Trinity Week to dissect the science of happiness

We all want it, it’s downright elusive, and for John Lennon, it was a “warm gun”. Now Trinity College Dublin will spend the week dissecting the science of happiness.

The programme of events for Trinity Week has been organised by TCD’s Faculty of Health Sciences, but if you have notions of boffins inventing happiness pills or feelgood elixirs, forget it, even if Professor Mary McCarron, the faculty’s dean, says more time should be donated to the science behind feeling happy.

“There has been a lot of emphasis in the past in studying things like stress but we have had less focus on the flipside,” she said. “There is now a new realisation that being happy is a key contributor to physical and mental health.”

The programme of events includes two symposiums: one on Wednesday afternoon looking at issues such as mindfulness, balance, mental health, and happiness and the role of smiling in making us feel better, the other on Thursday, which has a particular focus on how ideas of happiness change as we get older and using data taken from The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing.

The keynote speaker is Professor Nancy Etcoff, director of the Programme in Aesthetics and Well-Being at the Massachusetts General Hospital Department of Psychiatry, who will make an address entitled ‘Let us smile each chance we get,’ on Thursday.

It, like other events this week, is open to the public. Other seminars will look at topics as diverse as the role of food and nutrition to happiness, and aging.

One factor not mentioned is money. According to Prof McCarron, that is because no scientific study can prove that cash can bring us joy.

“It is not seen as contributing to overall happiness,” she said. “There is an understanding that while we need money, the pursuit of it in its own right will not give us a state of happiness.”

She said the Celtic Tiger years had possibly eroded the idea of giving of ourselves to others and now there was a chance to “reposition” ourselves as a society. Just last month a new Eurostat study indicated that Ireland had a high ranking among EU nations for general levels of happiness, while the recent spate of ‘Happy’ videos has highlighted that not everyone in Ireland is full of doom and gloom.

Prof McCarron said people could follow a “blueprint” for happiness that studies have shown to improve positivity levels, from connecting with others, confiding in friends and family, getting exercise, and putting time and effort into relationships.

“We are trying to tell people that many of these things are key to reducing stress in their lives,” she said, adding that there could be real policy implications for government and statutory authorities in doing whatever is required to enhance our happiness levels.

* See the programme of events at http://www.tcd.ie/trinityweek/