The Happiness Formula

The first in a new series in which Mark Easton investigates happiness. We feel instinctively that it's good for us and now that's backed up by science. There's evidence that happiness makes us more resilient, healthier, work harder and more creatively and even live longer. Now that we can measure it, should we be trying to increase it?
In Bhutan, with its authoritarian monarchy, the country is run around the Gross National Happiness principle. It may sound extreme but perhaps there are lessons for social policy in Britain.

Mark Easton delves deeper into the practical formula of happiness. Social relationships, religion, meaning in your life and marriage are good; children , apparently, are not! We all have a set range of happiness but positive psychologists now argue that we can make ourselves happier permanently if we work at it. It's just a question of rewiring our brains.

'Money can't buy me love.', 'People who say money can't buy happiness don't know where to shop.' Which one of these is true? Modern science casts new light on old questions, and comes up with startling results. Research shows that as a society we've become much richer since the 1950s, but not much happier. And if money can't make us happy, what about buying things? That too doesn't lead to happiness. So why on earth do we work so hard to earn money to buy things?

For years we've been told that diet and exercise are the key to a long and healthy life. But now it seems that we may have missed out a vital component: happiness. Some psychologists believe that cheerful people can outlive their more miserable counterparts by almost a decade. Mark Easton discovers that lifestyle choices - what you eat and whether you smoke - are still crucial but your state of mind could be just as significant. If it's so important, should we start incorporating happiness into the NHS? More self help books? A therapist for everyone? Prozac in the water supply? What should the Government be doing to keep us happy and healthy?

A golden age where people looked after their neighbours and you could leave the doors open. It may seem a myth, but modern research into happiness shows that things were better in the 1950s when society was closer and people trusted each other more.
So what can be done to make our society more cohesive again? And does the new science of happiness suggest that multicultural societies are destined to be unhappy? The BBC's Home Affairs Editor, Mark Easton, looks at the research and explains why the Olympics of all things might have the answer.

Technology promises happiness at the flick of a switch. But labour saving devices and technological advances have not produced lasting happiness. We have all ended up working more to pay for the latest gadgets. Now scientists claim they have some tips for a happier future. We are told we should teach children to be happy. They have started teaching happiness in the USA, and happiness is entering the classroom in the UK too. In his final programme, Mark Easton goes in search of the elusive recipe for happiness.