Adversity & Happiness
The researchers who studied the aforementioned lottery winners also studied a group of people who had recently suffered accidents that left them paralyzed. When the researchers analyzed the results of this study, they found that the recent accident victims actually reported gaining happiness from simple everyday activities such as chatting with a friend, watching TV, or eating breakfast. In fact, as their recovery progressed, they gained more happiness from their “improved situation” than the lottery winners did from their windfall!
Happiness is not the absence of adversity and pain, but rather the ability to embrace fully the discomforts of life, to feel the emotions, and to process them in a way that generates meaning. Think back to a time in your life when you felt emotional pain or sadness. Perhaps you lost your job or had your heart broken. It’s likely that during the time period shortly after the initiating event, you invested significant energy wishing the reality were different. The degree to which we can accept the new reality and cho0se to learn from it is directly proportional to our ability to resume a state of well-being.
The response of people who have suffered disabling accidents provides us with a powerful demonstration of the hedonic adaptation theory mentioned earlier. The lottery winners “cooled down” from a thrill reaction back to their typical “set point” of happiness, while the accident victims “warmed up” from a low point while acclimating to their disabilities, also returning to their typical “set point” of happiness. The conclusion to be drawn here is that significant external events in life will not, in the long run, substantially affect our happiness. (!)
