I discovered the secrets to happiness – and they are not what you think

Struggling? That’s good. Feeling lost? Also good. Anna Bonet reports from the World Happiness Summit on some impressively counterintuitive thinking

Iam in an auditorium filled with strangers dancing to Pharrell Williams’s song “Happy”. It is not quite what I anticipated from this grey Tuesday morning in London – but then again, I shouldn’t have expected anything less from the World Happiness Summit.

This annual two-day conference brings together globally renowned experts, public speakers and researchers for a series of talks and panels on the science of wellbeing. Founded by Karen Guggenheim in 2016, the summit has come to the UK for the first time this year – which is why I find myself in London’s Southbank Centre, reluctantly tapping my toes to that incredibly catchy song.

There are many Americans in attendance. I know this not just by the accents I hear during the breaks, but by the whoops and cheers during the talks that almost certainly aren’t coming from the British contingent, much like the flutters of applause after each particularly profound sentence that a speaker utters.

Yet, a few toe-curlingly awkward moments of audience participation aside – such as turning to the person next to us to say the words: “Neighbour, there is something amazing inside of you” – I find there is a huge amount to learn. There is also even more than one occasion which, despite myself, raises goosebumps.

The thing is, what these globally renowned scientists and health professionals are discussing is more important than ever. This week’s “World Happiness Report” – delivered by the august institutions of Gallup, the Oxford Wellbeing Research Centre and the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network – painted a depressing picture for the ever-decreasing state of wellbeing in Western nations like the UK and US, particularly among the younger generations – so it is no longer something we can brush aside. As Guggenheim says in her opening talk: “We know that there are challenges happening in the world, and there are challenges that we may be living personally. That doesn’t mean it is not difficult, but it does mean we need hope.” Here are some of the key lessons I learnt over the course of the two days which followed…

‘We misunderstand happiness – it is not a feeling to be chased’

Professor Arthur Brooks teaches the science of happiness at Harvard. He is also a bestselling author, most recently of Build The Life You Want, co-authored with Oprah Winfrey

In the class he teaches at Harvard University, Professor Brooks gets his students to answer the question: what is happiness? “They always tell me the same thing,” he says. “‘Happiness is the feeling I get when I’m with the people I love’. Or: ‘Happiness is how I feel when I do the things that I enjoy.’ And I say: That’s beautiful. That’s really lovely. That’s wrong.”

Happiness, according to Professor Brooks, is not a feeling. “That’s very important. We misunderstand emotions. If you are attaching your happiness to a feeling, it is a vapour that you will be chasing for the rest of your life. Our feelings don’t exist to make you happy. They exist to give you