Banish the 'energy vampires' and enjoy the benefits

In the concluding part of our brilliant series based on his new book, Success For Life, Paul McKenna reveals the simple techniques to help reconnect you to your inner sense of peace and make you happier

- Paul McKenna

HERE'S some news guaranteed not to put a smile on your face. Social researchers have measured happiness levels in Europe and the US and they've not significantly increased since the 1940s. So in the past 80 years, while we became healthier, lived longer, had better medicine, housing and communication, and enjoyed a more comfort-driven culture, research shows we are no happier in the developed world.

Indeed, in the latest World Happiness Report published last week, Britain slipped one place to 20th, following several years of declining happiness. For those under the age of 30, the country sat in 32nd place behind Nicaragua, Kosovo and El Salvador, with a score closest to that of Bosnia.

The report's rankings are based on a three-year average of each population's assessment of their quality of life. Subjects are asked to report an evaluation of their whole life, as well as answer how often they experience positive and negative emotions. Happiness is when we live by our values - they are the things that are most important to us. If happiness was determined by pleasure, then people with the most money would be the happiest - and that's not clearly the case.

Recently, I helped one unhappy super achiever who had phenomenal career success, which was a source of pleasure, but felt that somehow real happiness was eluding him. When he was in a trance, I got his unconscious mind to go on a search and find the elements in his life that were essential for happiness.