Feeling on the verge of a midlife crisis? The key to a happier you can be simple: Switch off your mobile now and again, listen to music, head outdoors, or spend some time with friends.
Last week a survey concluded that we are at our most miserable between the ages of 50 and 54 and that happiness does not come round again until you are aged 65 to 79.
However the academic behind the happiness questions in that UK Office for National Statistics (ONS) survey, says there are ways to tackle your own levels of happiness.
Paul Dolan, author of the bestselling Happiness By Design and professor of behavioral science at the London School of Economics, said patterns can be broken by taking care to enjoy the little things in life.
“I think too much is being made of the U-shape dip [that happens in the 40s and 50s],” he said.
“Its all about actually changing what you do to do more of the things we like — listen to music, go outdoors, meet friends and new people. If everybody did that every day we’d be a lot happier,” he said.
Dolan asked the ONS to insert questions into its survey that, rather than simply asking people how happy they felt, asked about how satisfied they felt with certain aspects of their life and how worthwhile they felt.
“When you’re young you have all this false optimism about life; when you are in midlife most people haven’t achieved what they would like to, and then by the time you’re in your late 50s you start to get over yourself and start doing things you like, caring less about social comparisons,” he said.
He said that asking people how happy they are when they are doing stuff makes a messier pattern.
“When it comes to a sense of purpose the pleasure profile is really quite complex,” he says. “People with the least levels of purpose are actually young people.”
Regardless of your age, he has another key piece of advice. Do not try a self-help book.
“It’s an explosive genre because they explain how you could feel, but not how to achieve that. They don’t work, they merely encourage people to go and buy another self-help book,” he said.
“I think we are all searching for fun and fulfillment and we all too often get the balance wrong and make all sorts of mistakes. We are searching for optimal balance, but that’s not to say we should be searching for it by looking for it all the time,” he said.
Grappling with the concept of happiness might seem like a modern obsession, but is anything but.
“Don’t pay attention to how happy things make you. Instead, find things which make you feel good, then do more of them,” he said.
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