2024 · 25. January 2024
Everyone wants to be happy – or do they? My latest Southern Star column explores how many of us devalue happiness in our day-to-day lives.
2023 · 30. November 2023
Imagine a genie appears in front of you and grants you three wishes. The genie will grant any wish you make. What are your three wishes? My latest Southern Star column explores how people tend to answer this question and why we often forget about happiness as we go about our daily lives.
2022 · 03. November 2022
Do you ever look back on something that once seemed important to you and wonder: wow, why did I think that was such a big deal? My latest Southern Star column explores why "nothing in life is as important as you think it is, when you are thinking about it".
2022 · 19. May 2022
My last column suggested that self-criticism, avoidance, routine worrying, not exercising, and routinely discounting the positives in one’s life are great ways of being unhappy. Here are a few more tips on how to be as unhappy as possible.
2022 · 05. May 2022
Articles doling out happiness tips are ten-a-penny and people often gloss over them, so let’s try a different approach – the first of two columns offering suggestions on how to be unhappy.
2021 · 18. November 2021
When was the last time you made conversation with a stranger? Does it seem awkward and not worth the bother? Would you be surprised to hear that routinely talking with strangers can make you happier?
And yet, the research is clear on this – whether you’re an introvert or an extrovert, striking up brief conversations with strangers is more enjoyable than you think and good for your well-being.
2019 · 21. March 2019
Whose life are you living? How concerned should you be by other's opinions? My column in last week's Southern Star is reproduced below. How concerned should you be by the opinions of others? Are you happy with the choices you’ve made in life, or were those choices swayed by social pressures? Those questions came to mind after reading a recent article by Paul Dolan, author of a new book called Happy Ever After: Escaping the Myth of the Perfect Life. Dolan, who comes from a working-class...
2018 · 31. January 2018
People tend to think that life goes downhill as you age, but the research shows the opposite is true: lifetime happiness tends to be U-shaped, with most people getting happier as they get older. Why? My column in the January 26 edition of The Southern Star discussed this important subject, and is reproduced below. As you get older, your looks fade. Mentally, you become less sharp and your memory declines. Your physical health suffers. And you get happier. Well, not everyone gets happier as they...
2017 · 07. December 2017
Last week's 'Your Mental Health' column in the Southern Star looked at what people can learn from happiness research, particularly the findings of 'Professor Happiness', psychologist Daniel Gilbert. The column is reproduced below. All of us can imagine scenarios that seem nightmarish, just as we can picture idyllic lives where we don’t have a care in the world. But what if the nightmarish scenario turned out to be more manageable than you thought, and the blissful scenario wasn’t actually...
2017 · 16. November 2017
I had a short piece in last week's Southern Star where I outlined six tips for positive ageing. The piece is reproduced below. Stay connected The Grant Study, the world’s longest-running study into adult happiness, has followed hundreds of people over a 75-year period. It found you could predict people’s subsequent physical health not by looking at cholesterol levels, but by assessing how satisfied they were in their relationships. “The people who were the most satisfied in their...