WHY MORE MONEY WON’T BRING YOU JOY — BUT WASHING UP WILL

ONE of my favourite tricks is this: put a pencil between your teeth without letting it touch your lips. Hold it there for ten seconds and you should feel slightly happier.

Repeat this experiment in front of a mirror and you’ll see that holding the pencil in this way has forced you to smile. And that has influenced your emotions.

That’s because your brain infers how you’re feeling partly from the movement of your muscles. Personally, I use this trick all the time as a mood-booster.

So what else can boost our happiness levels? One thing is certain: more money isn’t the answer. I used to hate it when people told me this. Give me a million pounds and I promise you I’ll be happier, was my response.

But surveys consistently show that, once life’s basics are paid for, the level of your income accounts for only a small variation in happiness across the population.

The reason? Basically, we get a hit of happiness from new stuff, but after it becomes a normal part of life, our pleasure

wears off and our happiness level returns to where it started.

If money isn’t the answer, what is? Well, one answer is to live in the moment — and here’s the proof.

One scientist, Matt Killingsworth of Harvard University, developed an app called Track Your Happiness, which sent random alerts to thousands of people, asking them what they were doing and how they were feeling at that very moment.

One of the biggest surprises is that people seem to be happiest not when their mind is wandering, perhaps thinking lovely thoughts about the future, but when thinking about what they are doing at that moment. Even when it’s a chore such as commuting or the washing up.

This probably doesn’t come as a surprise to anyone who practises mindful meditation.

Getting out into nature will also improve your mood, as well as slowing your heart rate and boosting your immune system. Being outside boosts your exposure to bright light, which stimulates your brain and boosts your alertness.

Even on an overcast winter’s day, it’s around ten times brighter outside than indoors — and on a sunny day, it is up to 500 times brighter.

And what greets you when you s t ep t hrough your front door? A clean and tidy hallway, or messy shelves and dirty carpets?

One study found people with messy homes had an increasingly depressed mood over the course of the day, compared with people with tidier homes.

Tidying up can also give us a quick dose of the neurotransmitter dopamine, the pleasure chemical that boosts your mood. But this only happens if you set achievable goals.