The problem with happiness highs is not just that they’re tricky to get hold of, but that they’re often followed by lows. As well as this, they can’t last forever. Intense pleasure is fleeting, and even when it does last longer than expected, we quickly get used to the sensation and stop appreciating it. This is hedonic adaptation, and explains why your tenth bite of ice cream is nowhere near as brilliant as the first or why the thrill of a new job quickly trails off.

“We quickly experience a drop back down to our typical levels of happiness even after a major happy event,” Epel notes in her book.

What’s more, the very rollercoaster of these happiness highs can be bad for our mental wellbeing. Dr Epel writes: “Even if you have a lot of ‘high highs’, it turns out that the more ups and downs you experience in positive emotion throughout the day, the more you suffer, with worse mental health and lower vagal tone. Routinely swinging up and down in positive mood is even linked to earlier mortality.”

Why we should be aiming for quiet contentment rather than happiness highs