Cheer up! The happiness guru on how to feel better

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from
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2021/apr/18/cheer-up-the-happiness-guru-on-how-to-feel-better

Cheer up! The happiness guru on how to feel better
Jamie Waters
Meik Wiking in a jacket and scarf, smiling
‘Putting good food on the table with loved ones is still the most
universal source of happiness:’ Meik Wiking Photograph: Chris
McAndrew/The Observer
Meik Wiking is a world expert on what makes us feel happier. So, is
there a simple fix?

Sun 18 Apr 2021 08.00 EDT
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Just like that, one of the world’s foremost happiness boffins beams into
my living room with a megawatt grin and an infectious chuckle. Even
though Meik Wiking (pronounced “Mike Viking”) is moving house on the day
of our interview – surely up there with the most exasperating life
events – spirits are high for the bestselling author, public speaker and
CEO of the Happiness Research Institute in Copenhagen.

There are removal boxes “everywhere”, he says, but in the Zoom square on
my computer all I can see is a handsome Dane with surfer hair and
black-rimmed specs flanked by minimalist furniture and a luminous pot
plant. Denmark famously ranks among the world’s happiest nations and
it’s tough to think of a better poster boy for the land of cheer.

happy emoji
The 43-year-old has been busy lately, opening a happiness-themed museum
– a world first – in Copenhagen in mid-2020; advising the Nordic Council
of Ministers on how social media impacts young people’s wellbeing;
releasing the paperback version of Happy Moments, a book about creating
positive memories; and overseeing a global survey of Covid-19’s impact
on happiness.

The pandemic has launched an all-out attack on the emotion to which he
has dedicated his career. With much of the world stripped of socialising
and confined to cramped apartments, the past 12 months might well go
down as the grimmest passage in living memory, with many people
experiencing a spike in loneliness, anxiety and suffering.

So, for those feeling downtrodden and in dire need of a dopamine hit, is
there a way to become more chipper? Or, is there a sense that, by
forcing us to maintain small, simple lives, the pandemic has actually
helped us zero in on what truly makes us happy?

What the pandemic has done is ‘decouple wealth from happiness’
Asking if there is a way to become happier is a bit like asking how to
beat the house in Vegas, but Wiking hasn’t let that put him off. He
founded the Happiness Research Institute, an independent thinktank, in
2013, pledging to “look at happiness from a scientific perspective”, by
poring over reams of data to figure out why some folks are happier than
others and how societies can boost their citizens’ wellbeing.

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After studying sociology, political science and economics at university,
Wiking joined a sustainability thinktank where, late one night, he
stumbled upon the UN’s inaugural World Happiness Report. He was struck
by the attention given to this emotion – and by the fact his homeland
had topped the charts. “I thought, ‘Why are the Nordic countries doing
well?’ Somebody should be looking into this,” he says.

The idea kept him up at night, and in the end he decided to quit his
job. “I thought, ‘You can continue working here, but you’re not super
passionate, or you can try this crazy idea and see where that goes.’ At
first, it was just me, a bad laptop and a good idea.”

Wiking found success in 2016 with The Little Book of Hygge, on the
Danish art of being cosy and content during harsh winters, which sold
more than 1m copies worldwide, but the Happiness Research Institute is
his baby. It sounds like something from a Hans Christian Andersen tale
but, instead of being filled with “puppies and ice-cream”, as he puts
it, the office houses 10 analysts, who use the intel they’ve gathered to
advise governments, foundations, employers and impact investors
(companies that want to invest in something which will make a difference
to the world).

Quantifying happiness is difficult, but “not impossible”, says Wiking,
adding that “we measure a lot of things that are subjective, such as
stress, loneliness and depression,” so why not happiness? One of the
ways to deal with its subjectivity is to follow indiciduals over time:
for its pandemic study the Happiness Research Institute quizzed 3,211
participants up to six times each over three months.

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It broke down happiness into elements including overall life
satisfaction (“All things considered, how satisfied are you with your
life these days?”); whether your mood is positive on any given day; and
whether you have a sense of purpose or meaning, based on Aristotle’s
thoughts on the good life (eudaimonia).

Its Covid-19 survey found that, while daily moods have dipped during the
pandemic, sense of purpose hasn’t waned. And the UN’s latest World
Happiness Report, which similarly acknowledged a 10% increase in
day-to-day sadness and worry, stated that life satisfaction had remained
on a par with previous years. Other polls have suggested some people
have been happier during Covid-19.

Why hasn’t there been a more comprehensive happiness slump? Wiking says
draining commutes have disappeared, family time has increased and, for
most people, the main contributors to happiness have remained fairly
stable. “Putting good food on the table with loved ones is still perhaps
the most universal source of happiness,” he says.

What the pandemic has done is underscore the joy of simple pleasures.
The link between happiness and money has been well-documented over the
years and while, in general, rich people are happier than poor people,
it’s not that money buys happiness but that “being without money” and
unable to afford food and shelter causes unhappiness. Once you’ve passed
a certain threshold, “if you’re already making good money, and you make
£200 extra, you buy a more expensive bottle of wine but it doesn’t matter”.

