A Global Quest For Happiness: Eric Weiner

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WHEN FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT ERIC WEINER went looking for the happiest places on the planet, he skipped the Ibizas and St. Lucias of the world. (Neverland wasn't an option.) Instead, he went to Iceland. Weiner, who has spent his career circling the globe as a foreign correspondent, wanted to find out how people living in a cold, dark, remote country could be so content. To understand his journey, cataloged in "The Geography of Bliss" ($25.99, Twelve), you first have to put down those self-help manuals and stop searching Travelocity for last-minute getaway packages.

» EXPRESS: You started your trip in the Netherlands with Ruut Veenhoven, professor of happiness studies, who says, "Happiness requires livable conditions, but not paradise." Do you believe him?
» WIENER: There is no place that, because of its topography or climate, is instantly going to make people happy. It's the way life is arranged in these places. One of the great myths of happiness is that paradise looks like South Beach in Miami. Sitting in D.C. in the middle of February when it's cold outside, South Beach may look like paradise, but it's not. Climate just doesn't matter the way we think it does.

» EXPRESS: So, if not palm trees and beaches, what makes people happy?
» WIENER: So much of our happiness is derived by the quality and quantity of relationships with others. We talk about personal happiness in this country, but it's kind of a ridiculous statement because our happiness is 100 percent relational. We're kidding ourselves if we think we can be happy anywhere. Can you be happy in Baghdad right now? I don't think so.

» EXPRESS: What about Moldova, officially "the least happy nation"? Why are people there so miserable?
» WIENER: There's an endemic lack of trust. Not only lack of trust of people close to you, like families and neighbors, but strangers. There's so much corruption and back-stabbing, and a huge amount of envy, it's toxic. People there would rather see their neighbors fail than themselves succeed. Happiness is determined by our relationships and our environment. We can't just will ourselves to be happy while ignoring our relationships around us.

» EXPRESS: Does being happy make you healthier? Or, vice versa, does being healthy make you happier?
» WIENER: The old adage "If you don't have your health, you don't have anything" is partly true. If you're chronically ill, you're not likely to be happy. But it's our self-perception of our health that affects our happiness. If you think you're healthy and you feel like you're healthy, that does more than a doctor's exam will tell you. Happiness in subjective. You can't take vital signs for happiness.

» EXPRESS: What about smiling? Is that a vital sign?
» WIENER: Psychologists have found that sane people do not smile when they are alone. It's primarily a social gesture. In Thailand, they have dozens of different types of smiles and they are all very nuanced. They even smile at funerals because it can be a type of mask. The way to tell a genuine smile from a fake one is not in the mouth but in the muscles around the eyes.

» EXPRESS: Where's your happy place?
» WIENER: Caribou Coffee in Silver Spring.

Written by Josie Roberts for Express