Where does happiness come from?

Happiness is a complicated beast. The range of this emotion stretches from satisfaction, through pleasure and joy to the outer reaches of maddest euphoria.

The complicated nature of the emotion that makes us smile means that it is difficult to measure and to explain. Despite having enjoyed a lifetime during which I have been happier more often than not, I have more questions than answers about the nature of or source of happiness.

For a start, where does it come from and then, how does our brain distinguish between positive and negative situations - how do we know when to feel happy?

According to the people who know about this kind of thing, serotonin is the chemical that helps to maintain a happy feeling. This chemical helps us to sleep, it calms anxiety and it relieves depression. However, dopamine makes us seem happy because its presence in our brain makes us talkative and excitable.

Have you ever noticed that everyone seems to be in better form during summer time? We feel better during summer months because sun and bright light trigger a response in the brain to a hormone known as melatonin. Research suggests that two hours of morning light is an effective treatment for depression, so get out there and enjoy the early hours.

There is no denying the fact that some people are happier than others. The researcher, David T Lykken, studied the wellbeing of twins and found that happiness depends in a large part, upon one's genes. Only 10-15% of our happiness is determined by life circumstances variables such as socioeconomic status, marital status, health and sex. Researchers believe that the remaining 40% is influenced by a combination of factors and results of actions that a person takes in order to become happier.

This is fantastic news and means that we can determine our own happiness. Knowing how to go about doing this is not an easy task...

Consistently, human relationships comes out as the top factor in human happiness. A 2009 study that was published in the British Medical Journal reported that happiness can actually spread through social networks from person to person. Generally, happiness spreads fastest and best through friends, siblings, spouses and next-door neighbours and it spreads more effectively than unhappiness, which means that if enough of us spread our happiness, we could effect some sort of emotional revolution...