The pandemic has made that clear by “decoupling wealth from happiness”,
he continues. “You can’t go on exotic holidays or to fancy restaurants,
but you can go walking. So perhaps this year we realised better than
ever that we can find happiness through simple things accessible to
all.” He says we’ve reached “peak happiness for ‘stuff’”, whereas hikes
or swims are more reliable mood-boosters.

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Covid-19 has also diminished the possibility for social comparisons.
“There’s an American saying that ‘A happy man is a man who makes $100
more than his wife’s sister’s husband,’ and that concept shows up a lot
in the data,” says Wiking. We derive pleasure from being more successful
than our neighbours or friends – but become anxious when we’re not. By
purging our social media feeds of sparkling shots of Michelin-starred
meals and island getaways, the pandemic has reduced angst, envy and fear
of missing out. That no one is having fun – except the Kardashians and
those pesky Aussies – makes us feel better.

These pandemic-era observations affirm much of the work Wiking has been
doing for the past eight years. The Happiness Research Institute’s rise
has coincided with a broader global movement as governments and the
general public have started taking happiness seriously. In 2008, Bhutan
conducted its first Gross National Happiness survey; in 2016 the UAE
installed a Minister of State for Happiness; and in 2019, New Zealand
introduced a wellbeing budget to ensure policies consider citizens’
quality of life. Meanwhile, wildly popular happiness psychology courses
have sprouted at Yale, Berkeley and Bristol universities, and authors
and entrepreneurs have filled bookshops, app stores and airwaves with
tips to get us beaming. The movement has caused many an eyebrow to arch,
partly because it can be considered frivolous, says Wiking. “Why should
we care about how happy people are?”

Scepticism also stems from doubts about whether these developments have
the capacity to effect actual change in people. For starters, can anyone
attain happiness? Wiking pauses, choosing his words carefully. “Not
necessarily.”

Several forces outside our control influence our ability to be happy,
including genetics (studies of identical twins show they have similar
mood levels); the natural rhythms of life (happiness tends to follow a
U-shape, peaking when we’re young and old and nosediving in our 40s);
and where we live (the least-happy countries include war-torn Syria,
Burundi and the Central African Republic). “I don’t think we can go to
people in refugee camps and say, ‘Listen guys, happiness is a choice,’”
says Wiking. “We need to acknowledge external and genetic conditions and
not put the entire responsibility on the individual.”

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Indeed, if you look at global happiness rankings, the top 10 countries –
the Nordics, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Switzerland – are all
wealthy. Money matters. Yet countries with similar GDPs record different
levels of citizen life satisfaction, and some poorer nations, such as
Costa Rica, score highly. A nation’s success at converting “wealth into
wellbeing” mostly comes down to its ability to eliminate sources of
unhappiness, says Wiking. Some who have struggled to do this include
Italy, where women are “significantly” less happy than men because of
gender inequality; Spain, where high youth unemployment affects morale;
and South Korea, where pressure on young people’s academic performance
has been linked to high suicide rates. Conversely, Denmark’s widespread
access to education and healthcare remove anxiety- inducing
competitiveness. “I like to say the Nordic countries are not the
happiest in the world – they’re the least unhappy,” comments Wiking.

Nationality aside, if an individual made a conscious effort to try to
become happier, is success possible? Or do genetics and other factors
mean we’re forever glued to one point on the smile spectrum?

“I don’t think you are stuck,” says Wiking, and he’s backed up by the
positive psychology discourse that has been ascendant since the late
1990s, which suggests change is possible. But it’s not a quick fix – as
others attest.

“I do not believe books or lectures alone are sufficient to make
behavioural changes to any great effect,” says Bruce Hood, a psychology
professor who runs the science of happiness course at Bristol
University. “Knowledge is not enough and, as Aristotle pointed out,
action is needed,” he says, meaning you need to work hard to develop new
behavioral habits that might contribute to a peppier mindset – something
that apps and courses can perhaps encourage.

Even so, perspective is needed to see past the smoke and mirrors, and
aspirational marketing speak. We’re forever hopeful we might become a
bit cheerier if we buy this product or attend that class, and plenty of
entrepreneurs are only too happy to indulge us. Like its self-help
cousin, the happiness sector “is populated with some charismatic
individuals who possibly over-sell the promise of everlasting
happiness,” says Hood.

A lot of the information given, even from respected experts, is obvious.
“I wish there was a silver bullet, but that’s not the case,” says
Wiking. “I think you know a lot of the things I’m telling you: that your
relationships matter, having a short commute and a fulfilling job
matters, having enough money to get by matters, comparisons to others
matter.” Yet even if people do already know, he says, we “need to be
reminded of things – such as the fact that more money does not always
translate to more happiness.”

His advice, if you feel your happiness level is jammed on a five out of
10, is to ask yourself: what would lift you to a six? If you’re lonely
it might mean joining a club (they’re a big thing in Denmark) to see if
you can strike up new friendships. “The secret is that there’s no
secret,” says Wiking. The mere act of consciously turning our mind to
what could make us sunnier is a start.

Happy Moments by Meik Wiking is published by Penguin at £9.99. Buy it
for £9.29 at guardianbookshop.com