Yes, You Can Be Happy in Sad Times

Scholars Say Happiness—Along With Connectedness and Meaning—Can Make You More Resilient When the World Gets Rough

Happiness isn’t just possible when the world is in a very sad state. It’s vital in difficult times like today’s, because happier people are more resilient and recover more quickly from despair, setbacks, and bad news.

This was one happy if serious conclusion from a Zócalo/UCLA Anderson School of Management event titled, “Can Individuals Be Happy in an Unhappy Time?” Before an overflow crowd at the National Center for the Preservation of Democracy in downtown L.A., three scholars who study different aspects of happiness touted a wide variety of research on …

by Joe Mathews | December 13, 2018

Why Modern Psychologists’ Focus on Happiness Has Its Roots in the Worst Human Traumas

War, Exile, and Family Dysfunction Can Foster a Resilient Spirit and Deeper Human Connections

By Daniel Horowitz | April 27, 2018

All around us are reminders of how important happiness is in people’s lives: in TED talks, in the practice of meditation, in the annual World Happiness Report, and in advice …

The Everyday Miraculous Gestures That Pope Francis Did Not Mention

In a Fast Moving World, Love and Inspiration Can Come From the Most Unexpected Sources

By Gregory Rodriguez | October 12, 2015

A few weeks ago in Honolulu, an accomplished, middle-aged woman I met at a cocktail party told me the most tragic love story. In a nutshell, this woman had her …

Stop Whining, Be Happy

By Every Possible Measure, This Is the Best Time to Be Alive in Human History

by Andrés Martinez | December 1, 2014

In her classic reinterpretation of Western history, The Legacy of Conquest, Patricia Nelson Limerick writes of an entrepreneurial young man in St. Louis eager to get in on the 1849 …

Healthcare Reporter Stephanie O’Neill

A Lover of Animals ... And Mick Jagger

January 11, 2013

Stephanie O’Neill is a healthcare reporter for Southern California Public Radio. Before moderating a discussion about the connection between health and happiness, she sat down in the Zócalo green room …

Life Coach Cynthia Loy Darst

Repeat After Me: ‘Nowhere to Get to, and Nothing to Prove’

January 8, 2013

Cynthia Loy Darst is a Los Angeles-based life coach. Before participating in a panel on achieving happiness and health, she sat down in the green room to talk about her …

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