THE pursuit of happiness may be your right, but the chances are that complete success will elude you – which is probably all for the best.
Psychologists studying this intangible quality are starting to realise that happiness does more than simply make us feel good: it also appears to improve our powers of problem-solving and to make us calmer and more resilient too (see “Be happy”).
But ask people who live comfortable, healthy lives to rate their happiness on a scale up to 10, and scores seldom exceed 8. Why not more? The answer may be that we have evolved…
