What makes us happy? Is it lots of money and a big house? How about a cute puppy or a hug from a loved one? Perhaps it’s a combination of things, which varies for everyone. Even so, there is a common theme when it comes to how people perceive happiness – a thread that can tell us a lot about our own emotional state.
Or perhaps it is something even simpler: maybe we just get happier with age. It makes sense if you think about it, we learn how to enjoy life more the more practice we have at it. Stanford University psychologist Laura Carstensen explains in the following TED talk that research demonstrates that as we get older we become happier and more at peace with the world at large. Not a bad thing to look forward to, as we all get older by the year.