Why holidays don’t make us as happy as we’d wish

Anyone can make a list of at least 5 things that make them happy. Some we do regularly, like getting our favorite latte from that funky coffee shop; some we do a few times a year, like going skiing, hiking, or scuba diving. Yet, a few days after returning home, our old reality sets back in and things simply don’t feel vibrant and breezy anymore. Even worse, sometimes we get so nostalgic that our “happiness level” seems to drop even lower than before we’ve left.

But why? Wasn’t the whole point of the trip, the latte or the hike to make us happy? And if this happens all the time, is there any point to us trying to do all kinds of things for ourselves? Of course. The problem isn’t in the happy high spikes, but somewhere else.

To get a better clue of what’s going on, I will be using a graph (I know, I know, but — trust me — it’s worth it). Bare with me. For this demonstration, I will use the not-so-creative examples of “happy event” and “bad event”, displayed over the “mood chart” of our made-up character — Charlie.

To make you empathize with Charlie, I’ll be giving you a bit of his background. Charlie is a young adult, he enjoys watching action movies, had a thing for comic books when he was younger, has a younger sister, plays the guitar, works for a small family business, and has a secret crush on Jessica.