Happiness is a state of being everyone desires. In recent years, cognitive scientists have turned in increasing numbers to the study of human happiness. No surprise in their discovery: as individuals we are not very good at predicting how happy or unhappy something will make us. Given time, even the worst things that can happen to a person can rebound. But the daily annoyances of life can do more long-term harm and deplete your soul than a major crisis.

Happiness is not a cure all. We can be "high in April and shot down in May." Sometimes out of scheer ignorance we can be our worst happiness enemy. Happiness to some is how they feel emotionally, but emotions are neither right or wrong. One can eat something that can change your mood or a fever can alter your feelings. Being human means having a range of emotions.

Researchers in the UK did an interesting study. They split more than 26,000 people up in to five different groups, four of which were assigned a different happiness exercise:

 Group 1: Tasked with expressing gratitude
 Group 2: Tasked with smiling
 Group 3: Tasked with recalling a positive event from the day before
 Group 4: Tasked with carrying out an act of kindness
 Group 5: Tasked with thinking about what had happened the day before (control group)

Here’s a short video summarizing the findings:

Want to know the state of happiness in your country click the link and check out the World Database of Happiness.