Happiness Redefined

The latest research (and our collective recent life experiences) points to the fact that you may be most likely to find joy where you least expect it.

- NICOLE BLADES 

If the past few years have taught us anything, it's that the typical avenues to happiness - travel, big gatherings, career achievements aren't always readily accessible. But honestly (and here's where we go deep), it wouldn't matter if they were, thanks to a pesky thing called hedonic adaptation. That's the idea that after the initial euphoria from a new win in your life, the great mood it inspires fades over time, per researchers. It's also why winning the lottery or dating someone "out of your league" can't guarantee long-term happiness beyond the initial thrill. In that way, many of us learnt we can be happier with less if we focus on the right things (read: the less-sparkly, counter-intuitive stuff). And that's a good skill to have now and in the future. Curious where your elephant of happiness is hiding? Might be in your daily grind, in the way you think about your mortality or even in your approach to positivity. Here, six unexpected ways to take the road less travelled to lasting bliss.

1 Learn To Balance What You Need To Do With What You Want To Do

When you ask people about the happiest moments in their lives, they'll point to activities that gave them meaning - running a marathon, publishing poetry, raising children. But if you tap these people in the midst of their working towards those achievements (say, during a long training run, a night of writer's block, or a child's public tantrum), they'll tell you those things are making them miserable, studies show. Here's why: The big events contribute to what's known in psychology research as the "narrative self," or the version of yourself that's trying to create an identity and make you the hero of a triumphant story. Unfortunately, that narrative self is often at odds with what would make your "daily self" happy (enter long naps and Netflix!).