt to come with many unexpected headaches and it's more often than not the case that lottery winners lose all their money and friends along with it eventually as having a lot of money suddenly will expose any character flaws. Ultimately though, other forms of wealth, such as friends and family will come to be significantly more important than any extra money. Indeed, humans are social animals and the majority of our happiness comes from our relationships with other people.

Hope you have a wonderful day and year,
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