How are you feeling today? Our emotions can vary considerably¹ depending on many factors, including our health, wealth, relationships and where we live. But sometimes we need to take a step back and think about what happiness really means and how we can find it.

 

Maybe we should take a leaf out of Finland's book – last year the UN's World Happiness Report found the country to be the happiest place on Earth. The report looked at 'subjective² well-being³'. That's how happy people feel they are and why - based on factors such as, economic strength, social support, life expectancy⁴, freedom of choice, generosity⁵, and perceived corruption⁶.

 

This is just one way of measuring happiness. Research has also suggested that while personal feelings of pleasure are the accepted definition of happiness in Western cultures, East Asian cultures tend to see happiness as social harmony, and in some parts of Africa and India it's more about shared experiences and family.

 

Author and journalist Helen Russell has been looking at the positive characteristics of a country's population to see what makes them happy and found Japan to be one of the most content. She told the BBC that this was due to their concept of wabi-sabi – "this traditional Japanese concept around celebrating imperfection… it's this idea that there is a beauty in ageing, it's to be celebrated⁷ rather than trying to disguise it." So, basically, we should be happy with who we are and rejoice in our faults and individuality. That's something to put a smile on our faces!

 

But if you're feeling down in the dumps because your home country doesn't have a happiness concept to follow, consider some self-help ideas that the BBC programme Hacking⁸ Happiness has been looking into. These include being virtuous⁹, finding something to be passionate¹⁰ about, enjoying the here and now and being altruistic¹¹ – helping¹² others.

 

However, our pursuit of happiness could make us miserable¹³ as we try to meet society’s expectations and goals, making us anxious and stressed. Also, having too little experience of negative emotions can make us less adept¹⁴ at facing new challenges.

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