The Novelty of Nature (hers)

The smell of leaves, charcoal, and rain.  The millions of shades of yellow, orange, red, and green.  The cold whip of the wind and crisp chill in the air.  For those of us in temperate climates, these are the all too familiar signs of autumn.  With autumn comes the necessity of change, an inescapable demand of nature.

The seasons are a brilliant idea.  We are forced to adapt when our environment is dramatically altered every 3-5 months.  In understanding when, why, and how much to adapt, we're faced with a fundamental premise of how our minds work.

When humans are exposed to specific environmental stimuli for extended periods of time, we adapt.  When we adapt completely, positive associations with this stimuli decrease, and we begin to desire different stimuli.  This is the hedonic treadmill in action.  We feel like we're growing if we change these stimuli, and yet we haven't moved an inch.

Two members of the Hapacus Advisory Board -- Dr. Sonja Lyubomirsky and Dr. Ken Sheldon -- tell us to adapt carefully and never completely.  Through work they've done on "Thwarting Hedonic Adaptation" and "The Architecture of Sustainable Happiness," they believe that long-term increases in happiness are possible by practicing specific cognitive, motivational, and behavioral activities that counteract total adjustment to change.

You can find examples of these behaviors on our previous blog post on hedonic adaptation.  These exercises hinder the cycle of adaptation that makes positive experiences blase and unfulfilling (see how this relates to Apple stock and Sienna Miller on our October 25th Facebook post).

The novelty of nature helps remind us to savor all of life's experiences.  Savoring increases our enjoyment of one experience instead of trying to increase the number of experiences.

Become a connoisseur of your life.  A "connoisseur" can detect and savor immensely subtle differences, characteristics, and qualities.  Billion dollar businesses have been created around products dependent on the practice of savoring, such as wine, cheese, chocolate, and tea.  Savor your life, and it will become a feast.

Thoreau called this "suck[ing] out all the marrow of life," which Robin Williams echoed in Dead Poets Society.  Economists call this "consumption skills," or the ability to pull more utility (i.e. happiness) out of the same unit of consumption.  Businessmen can think of this as focusing on profit margins instead of just revenue.

However you think of it, try to soak in as much of the new season as you can.  Take a walk in the woods, marvel at the fading peaches, erupting reds, and soothing yellows of a sky of leaves, smell the wet earth, and bask in our wonderfully novel, wonderfully natural surroundings.

(All pictures were taken in our backyard)