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A respected "happiness expert" has revealed five simple ways to make yourself feel immediately better.

Paul Dolan, a professor of behavioural science at the London School of Economics, said the answer to feeling happier could be found by following simple steps.

Speaking at the Hay Festival, he advised people seeking to be immediately happier to listen to a favourite piece of music; spend five minutes more with someone you like; go outdoors; help someone else; or have a new experience.

"You should listen to music that you like listening to," the Sunday Telegraph quoted him as saying. "That has a substantial effect on your mood. Your brain literally lights up. There is no other stimulation like music to arouse the brain.

"You spend five minutes more with someone you like and go outdoors. And helping someone is important. Helping other people is a very selfish thing to do. It’s a great source of happiness for you. Just randomly help someone and see the difference.

“And having a new experience is really important. The great thing about new experiences is they actually slow time down. It’s why life feels so slow for children because they are experiencing new things all the time. So if you want to slow down time then have as many new experiences as you can.”

Professor Dolan, author of Happiness by Design, claims the long-term solution to improving happiness is to engineer an environment in which you are able to do things you enjoy.

"You need to make it easier to yourself, he said. "You need to think what makes you happy and work out how to change your environment to allow you do to that more easily.

"So if going to the pub with friends makes you happy then make it once a week on a Tuesday or once a month, because it’s far harder to opt out of something than to opt in."