If watching Desperate Housewives makes you happy—it also makes you a whole lot like everyone else. When it comes to feeling good, research suggests that for most of us time spent relaxing in front of TV qualifies as pure bliss.

In his recent book, Happiness: Lessons from a New Science, British professor Richard Layard says that despite greater wealth and material success among western nations in the last 50 years, we aren’t any happier, even though conventional wisdom suggests we should be.

According to Layard, advances in neuroscience demonstrate that when we feel happy the left side of our brain shows activity; conversely, when we’re sad the right side is more active.

So, besides TV, what exactly does make the left hemisphere of our brain jump for joy?

Spending time with friends and romance rank high on the list of things that breed contentment, say researchers. Shopping and talking on the phone are considered pleasurable by most women in particular, while commuting, domestic chores and interacting with the boss are about as welcome as a toothache. Looking after children doesn’t hold much appeal either—apparently most of us would rather cook than cater to kids.

Except in cases of poverty, money seems to be incidental to personal happiness and highly competitive, ruthlessly individualistic social environments may actively contribute to our unhappiness

Leisure and not work would seem to be the great panacea according to the experts and if work brings material rewards then happiness, too, may pay great dividends in terms of our overall psychological and physical well-being.

A recent major study conducted in England lends credence to the idea that happiness and biology are inextricably linked and that happy people produce fewer stress chemicals. Even under duress, they manufacture 32 per cent less of the stress hormone cortisol.

“We assessed happiness by having people give us simple ratings of their mood several times a day. The problem with measuring happiness is that the responses people give depend very much on what they have recently been experiencing. In order to get an idea of how generally happy they were, we averaged people's ratings over the day and evening. Happiness is, of course, the reverse of distress, but we think it is more than zero distress—it is a positive state,” says Dr. Andrew Steptoe, study leader and professor of psychology at University College in London, England.

Results suggest that unhappy people frequently showed higher serum levels of a chemical called plasma fibrinogen, a marker for inflammation, which is a risk factor for heart disease.

Chronic unhappiness may contribute to the development of coronary heart disease.



Happiness experts suggest there are a ways to help influence your feel-good quotient:

• Develop meaningful associations with people. Enjoy a generous social life filled with committed relationships and intimacy.
• Cultivate good company. The happiest people appear to be those who spend the least time by themselves.
• Look for the silver lining. Happy people seem mostly optimistic with positive views and outlook—they feel blessed and are forgiving.
• Have a sense of humor. Laugh frequently and deeply.
• Take control. A sense of self-control and personal empowerment improves your sense of well being; try to choose and exert some influence over the course of your life
• Grow in all directions. Strive to learn, to experience different things and do what you enjoy.
• You be the judge—don’t allow others to set your standards.
• Be open to events—the truth is, we don’t always know what will make us happy.

In the end, however, happiness may be an elusive state incumbent upon genetics and individual resiliency.

“We cannot advise people on how to be happy—philosophers, religious leaders, and psychologists have been giving advice about this for centuries, and our ideas are no better than those of others,” says Dr. Steptoe.

“What we can say is that people who spend more of their time in happier mood states seem to be in a better position biologically, and their risk of future chronic disease may be reduced.”