December 12, 2016

Source of happiness turns out to be something completely bloody obvious

editor:	Gurmeet Singh

Money. Naah. You knew it wasn't money - I mean, you get it, and you're happy, sometimes extremely so, for a brief time. And then you spiral into all kinds of horrible anxieties, about life, jobs, love, fun, and Goddamit, money. Whatever happiness is, a long-lasting experience of it will most likely occur when a person has: Solid mental health and close, meaningful relationships with others.

Those, according to the London School of Economics make people happier than even doubling their income. The study's co-author used the results to form the basis for policy recommendations, claiming the state needs to be more supportive, and not less, thereby challenging years of austerity thinking. Prof Richard Layard described how incomes only make people significantly happy in a comparative sense: Being rich might make you happy, but only if you think about how poor others are. Plus it might only serve to make you depressed, when you consider how astronomically rich others are. Having a partner, and stable mental health (mental health not significantly affected by depression) however, had a much more beneficial effect on people's wellbeing.

In a sense, this is completely obvious to us. We all know deep down how much happier we are when we have a solid set of relationships and a decent run of mental clarity; We all have an idea of what depression feels like (whether we know it or not), and we all see the ultimate hollowness of money (even if we don't admit it to ourselves). Of course, this is not to diminish the point of money - we all need it - but to make it the point of our lives is, as we all know, pointless.

As well as a basis for new policy recommendations, perhaps this study can serve as a healthy reminder to us about the need to extend empathy to others. Over the course of the weekend, there were mass deaths in Turkey, Kenya, Egypt and in other places - yet those events (some atrocities, others simply deeply unfortunate), have vanished from our screens, and thereby, our consciousness. It's all to easy to see the numbers of dead as meaningless - and to believe that when people die over there, it's somehow OK and normal. Well, just remember that those people not only had happiness of their own, but they leave behind people who are now severely less happy than before. This is all very obvious, but it's always useful to be reminded. Take care of yourself, your mental health and your loved ones.

Getty Images, as used by The Independent