Happily, they also note some ways to be happier. We were waiting for this part, weren't we?
"Look for meaning in your life."
"Develop deep relationships with family and friends."
It is even suggested that friendship can ward off germs. Our brains control many of the mechanisms in our bodies which are responsible for disease.
Marriage (I assume a successful one) adds seven years to your life.
Another element is "...having goals embedded in your long term values that you're working for, but also that you find enjoyable." I would call that doing what you like and liking what you are doing.
The first episode of The Happiness Formula was shown on BBC Two at 1900 BST on Wednesday.
Another happy place to visit is The World Database of Happiness.
There is an e-zine for those looking for A Daily Dose of Happiness. Google, alone, promises 70,400,000 more citations on the subject of happiness. Be happy. Don't worry.
Going over to the website of the American Psychological Association and putting "happiness" into their search box yields 107 documents. They are right on it. One article,"Review of Research Challenges Assumption that Success Makes People Happy: Happiness May Lead to Success via Positive Emotions" is indicative and positive.
Personal and professional success may lead to happiness but may also engender success. Happy individuals are predisposed to seek out and undertake new goals in life and this reinforces positive emotions, say researchers who examined the connections between desirable characteristics, life successes and well-being of over 275,000 people...
Get happy, get successful. It is a good outlook.
Just as an aside, the cardiologists' test, the New York Scale for the severity of angina (chest pain), is based on asking you how bad it hurts on a scale of 1-10. So we see that happiness and pain share some common elements like measurement on these scientific scales.
Don't worry. Be happy.
![It Happened One Night [Region 2]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/313SREFC0TL._SL120_.jpg)
Article comments
1 - Howard Dratch
I must add that the Daily Telegraph from the U.K. has a similar but much more strongly worded take on the BBC series, "The Happiness Formula". The article, " Politicians, economists, teachers… why are they so desperate to make us happy?" by Frank Furedi, is sometimes direct...
Those who are sceptical about the capacity of a government to make us happy are sometimes advised to look at Bhutan, the absolute monarchy that has adopted the politics of happiness. This is the Buddhist kingdom that has forced more than 100,000 Hindus of Nepalese origin to leave the country. It may not be very democratic, but its track record on promoting happiness is second to none. In pursuit of this cause it has boldly banned wrestling and MTV.In reality, neither experts nor clever policies can make people genuinely happy. Freud may have been a little cynical when he suggested that his objective was to "convert neurotic misery into ordinary unhappiness". But he understood that true happiness was an ideal that we pursue but rarely achieve. Nor is that a problem. A good life is not always a happy one. People are often justified in being unhappy about their circumstances and surroundings. Discontent and ambition have driven humanity to confront and overcome the challenges they faced. That is why people like the Controller in Brave New World want us live on a diet of "feelies" and "scent organs". That is also why we should be suspicious of experts who seek to colonise our internal life.
I must admit seeing the research and the show as more humorous than dangerous; but the modern world includes more dangers that ever before. Anti-happiness rears its ugly head.
2 - Homer
Sweet!
3 - W. I. Cookseyw
The search for the true meaning of happiness will get nowhere until you introduce the concept of mental equilibrium into the discussion. My own attempt to do so can be seen in the article I published at newsvine
4 - Manon Maru
Pretty funny stuff...I was in a social psych class where they talked about cliches and ones that had been "socially tested" for veracity. The one I can remember off the top of my head is the age old debate, do opposites attract or do birds of a feather flock together. After vigorous study they found that indeed, birds of a feather do flock together.
5 - Dawn
I totally disagree with their assertion about standard of living and happiness. Money can't buy you the true things that make you happy like love and family, but it can make every single other thing in your life better, and that, indeed makes most people happy.
Nothing like being able to pay my bills and treat my loved ones from time to time to put a spring in my step.
6 - John
No matter WHAT makes people happy, the benefits are clear:
The healthy results of happiness.
7 - Joanna
Is there any way to see the BBC happiness formula when you live outside the UK? Great article