Deprivation leads to later appreciation

I have always noticed how much I appreciate something after not having it for a while.  For example, when we had the blackout in the Northeast U.S., and I didn't have electricity for 2 days.   What a delight when it came on.

Now the Wall Street Journal reinforces what I have long believed, in this article

"Can Money Buy Happiness"

This could even mean depriving yourself of your possessions for a while, perhaps by lending them or sharing them with someone else. Elizabeth Dunn, associate professor of psychology at the University of British Columbia and co-author of the book “Happy Money,” recently conducted an experiment where she sent people home with a big bag of chocolate, telling some of them to eat as much of it as they could and others that they were forbidden to eat it. A third group could choose how much to eat.
The result? The people who had been forbidden from eating chocolate were able to enjoy their next chocolate bar much more than those who’d either eaten a lot or consumed their normal amount. “Giving something up temporarily can actually help to preserve our capacity to enjoy it,” Prof. Dunn says.

click here for link to article