Natural Happiness or Synthetic: Which is Better?

Natural Happiness or Synthetic:
Which is Better?

Can you manufacture your own happiness? And, if you can, will that happiness be as meaningful as natural happiness?

After all, it is “fake” happiness, and surely, anything fake has less value than its natural counterpart. Right?

Wrong! According to social psychologist Daniel Gilbert, synthetic happiness is every bit as good as natural happiness — maybe even better.

But what’s the difference between natural happiness and synthetic? Gilbert offers these definitions:

Natural happiness = the feels you feel* when you get what you want.
Synthetic happiness = the feels you feel* when you don’t get what you want, but you are nonetheless satisfied and able to create your own happiness given the situation. You find the silver lining so to speak.

*Gilbert didn’t say, “the feels you feel.” I added that part ?

But why might synthetic happiness be better than natural happiness?

Keep scrolling to find out.

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Why is Synthetic Happiness Better Than
Natural Happiness?

Synthetic happiness changes your view of the world so that you can feel better about the world in which you find yourself. And that’s pure magic because you have very little control over the external world, but you can determine how you react to it.

Whereas, natural happiness is completely dependent on the external world. A world over which you have no control.

So what do you do with this newfound information? You decide whether you’re going to choose natural or synthetic happiness.

Do you want live your life constantly chasing the “next thing”; the thing that’s going to make you happy? That new car, romantic partner, or promotion.

Or, do you want to let go of the desire to acquire more; live each day to your full potential; and find happiness in the fact that you did the very best that you could with what you had? The choice is yours!

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Click here for more posts with a “live fulfilled” theme.

If you’re ready to Stop Settling & Start Living! check out our home page to learn more about what The Expectation Gaps has to offer.

And until next time . . . have a SYNTHETICALLY-HAPPY day!

SCREENSHOT TIME!

Take a screenshot to easily access the reason synthetic happiness is better than natural happiness:

Synthetic happiness changes your view of the world so that you can feel better about the world in which you find yourself. And that’s pure magic because you have very little control over the external world, but you can determine how you react to it.

Whereas, natural happiness is completely dependent on the external world. A world over which you have no control.

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