Hedonic Adaptation

Hedonic Adaptation:  A measurable and innate capacity to become habituated or inured to most life changes.

I read a fair amount and often run across things that are helpful in enabling me to understand other things, sometimes important things.  There's a lot of good stuff out there.  

There's this from a series of psychological studies and I'm quoting from the report directly: " Hedonic adaptation is most likely when positive experiences are involved.  It's cruel but true:  We're inclined - psychologically and physiologically - to take positive experiences for granted.  When great things happen to us we're thrilled!  For a time.  Then, as if propelled by autonomic forces, our expectations change, multiply or expand and, as they do, we begin to take the new, improved circumstances for granted."

I know that I get bored easily.  Restless, vaguely dissatisfied, eager for something new, something else - not unhappy, exactly, but not content.  Some of this is due to my profound lack of gratitude but some of it is me being human, if you care to believe this study.  I get bored, I try something, sometimes something really huge and big and new, and then after a while I get bored again, and I'm ready for the next great thing.

Here's some more: "Surprise is a potent force.  When something novel occurs, we tend to pay attention  to appreciate the experience or circumstance, and to remember it."  It seems to me that this explains a lot about culture shock.  Many of us are too timid or afraid or uncomfortable to take the step into the new thing.  The change can be very uncomfortable.

But I highly recommend it.