Posted by Honore on February 15, 2007, at 0:31:09
In reply to Re: Happiness set point » Dinah, posted by happykat on February 14, 2007, at 21:53:59
A set point is mostly a metaphor-- it sounds concrete-- and singular, as if there's a radiator in your brain that's set at a temperature. But there isn't. There are patterns of acting and feeling, etc-- that have a tendency to persist, which include a sort of emotional state about life.
What's the point of doing anything if my happiness set point will be the same if I sit around watching TV, or if I go to an art school and study painting for a couple of years and become able to paint, or take an exciting job, or am a counterperson at the local supermarket? It's simply not true that I'll be equally happy if I do any of those things as if I do any other.
Maybe there are things that keep me from taking the exciting job, and thus I remain in an unhappy state; or I tend to take jobs that I dislike for reasons having to do with social status, or family expectations, or some internalized self-destructive urge, and am miserable, and then I work at, say, therapy, and make changes and am able to take a job that's much more fulfilling.
I personally not only refuse to believe that that's a myth or delusion, I've experienced it enough to say that it isn't one.
Another way of putting (one that I don't prefer) is that you can change your happiness set point. More importantly, you can make different kinds of choices and live a more meaningful life-- which isn't the same as winning the lottery.
Honore
poster:Honore
thread:732844
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20070203/msgs/732969.html