Mindfulness and Lasting Appreciation 

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What if life came with a video showing you what you’ve stopped noticing? In this episode of our gratitude series, Eartha Burns Powell explores why we often appreciate our health, our possessions, and the people we love only after we lose them.

Drawing on the psychology of hedonic adaptation and the Hedonic Adaptation Prevention model from researchers Kennon Sheldon and Sonja Lyubomirsky, Eartha explains the two ways good things fade: our positive feelings wear off, and our expectations rise. She then shares the two protectors that keep good things feeling fresh, appreciation and variety, and compares how marketers renew our interest in products with how mindfulness renews our appreciation for what we already have.

The episode closes with a guided mental subtraction practice and a simple daily challenge to help you notice the gifts already in your life.

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