At Epic Experiences our mission is to bring positive emotions and everlasting memories to people’s lives through the experience. We believe that happiness comes from the moments and experiences that life holds us rather than from how many things we own.

We will take a look at why experiences are making people more happier than the material items and tangible things.

1. Material items lose their value over time.

Material items are those that we “want” rather than need. This includes excess clothes, excess shoes, jewellery and accessories, technology gadgets, excess home decor, excess books, and so on. In the end of the day those items are becoming our new possessions that we get used to very quickly. What once seemed novel and exciting quickly becomes the norm and we go with the flow.

Let’s say you just bought the latest technology gadget and you are excited to play with it and tell all your friends. By the next week, that excitement may have dropped down a notch, and within a few months, that new technology gadget becomes part of the furniture. It loses its initial luster and you may already have your eye on the next gadget that’s available on the market. Your interest is fading and the excitement is also decreasing.

On another hand if you signed up for a series of dance classes, each class becomes a novelty experience. The fleeting of unknown that comes from experience shows that they provide us with a greater sense of satisfaction and prevent from getting bored,

2. Experiences become a part of you

“Our experiences are a bigger part of ourselves than our material goods,” said Gilovich. “You can really like your material stuff. You can even think that part of your identity is connected to those things, but nonetheless they remain separate from you. In contrast, your experiences really are part of you.

This statement describes how often we get attached to material stuff that forms our personality but at the end of the day those tangible items won’t matter as much as the experiences and memories that we have encountered in our life.

3. Greater social interaction

“When people spend money on life experiences, whether they also take someone with them or buy an extra ticket or whatever, most of our life experiences involve other individuals,” Howell said. People were fulfilling their need for social bonding while having these experiences, he said.

Experts also point out that people are less self-conscious when comparing experiences than they are about possessions. It will probably bother you more that your friend’s home theater is better than yours than if your friend saw more sights on her vacation in Caribbean Islands, Gilovich said.

Nowadays we have busy lifestyles and forget to enjoy the experiences our life brings us. That is why at Epic Experiences we bring the experience to you. Our unique gift experience collection ranges from the simple and relaxing — a gondola ride in Whistler, BC or making macarons in Calgary, AB to adrenaline packed and exciting — Racing an Exotic Car on a Race Track in Ontario.

Next time, when you are shopping during the lunch break and looking for a unique gift idea or to spoil yourself with something new choose the experience. It may include going to the symphony, seeing a theatre performance, attending a community sports event, rocking out at a concert, travelling to a new destination, hiking, painting, meditating, volunteering, exercising, and so on.

4. Experiences promote learning.

This idea of learning by doing is what is now called “experiential learning”. When was the last time you learned something new besides taking subjects in school? The idea behind every experience is not just to provide a fun time but offer an opportunity to learn a unique skill that you never learn in your school subjects.