KEY POINTS:
Whether money can buy you happiness has been debated since the Dark Ages, but while money helps, say the experts, it's not the answer.
And even though genetics play a part, people can do a lot to improve their happiness scores.
The pursuit of happiness grips the Western world - happiness is big business. In Sydney last week 3500 industry leaders, psychologists, company managers, consultants and personal development experts attended a four-day conference on happiness and its causes.
On the other side of the world, more happiness experts met at a conference in Siena, Italy, where they debated whether happiness was a meaningful policy target.
Attending that conference was happiness researcher Dr Nattavudh Powdthavee, a member of a London University research team which, using data from 10,000 people surveyed for the British Household Panel Survey, concluded that money buys little happiness. Instead, good relationships, social interaction and good health rate highly.
Those surveyed rated their level of happiness and answered questions on their health, social relations and wealth. The researchers then calculated how much money people would need to earn to move up a life satisfaction scale. And they calculated how far up or down the scale people would move after life-changing events, such as ill health or a marriage break up, and changing social relationships.
An increase in the level of social involvements was worth an extra $222,500 a year in terms of life satisfaction, nine times the average household income at the time of the survey. Excellent health was worth an extra $768,000 a year, whereas a serious illness was worth minus $1.2 million. Marriage was worth an extra $136,000 a year and living with someone scored even higher at $208,000. Being widowed was minus $520,000 a year and separation was minus $145,700 a year. Meeting friends and relatives most days was worth $161,000 and chatting regularly with neighbours was worth $101,000.
Powdthavee says one explanation is that social interaction requires our attention so the happiness lasts longer in our memory than a pay rise.
Happiness guru Dr Howard Cutler, who co-wrote The Art of Happiness with the Dalai Lama in 1998, believes money has little to do with happiness once basic needs are met. And he believes people can work on being happy by changing the way they think and react to the world.
Cutler says that by learning to take control of beliefs that cause destructive emotions such as anger or jealousy, and replacing them with different perceptions, we can improve our levels of happiness and contentment.
The Dalai Lama calls it training the mind. Cutler says it's about perceiving reality more clearly - and the technique doesn't need hours of expensive therapy to learn.
"Absolutely people can do this on their own. The techniques are simple, like practising gratitude on a regular basis. Remember all the good things that you have rather than always comparing yourself to those who have more or are better off."
Or, he says, seeing the world from a wider perspective. "When you are angry with someone, at that moment you see them as a 100 per cent bad person. They seem one-dimensional."
But in reality, he says, no human being has just one dimension. "People are human and they have good sides and bad sides. By seeing things from a wider perspective and seeing that person as a human being rather than as some kind of monster who is thinking 24 hours a day of ways to make life miserable, your anger will decrease."
While the techniques take effort and time, they get easier with practice.
But is the pursuit of happiness a modern-day obsession, fuelled by an affluent Western world with time to dwell on the meaning of life? Do we worry about it too much?
Cutler thinks no. "The whole purpose of our lives is to move towards something better, whether you want to call that happiness, fulfillment or life satisfaction. I don't think we worry enough about it as a society. It is the central aspiration of all living beings."
By this he does not mean the pursuit of pleasure. Cutler says he is talking about understanding what it is that makes us happy or fulfilled and changing our lives, and behaviour, accordingly. And, he says, there is a strong link between personal happiness and showing kindness and compassion to other people.
TIPS FOR JOY
* Get enough sleep and rest
* Eat well and exercise regularly
* Try to look on the bright side
* Concentrate on the solutions, not the problems
* Watch TV programmes and movies that make you laugh
* Do something good for yourself every day
* Do something good for someone else every day
* Associate with happy people and learn from them
* Listen to music that makes you feel good
* Write down the good things about your life
* If you start thinking negative thoughts, think about something pleasant
DOES MONEY MAKE YOU HAPPY?
David Mahony, 24, sales consultant of Parnell.
Income: $40,000
"If you're happy with your soulmate, money doesn't matter so much."
Satoko Tonosaki, 29, language student of Mt Eden.
Income: about $30,000
"If I spend money it is gone but relationships continue to hold my life."
Tim Gerrard, 29, airline pilot of Christchurch.
Income: undisclosed.
"It doesn't matter how much money you've got, if you've got no friends or family it is not going to make you happy."
Chris Johns, 70, architect of Waiheke Island.
Incomes: $60,000 plus.
"I'm not jealous of other people with wealth. It's good to watch it but you don't have to have it."
Jan Clarke, proprietor of the Customs Coffee House in Auckland.
Income: undisclosed.
"In this day and age money is important but when we were growing up love was more important."
