Terrywoodenpic
Oldest Heretic
Happiness and unhappiness are the fruits of expectations.
Happy people are satisfied with their lot.
Happy people are satisfied with their lot.
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doppelgänger;937060 said:Perhaps because that is its nature.
conditional love is momentary. Most people love family, god and country ; and that is where their love stops. (If that is where it stop then it is not love.) Most people give love ; only if some of their desires and /or wants are being met. This kind of "love" is a egotistical survival tactic.
I'm going to expand on my previous reply...Cynic said:From a biological perspective, I would say that happiness is part of a reward system that would become ineffective if it wasn't so fleeting. We wouldn't strive for much (i.e. to see our loved ones, to engage in a new and exciting romance, etc). Pleasure/pain is what motives organisms to do things. Happiness is a natural, positive reinforcer for behaviors that are conducive to survivability. If we were constantly happy, it would no longer be an effective positive reinforcer.
Michael Wiederman said:"Thanks for the Inheritance
When evolutionary psychologists notice a universal aspect of how people perceive the world, they make an assumption: that slice of human nature must have been adaptive for our distant ancestors. During our long evolutionary history, we passed certain characteristics to the next generation when the individuals who possessed them were more likely to survive and have offspring. Other ways of reacting to the world were weeded out, because the individuals who possessed brains wired to respond in those ways were less likely to survive or have offspring. What does natural selection have to do with happiness? We humans have inherited a remarkable capacity to habituate to, or become accustomed to, the status quo. Habituation is wonderfully adaptive when we are faced with adverse conditions, such as chronic noise or a permanent disability. After a while, we may no longer even notice these unpleasant circumstances. Unfortunately, habituation applies to positive aspects of our lives as well. No matter how pleasant an experience is at first, if it becomes a constant, we habituate to it.
We have also inherited a tendency to notice the negative more readily than the positive. Those early Homo sapiens who were most sensitive to negative changes in the environment were probably most likely to survive, because negative changes may have signaled danger. Like our distant relatives, we, too, have brains that are wired to notice trouble. So the natural human condition is to take positive experiences for granted and to focus on the bothersome aspects of life. Last, one other aspect of human nature helps to prevent us from being satisfied: that little voice inside our head that often convinces us that our life would be better if only we possessed or accomplished something else. It is easy to see how early humans who were never quite satisfied would have had an advantage over their more easily satisfied peers. That nagging voice of dissatisfaction would have prompted our ancestors to strive for a bit more and then a bit more after that."
I'm going to expand on my previous reply...
A reward (in this case happiness) must be combined with a desired behavior in order for it to be effective.
For an analogy, think of parent parenting a child.
If a parent keeps giving his/her child cookies, let's say cookies for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, a cookie will be a very ineffective positive reinforcer. "Here little Johnny, if you behave, I'll give you a cookie." There's no point (in little Johnny's mind) since he gets cookies all the time anyways. He does not need to behave in order to get a cookie.
IMHO, If we were truly in a state of constant euphoria or excitement, there would be little need or inclination to perform naturally rewarding behaviors. We wouldn't tell jokes, we wouldn't seek affection and attention, we wouldn't have sex, etc.
If you felt constantly full, even though your stomach was empty, you wouldn't eat. The euphorias rewarding all our drives comes and goes... Mission accomplished, goodbye...
Also there is the psychological phenomenon of habituation. Our brains are wired to pay more attention to new and unpredictable stimuli. Constant exposure to the same stimuli (like a song we love) becomes less rewarding over time. We simply become bored of the same song, then move on. When I used to make my own dance tracks, I often suffered from listening fatigue, which happens when you are exposed to music over a long period of time. All music loses it's emotional appeal. You no longer feel that spine tingle during the chorus of a song. In fact, you lose our ability to make the distinction between a good song and a bad one. This phenomenon also applies to other aspects of our lives. After a while, we stop laughing at the same jokes. During marriage, the flame seems to die down over time.
The fleeting part IMHO, is quite... Natural.
Consider this article by Michael Wiederman on "Why It's So Hard to Be Happy," in the February 2007 issue of Scientific American Mind (pg 36-43)
The article also goes into depth about concepts such as "flow" and how there is little to no correlation between wealth and happiness.
Why is happiness so often elusive? Why is it so often fleeting?
Why is happiness so often elusive? Why is it so often fleeting?