HAPPINESS

In a “happiness” report from Britain, the surge of “being happy” after age of 50 was mostly attributed to the ability of older individuals to appreciate life better. 

We are all prone to recognize happiness in retrospect. 
Judging by myself, the ability to recognize present-day happiness may indeed improve with age. 

In addition to acquiring a happiness-radar, by the ripe age of 50, probably many start to feel that they have more control over their life. The control comes also from the fact that after age of 50, more people attain some degree of financial stability, if not independence. Financially independent people usually state that for them freedom (financial independence) equals happiness. The freedom to do whatever they truly like in un-regimented environment, and take risks.

The deep valley of unhappiness between ages of 30 and 50 might be explained with the fact that at this age many people are fighting on several fronts (e.g., parenthood, career, partner relations, aging mom and dad). The resolution of these issues with age results in lesser stress and more time to reflect and react.

But there is another prerequisite for happiness. This is “the sophisticated ability to do nothing”: derive pleasure and satisfaction from everyday small tasks: make your morning coffee, and savor it slowly in the garden or in front of a window, talk to your partner, prepare a breakfast, plan a healthy meal and shop for it. These are all activities that we qualify as “doing nothing” but they could be filled with joy and meaning, if we pay more attention to what exactly we do and whom we meet. 

Here is also a meaningful post on un-happiness and what the reasons might be.
One advice I recently read was that to achieve happiness, you need to have three positive emotions for every negative emotion. My questions are: (a) How did you get to this magic ratio?, (b) What do you recommend as a positive emotion (shopping, gorging on food)?, (c) Is not this advice pushing for unrestrained consumerism? The same article continued with the advice to focus on the present day and try to make even ordinary moments good ones. I agree with this one, although I find it difficult to brighten a day spent in an office cubicle.

PS 
Should we consider moving to Columbia? The most recent poll on the happiest country in the world revealed that Colombia might be the one with 87% of Colombians considering themselves happy. This is almost double of the U.S. happiness score. Likely reasons for this overwhelming happiness might be the amazing geographic location, love of soccer, great weather, best coffee, delicious food, freedom to walk (once a week and on holidays the capital closes its roads and residents walk or run on over 75 miles of road), emphasis on rest, beautiful women, many festivals. In fact, it seems that experiences are in the center of this happiest country.