What + what = happiness?

MONEY can't buy you happiness. It's an often quoted maxim - usually voiced by those with enough of the stuff not to have to worry about paying the rent or the price of children's shoes. But is it true?

A new survey suggests that it is. Despite being richer, British people are on average less happy today than we were in the 1950s, it says.

The poll, carried out for the new BBC2 series The Happiness Formula, which began last night, found only 36 per cent of us today describe ourselves as "very happy". That's down from the 52 per cent during the post-war austerity years of the 1950s.

So, if it's not money, what does make you happy? Family and friends? A fulfilling job? A great holiday? Or simply a lazy Sunday in the garden when the sun is shining, the lawn is freshly mown, and you don't have a care in the world?

One theory is that happiness is what happens to you when you're not looking. It creeps up un-noticed in those little moments when you're busy doing something else: cooking a meal for someone you love, walking the dog, arguing with a friend in the pub, or helping the children with their homework.

If that's true, then it's not the kind of thing you can actively go out and look for; it just happens.

Try telling that to the people of the tiny Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan. As presenter Mark Easton found out in last night's opening episode of The Happiness Formula, the Government of that enlightened little kingdom has decided that maximising Gross National Happiness should shape national policy. Such a refreshing contrast to our own grinding that it's the economy, the economy and nothing but the economy that matters.

In Bhutan, there has been a ban on advertising hoardings (yes!), plastic bags (yes!!) and even TV wrestling (yes!!!) as the Government searches desperately for ways to make its people happy.

There are signs here that we might like our own Government to take a leaf out of Bhutan's book.

The Happiness Formula poll asked whether the Government's main aim should be to make us happy or wealthy. A whopping 81 per cent of us came down on the side of happiness.

But how to achieve it? Here are just a few thoughts...

THE 19th century medic Paolo Montegazza made a strong case for beer being the source of all happiness. Beer, he said, "charms us into a state of gladness and soft hilarity"; it "diminishes the sensitiveness of our skin to the nettles and to all the bites of the numberless, detestable human insects that hum, hiss and hop about us".

Jim Helsby, of York Beer and Wine Shop, likes this so much that he has hung the quote on the wall of his shop. He doesn't necessarily entirely agree with what Montegazza had to say, however. Yes, a shared appreciation of beer with a close friend or family member is a fine thing, he says.

"Perhaps the moral of that is happiness comes from the company of people you like/love, and the pleasure of shared interests.

"I think a cursory glance at Micklegate at chucking out time on a Friday would dispel any notion that beer itself produces happiness, however. Violence yes, liberation from restraint yes, but not happiness. Perhaps it simply dumbs down unhappiness."

Graham Taylor, the former North Yorkshire vicar turned bestselling novelist, agrees that being in the company of those you love is one great source of happiness.

Usually, it's the simple, ordinary things, he says - such as going for a walk with his wife, Kathy, and their Jack Russell dog in the morning. And, of course, his children. He's just celebrated his 48th birthday. "My eight-year-old daughter bought me four pairs of socks. That's happiness."

It is certainly not to be achieved through wealth or fame, he says. He knows that, since the success of his children's bestseller Shadowmancer transformed him from penniless priest to multi-millionaire and celebrity.

"If I had known what was going to happen over the last four years, I would never have done it written Shadowmancer," he says. Fame has turned him into a virtual recluse, he claims - and has made it difficult for him to make new friends, because he never knows whether people are after something.

York pastor Mark Troughton, the son of former Doctor Who actor Patrick Troughton, also pours scorn on the notion that material wealth and fame can bring you happiness. "People aren't necessarily more happy the more toys they have," he says - citing the example of his childhood friend Hugh Grant. "He doesn't strike me as particularly happy in what he's doing."

Mark's explanation for higher levels of happiness among our post-war predecessors is simple: "They had to live with less and be content with that." He doubts that there is real happiness to be had in "a Radox bath, a bar of chocolate or nicer holidays".

He does believe there is a formula to happiness, however - and it's in the Bible. "You don't have to be a scientist to see that," he says.

Jack Mapanje, the Malawi-born poet now living in York who, in the 1980s, was jailed as a subversive by Malawi's "President for Life" Dr Hastings Banda, is another who believes in the power faith as a source of happiness. "What makes people happy is belief in something: belief in God!" he says.

Jack has a great, rumbling laugh that provokes happiness in whoever hears it simply because of its joyous quality.

"Though when I laugh, I'm probably not laughing, I'm crying," he protests.

A knotty challenge to concentrate on often makes him happy, he says - there would be no happiness in a world without challenges. But most of all, it is being at home, surrounded by his loved ones.

"My daughter has just had a baby with her husband, and they came to York for the Bank Holiday. And everybody lightened up. I think it was the smile my grandson had. He was trying to crawl, and we noticed that he was trying to crawl backwards rather than forwards - we laughed and laughed."

For Donna Hay, York-based romantic novelist and soaps columnist, having a sense of purpose is vital in the pursuit of happiness. "Work makes me happy - I'm a bit of a workaholic," says. Donna admits she's "getting grumpier as I'm getting older". But middle-age doesn't stop her enjoying life's little pleasures. "Happiness is having a Chelsea bun from Thomson's."

Kate Lock, fellow York novelist and The Press columnist, also believes happiness has nothing to do with wealth. "It isn't new boobs, or foreign holidays, or designer clothes," she says.

Kate admits that a lack of money can make a person "stressed" and, as a result, unhappy. But for her, true happiness is about appreciating the good times and the good things. "I think that happiness is in the moment" she says. Whether that's admiring a view, laughing with a friend, or a child's smile."

Money in itself can't make you happy, agrees Annie Milles, York archaeologist turned acupuncturist and Chinese medicine practitioner. But having enough money not to be constantly worried doesn't harm. "I wouldn't know what it felt like to have too much money!" she jokes.

For her, the absence of worry and stress can contribute towards happiness. But what is happiness itself? "I think it can creep up on you," she says. "It can be waking up and the sky is blue and the sun is shining. Or it can be just hearing a great song on the radio. I think there are a lot of people busy searching for something else - without noticing they are already happy!"

The ins and outs of staying happy

ONLY 36 per cent of Britons today rate themselves as "very happy", according to The Happiness Formula poll. That makes us considerably less happy than in 1957, when 52 per cent of us claimed to be very happy and 42 per cent fairly happy. So much for the consumer age.

We still rank as the eight happiest country in the world, however, which isn't bad. Switzerland comes out tops, with Denmark, Sweden, Ireland and the US all beating us in the happiness stakes.

But what makes us happy?

Top is relationships - ie family and friends - cited by 48 per cent of those questioned.

Next comes health. Job satisfaction doesn't rate highly, however. Only seven per cent of people named work fulfilment as one of the two most important sources of happiness in their lives.

Over 80 per cent of people thought the Government should put more emphasis on making us happy, rather than making us rich. And over half felt schools should spend more time on teaching children how to lead a happy personal life - and less on preparing them for work.

Updated: 10:28 Thursday, May 04, 2006