Be happy and live longer!

If you're content with your life, you could be around to enjoy it for a lot longer. Here's how a positive attitude can help you live happily ever after.

According to numerous studies, being happy and having an optimistic outlook on life can help you live longer, making you less likely to develop heart disease or suffer a stroke. But isnt't how cheerful you are a matter of luck? Surely some people are born with cheerful, sunny dispositions, while others are more gloomy?

Not so, says the British Department of Education, which is so convinced that happiness is something that can be learnt that it plans to introduce happiness lessons in schools up and down the country. And the findings of recent studies by psychologists in the US back up the idea. They have discovered that while modern life trends to favour monetary gain as a marker of success, in fact the true measure of a successful life is the ability to be cheerful. What's more, accordig to experts in the field of positive psychology, being happy is a skill that you can learn. But with more than ten million prescriptions written a year for anti-depressants in the UK, it's fairly obvious that many of us have not yet mastered the art. So where are we going wrong? The trouble, say positive psychologists, is that we often learn our base level of happiness from family and friends. In other words, some people have learnt to set their happiness goals too high. Luckily, it is within our power to change our happiness base level.

Don't worry, be happy

So what makes us happy? Studies have shown that once our basic material needs are met - like a roof over our head, adequate food and warm clothing - the additional pleasures that we all work so hard to achieve - wealth and possessions - don't make us any happier. What does is family, community and trust in fellow human beings. Still not convinced that worldly goods don't equal contentment? One study found that levels of wellbeing are the same among the Masai herdsmen of Africa as with the richest people in the world.

According to psychologist Martin Seligman, one of the founding fathers of positive psychology, there are three components of happiness: the pleasant life - for example learning to enjoy pleasures like a good meal; the engaged life - in other words, being absorbed with work, relationships and hobbies; and the meaningful life - using your strenghts in the service of others. All three contribute to wellbeing, but it is a meaningful life that seems to hold the key to long-term happiness. Research has shown that being kind to others triggers a cascase of positive emotions and effects: it makes us feel generous and capable, strenghtens our connections to others and stops us becoming self-absorbed. Other things that were found to increase happiness included having a hobby, being married, laughing and smiling, watching less TV and getting out and interacting with people instead, talking to friends on the phone, exercising, having sex and thinking about others more than about yourself.

And in case you wonder how researchers measure happiness, it is partly down to the feel-good chemicals - endorphins, dopamine and serotonin - that are released when we are in high spirits. Blood tests can measure the amount of these substances, and thus help quantify how happy we are.

Count your blessings

Feeling happier about your life can be as simple as counting your blessings and thinking positively. An experiment aimed at measuring the levels of happiness experience by Olympic Silver and Bronze medal winners found that the Bronze winners were all happier than their Silver medal-winning counterparts. Why? Because the Silver medal winners simply focuesed on how close they came to winning Gold and failing, whereas the Bronze medal winners were grateful fo have made it to te podium after coming close to losing out altogether. Positive psychologists recommend that at least once a day you make a deliberate attempt to reflect on the good things in your life. List all the things that make you feel good, the things you adore, and the people you love most in your life.

Apparently, simply by concentrating on the positives rather than the negatives, you fool your brain and body into releasing the feel-good chemicals that, in turn, make you happy. This triggers a more positive attitude towards others, setting the cycle of happiness in motion - all of which has a positive impact on your long-term health prospects.

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