I have conducted a number of studies on a phenomenon sometimes referred to as emotional adaptation. The basic idea behind this phenomenon is that people often respond with strong emotions to significant changes in their circumstances, but these emotions tend to diminish over time. Moreover, people often fail to anticipate this change in emotions, a failure that psychologists Dan Gilbert and Tim Wilson called “immune neglect.”
So you can imagine that my interest was piqued when I came across this quote from Epicurus, way back in the times of ancient Greece (although I don’t think they called it ancient Greece back then).
“Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; but remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for.”
This quote doesn’t point exactly towards immune neglect, but it implicitly acknowledges emotional adaptation. We get satiated, or satisfied, with what we have, and therefore yearn for more. But sometimes it’s good to take a step back and remember that what we have right now, often, is pretty darn good. It might even have been what we yearned for previously.