Two Lives

When was the last time you felt that an activity once pleasurable is no longer so? Or something done repetitively loses its charm or magic? In fact it happens to all of us and Nature has wired the pursuit of “more and more” in us all for our survival as a species. Interestingly behavioural experts have coined it as the hedonic principle: we humans tend to seek pleasure and avoid pain. Indeed, you must have contemplated how fleeting the sources of pleasure are, the moment we get accustomed to them, they cease to be enjoyable.

Yet we see amongst us and in ourselves that often now and then we endeavour to take on challenges that are not exactly pleasurable and may sometimes or somehow be a source of momentary suffering. Apparently, this seems to be contradictory to the hedonic principle. Also this must have come to your observation that certain activities once discomforting no longer remain so. Undoubtedly we also encounter lots of adage around expanding our comfort zone.

The truth is, it’s all about balance and harmony. All of us lead these two lives simultaneously and this phenomenon is termed hedonic adaptation. The optimal approach is to match any activity with circumstance. If urgent, we can afford few moments to engage in pleasure, like sipping tea. But a question we need to ask ourselves is: given a cake with icing, do we enjoy the cake more or the icing on it? (and some may even prefer the cake without icing, and no matter how much we love eating cake, we can not consume it at all times)

Behavioural experts have suggested a different version of hedonic principle that explains why we seek activities that may not be so pleasurable. According to hedonic flexibility principle (by Herbert Simon), how we affect (or feel) influences our choice of activities. When in a bad mood, we tend to engage in mood enhancing activities or pursuits (we still have a choice between pleasures and flow activities) and when in a good mood, we pursue mood decreasing activities (necessary activities good for long term). In general, negative affect correlates with us seeking pleasure and positive affect correlates with us seek meaning. The reverse can also be true as whenever we seek pleasure, we end up in a negative mood and likewise, whenever we seek meaningful (apparently unpleasant) activities, we end up in a more positive mood.

An interesting way to comprehend this principle is to think of mood as a bank account. When in surplus, we can afford to take on long term goals. When in deficit, we need to replenish it and thus we require mood enhancing activities. One way to stall expensive draws on the bank account is to engage in flow activities which are a sweet spot between pleasure & meaning. And let's not forget engaging in any sort of activity has it's effect on the mood as well. So, we can have it backwards as well.

Needless to stress, in order to affect positively, one needs to sleep well, eat healthy, exercise regularly and connect socially.