Tips on how happiness can lower stress

Feelings of happiness counteract the effects of stress, as do laughing and smiling. Regardless of your age, you can start feeling happier by making an effort to be more extroverted and energetic in your activities. According to psychologists, almost any active behaviour — such as singing or dancing to music you hear on the radio — has a positive effect on your mood. And, like laughter, happiness is contagious.

• According to data gleaned from the massive Framingham Heart Study, which spanned three decades, happiness spreads from person to person.
• Analysis of the social networks of the inhabitants of Framingham, MA, revealed that the happiness of a friend living within a mile of you increases the likelihood of your own happiness by 25 per cent.

• The effects of happiness can be seen at three degrees of separation, meaning even your friend's friend's friend's happiness affects your own.
• It was also shown as stronger between friends of the same sex.
• This study showed the influence of friends on your happiness as significantly greater than that of spouses or siblings. Having a happier partner increased subjects' happiness by only eight per cent, and a happier sibling by 14 per cent — but a next-door neighbour who became happier boosted a person's chance of happiness by 34 per cent.
• What seems clear is that, in general, a key determinant of human happiness is the happiness of those around you. This accords with other research showing how emotions can be contagious, both in the short term and over longer periods.
• Detailed analysis of the statistics from the happiness study demonstrates that each happy person you know increases the likelihood of your own happiness by nine per cent.

• While deaths from heart attacks and strokes are higher in unmarried than married men, having a close group of friends can protect you if you're single.
• In one study, the health risks to men living alone were worse than those of people who smoked, while being married reduced mortality in men by nine per cent over a seven-year follow-up period — greater than the effect of not smoking.
• However, for married women, the risk of dying within seven years was reduced by only 2.9 per cent compared with single women.
• What accounts for this phenomenon? One theory is that women are more likely to have close friends in whom they can confide and therefore benefit more than men from external social support.
• So, being married makes relatively little difference to their risk of heart disease or their mortality rates.
• In contrast, men are much more likely to confide primarily in their wives or partners than in friends, so being single puts them more at risk.