Thomas Gilovich, a psychology professor at the university, has revealed that people experience the same amount of happiness when making a purchase they want and when they travel. And here’s the important bit, while the happiness you derive from a purchase reduces over time, the memories of your traveling experience still supply you with happiness hormones for a long time.
So, What’s The Secret Sauce to Sustained Happiness?
Experience.
As Dr. Gilovich says, they’re a total sum of the life experiences you’ve had in your travels and life experiences.
Happiness Stems From Connections.
Traveling brings you to new cultures and places. In such an environment, everything around you feels more enriching. Your brain and body alike lose track of time as you’re so keen on absorbing new information.
That disconnection from the normal surroundings that you’re already adapted to offers an excellent environment for creating happy and lasting memories that are hard to forget or replace.
Robert Waldinger, head of a 80 year old research at Harvard University knows much about happiness. The results from one study revealed that individuals who most connected to their family, friends, community, and other people were the healthiest and happiest.
In light of that, Waldinger says that you need to deepen your relationships by doing new things together with the people in your life. He goes on to explain that experiences connect you to others in a way that material things can’t. To Waldinger, some of the most important experiences in his life are travel. Traveling, he reveals, brought him closer to his family.
Other Things You Can Do For Long-Lasting Happiness
Participating in extreme sports, learning new skills, or going to unusual events will bring you joy. A new car or gadget will eventually become ordinary, old, and outdated. On the other hand, the memories you create will become a real source of happiness that will stay with you your whole life.
So, invest your hard-earned cash in experiences, and you’ll be investing in your long-term happiness and satisfaction.