As 2024 approaches, people look back to evaluate their lives and think about what they can do in 2025 to achieve a more fulfilling existence. If so, you may notice a conundrum: Why do you have some good things in your life – maybe a fulfilling career, a loving family, a comfortable home – but all this has only a limited effect on your daily happiness. At the same time, there may be bad things around us – cracks in relationships, online violence, inefficiencies in the workplace – and it seems that we often get used to these diseases, so we can’t try and change them. In other words , we stop seeing what is always there. Here’s how you can change it. Recognizing HabituationHabituation is a basic characteristic of our brain—the tendency to respond less and less to things that are regular or frequent. Imagine walking to a coffee shop. At first, the aroma of freshly brewed coffee is noticeable, but after 20 minutes, you can’t smell it anymore. Your olfactory neurons stop responding—they habituate. And just as you get used to the aroma of coffee, you can also get used to the more complex aspects of your life. it’s terrible we stop remembering that we have the potential to change if we try. So, how do we break it?Break Up the GoodThe answer lies in this beautiful quote by the economist Tibor Scitovsky: “Pleasure results from the incomplete and intermittent satisfaction of desires. continuous from beginning to end, or with short breaks? Ninety nine percent of people say “no” to the break. However, research shows that people enjoy the song with a break. Why? Breaks, however, induce dishabituation, so that every time the song comes back, the happiness level rises again. Whether it’s a Netflix show, a chocolate cake, or a new flavor of romance, instead of a binge. Swallow the Bad Whole. – housework, admin work – get it done together.. Research shows that people don’t suffer if they have to listen to unpleasant sounds (like the hoover sound) constantly than if they take a break. If you experience constant disruption, the “pain” it caused in the beginning will diminish. Break, however, induce dishabituation, so that every time the noise returns, the level of suffering rises again. Experiment in LivingWhat about the aspects of your life that you suspect are causing you stress and anxiety, but you can’t figure out how much they’re affecting you because they’re always there, so you don’t try to change them? They appear in the background like the constant sound of an air conditioner—you don’t realize how negative the noise is until someone turns it off and suddenly you feel better. Consider social media: Does it have a negative impact on you? In one study, researchers paid half of the participants $100 each to quit social media platforms for a month, while the other half continued with their normal lives. At the end of the experiment, the “dead” cohort was happier and less stressed. Most of all, he was shocked. Little did they know how the platform would affect them. In 2025, the experiment is alive. Remove some elements from your daily routine for a while, one at a time, and add some new ones. Measure and evaluate the impact on your life, so you can keep the features that lead to happiness and purpose, and eliminate the ones that don’t.
