I woke up in the middle of the night two nights ago and couldn’t get back to sleep.  But I was sort of stuck in this strange nostalgic mindset where I felt removed from my life, looking down on it, and in particular comparing the current moment to various moments in the past.  It was weird.  Does that ever happen to you?

I believe in the Hedonic treadmill concept (first introduced to me by Cameron Marlow way back when).  It’s basically that regardless of the current situation, good times, bad times, etc, that you’ll eventually return to the same baseline level of happiness that is your, for whatever reason, equilibrium.  That equilibrium varies person to person based on genetics, temperament, and whatever other factors factor in.

I also believe that people can make slow progress with moving their equilibrium up or down, either intentionally or accidentally.  Not with specific events, but with a gradual shift in mindset, lifestyle, health, and factors out of our control.  That’s why I’m so interested in the Track Your Happiness project, the big vision is to create tools that help you learn which shifts in lifestyle are the most effective and correlated contributors to your happiness.

That said, I was surprised at how much my life has changed in the last couple years, and how completely happier I feel now that a few things have changed.  For one, I’m in an amazing relationship.  For another, I’m getting my financial situation in order.  For another, I don’t have a ton of responsibility other than to myself, my wife, and our future.  It’s a much more stable place, and I think it has had a tremendous impact on my stress levels and my base happiness levels.

Which just sort of proves an obvious theory: that long-term intense stress has an impact on baseline happiness.  Or, actually, maybe it’s not that direct.  Maybe stress merely impacts your calmness.  And calmness is one element of happiness… not necessarily creating it, but, along with energy, focus, and enjoyment, allowing happiness to happen.