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Read more:How to be happy: Putting well-being on the agenda

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Trying too hard? (Image by Stoyan Nenov/Reuters/Corbis)

The pursuit of happiness is in danger of becoming an unhealthy obsession. We should learn to go with the flow

THE pursuit of happiness is fine, but little by little it has turned into an obsession, an imposition – a secular religion even. It all started with the Enlightenment. Happiness was not welcome to Catholics or Protestants: the goal was to redeem yourself from original sin, gain salvation and be happy in the afterlife. The philosophers’ challenge was that happiness is in…

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