On most days, it is my dogs that make me happy. If you ask me, I would say I have been unhappy for most of my life. It is what it is.
Happiness is fleeting that is why it is best to seize the moment when you are happy.
A study now shows that while money can’t buy you happiness it can help you be happier. I guess you can’t have more of it unless you already have some happiness.
As your income grows, for most of us it can make us happy. But the baseline according to the research is $75,000 anything above it, the level of happiness plateaus or will only have an incremental increase and there’s little data to support any further increase in happiness beyond $200,000.
It is quite easy to understand why, because there are problems that can be solved with money, the most stressful part of being alive comes when you are sick.
I have been experiencing it a lot lately. In February I must have visited the hospital six times for tests and doctor visits.
The stress of finding out what is wrong with my body plus the cost of buying the prescribed medicines makes it difficult as to which part of being sick should I prioritize, to focus on being healthy or work even harder to help me with the cost of the medicines.
The relationship between money and happiness research
What isn’t true is that when you don’t have money, you can’t be happy the same goes for when you have all the money you will become happy.
Final words
The limitation of money.
The hedonic treadmill, also known as hedonic adaptation, is a psychological phenomenon in which people return to their baseline happiness level after experiencing positive or negative events. This means that the happiness derived from material possessions is fleeting, and individuals may need to acquire more to maintain their happiness levels.
As Matthew Killingsworth the researcher said,
Yes, money isn’t the root of all good or evil, and neither can it make you truly happy unless you already have some of it in you.
As for me, I try to be present when happy moments present themselves, they may come few and far in between but they do come.
To Phi and Crocker, you both make me happy.
Thank you for reading.
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This post was previously published on ILLUMINATION.
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