We often think of happiness as those moments when we feel especially joyful or bright, but seeking out only those moments can lead to feeling like you’re not happy at all. Here’s why you should embrace only feeling OK, too.
Image from birdy_photo.
When you expect happiness to be spikes in positive emotion, day-to-day you’ll assume you’re not very happy. Reframing how you think about those moments when you just feel content, or OK, helps you realise you’re happier overall than you think you are. James Baraz, writing on Greater Good, explains:
As neuroscience expert Rick Hanson says: “The brain is like Teflon for positive experiences and Velcro for negative ones.” We need to train ourselves to appreciate and take in those simple moments of life where things are actually OK. When you let go of looking for ecstatic states, you can find joy in the most commonplace moments.
Embrace times where you feel OK, but not super joyful, to help you recognise all the opportunities you have to be satisfied with your life even if those moments don’t reach the high point that many people associate with “happy”.
Are Your Happiness Goals Too High? [Greater Good]
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One response to “Why You Should Embrace Moments When You Only Feel OK”
Stoicism. It’s been around for millennia and keeps getting re-hashed and the basic tenets re-“discovered” by modern psychologists, neuroscientists and New Age gurus.