Happiness Plateau<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I think I can safely say that we all want to be happy. What we pursue in life, whether a career or God or a hobby or other passion all comes down to an\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/whitehindu\/2015\/08\/happiness-plateau\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Happiness Plateau\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I think I can safely say that we all want to be happy. What we pursue in life, whether a career or God or a hobby or other passion all comes down to an\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/whitehindu\/2015\/08\/happiness-plateau\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The White Hindu\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-08-03T12:29:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/317\/2015\/08\/happiness.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"311\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"475\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Ambaa Choate\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Ambaa Choate\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/whitehindu\/2015\/08\/happiness-plateau\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/whitehindu\/2015\/08\/happiness-plateau\/\",\"name\":\"Happiness Plateau\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/whitehindu\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2015-08-03T12:29:10+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-08-03T12:29:10+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/whitehindu\/#\/schema\/person\/2444b196e56ca64da3c3a54965312ef1\"},\"description\":\"I think I can safely say that we all want to be happy. What we pursue in life, whether a career or God or a hobby or other passion all comes down to an\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/whitehindu\/2015\/08\/happiness-plateau\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/whitehindu\/2015\/08\/happiness-plateau\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/whitehindu\/2015\/08\/happiness-plateau\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/whitehindu\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Happiness Plateau\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/whitehindu\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/whitehindu\/\",\"name\":\"The White Hindu\",\"description\":\"The journey of an American convert to Hinduism.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/whitehindu\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/whitehindu\/#\/schema\/person\/2444b196e56ca64da3c3a54965312ef1\",\"name\":\"Ambaa Choate\",\"description\":\"Ambaa is an American woman of European ancestry who is also a practicing Hindu. She is fascinated with questions of philosophy, culture, and the meaning of life. Join her in the journey to explore how a non-Indian convert to Hinduism experiences her religion.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/whitehindu\/author\/whitehindu\/\"}]}<\/script>\n","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Happiness Plateau","description":"I think I can safely say that we all want to be happy. What we pursue in life, whether a career or God or a hobby or other passion all comes down to an","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/whitehindu\/2015\/08\/happiness-plateau\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Happiness Plateau","og_description":"I think I can safely say that we all want to be happy. What we pursue in life, whether a career or God or a hobby or other passion all comes down to an","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/whitehindu\/2015\/08\/happiness-plateau\/","og_site_name":"The White Hindu","article_published_time":"2015-08-03T12:29:10+00:00","og_image":[{"width":311,"height":475,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/317\/2015\/08\/happiness.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Ambaa Choate","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Ambaa Choate","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/whitehindu\/2015\/08\/happiness-plateau\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/whitehindu\/2015\/08\/happiness-plateau\/","name":"Happiness Plateau","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/whitehindu\/#website"},"datePublished":"2015-08-03T12:29:10+00:00","dateModified":"2015-08-03T12:29:10+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/whitehindu\/#\/schema\/person\/2444b196e56ca64da3c3a54965312ef1"},"description":"I think I can safely say that we all want to be happy. What we pursue in life, whether a career or God or a hobby or other passion all comes down to an","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/whitehindu\/2015\/08\/happiness-plateau\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/whitehindu\/2015\/08\/happiness-plateau\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/whitehindu\/2015\/08\/happiness-plateau\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/whitehindu\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Happiness Plateau"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/whitehindu\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/whitehindu\/","name":"The White Hindu","description":"The journey of an American convert to Hinduism.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/whitehindu\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/whitehindu\/#\/schema\/person\/2444b196e56ca64da3c3a54965312ef1","name":"Ambaa Choate","description":"Ambaa is an American woman of European ancestry who is also a practicing Hindu. She is fascinated with questions of philosophy, culture, and the meaning of life. Join her in the journey to explore how a non-Indian convert to Hinduism experiences her religion.","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/whitehindu\/author\/whitehindu\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/whitehindu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7611","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/whitehindu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/whitehindu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/whitehindu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1305"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/whitehindu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7611"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/whitehindu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7611\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/whitehindu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7619"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/whitehindu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7611"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/whitehindu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7611"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/whitehindu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7611"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}

{"id":7611,"date":"2015-08-03T08:29:10","date_gmt":"2015-08-03T12:29:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/whitehindu\/?p=7611"},"modified":"2015-08-03T08:29:10","modified_gmt":"2015-08-03T12:29:10","slug":"happiness-plateau","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/whitehindu\/2015\/08\/happiness-plateau\/","title":{"rendered":"Happiness Plateau"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

It\u2019s strange to me how elusive happiness is.<\/p>\n

What I\u2019m finding is that I often feel very good after I\u2019ve made a change in my life and that good feeling lasts for a few months but eventually it becomes the norm and I go back to the same baseline level of happiness I had before, which is not nothing but it\u2019s not as happy\/content\/peaceful as I know I can be. Once something new settles into routine my baseless anxiety resurfaces. I find things to worry about even in a life that is nearly perfect.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not the only one who has noticed this effect. Experts are saying now that we all have a baseline happiness that we tend to come back to again and again after periods of greater happiness or lesser happiness depending on circumstances.<\/p>\n

The joy and energy that my grocery store job gave me has now faded to the usual anxiety all the time I\u2019m not at work, worrying over going into work. Even though I enjoy my work there, I feel dread whenever I\u2019m not there, anticipating having to go in.<\/p>\n

Each change I make in my life to increase my happiness only works for a short period of time.<\/p>\n

There has to be a better way. I\u2019m certain that we can fight back against our baseline happiness level and elevate it more of the time, maybe even create a new baseline. I think that is part of being enlightened, having a peaceful joy at all times<\/p>\n

But what makes me happy? In my mid-thirties I still don\u2019t know.<\/p>\n

There are things I\u2019ve tried that have worked for short periods or not worked at all and it\u2019s challenging to admit that something I thought was going to make me happy doesn\u2019t and let it go.<\/p>\n

I like this idea of a Happiness Project<\/a>. The book tells the story of the author\u2019s happiness project and also gives tips on how to create your own. Another book that I think can help is The Magic<\/a>. It is a sequel to The Secret <\/a>and while I have a lot of issues with The Secret and its philosophies, I like The Magic\u2019s focus on gratitude. I found that its gratitude exercises helped me to feel more joy. I\u2019m also rereading Finding Joy<\/a> one little section at a time. It\u2019s a book that my mom and I discovered when I was about 11 and we found it very comforting and peace-inducing. Nearly every time we get a copy we end up giving it to someone as a gift!<\/p>\n

I believe that we can live free from baseless guilt, listlessness, and melancholy. I believe that we can raise our personal happiness baseline. I believe that part of what we are aiming for with enlightenment is to be full of contentedness and contagious joy all the time. That is a gift not only to ourselves but to everyone around us.<\/p>\n

So I\u2019m going to be exploring ways to raise\u00a0one\u2019s happiness level.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"