The work is relentless.
To hear this song on the loudspeaker is brilliant.
It’s just what people need, a reminder that patients are recovering.
You feel good for a moment."
Feeling good may be the last thing on your mind as thecoronavirus pandemicgrinds into its sixth month in America.
Quite the contrary, countless researchers say.
Happiness gives us theresilienceto get through.
This is a challenging time because it’s both a physical and mental health crisis.
We need to focus on happiness more now, not less."
It was an overwhelming sense of, wow, we’re making a difference.
I got very teary-eyed."
“The happiness that helps in great difficulty is realistic.
It recognizes fears and anxieties.
It looks for meaning.
It nourishes and sustains us.”
Here is what they want you to know.
It was delightful, Schlam says.
Music is a comfort to me."
Indeed, in difficult times music can help relieve our mental anguish.
It’s almost like an aspirin.
Music can be a healthy distraction in that sense."
Songs of empowerment also bubble up in troubled times.
It’s a brand-new experience to me, to sing to a phone, he says.
To help, AARP has compiled a Spotify playlist,Songs of Hope and Happiness.
In the wake of a life-shattering crisis or global disaster, something surprisingly positive often happens.
And the effect wasn’t transitory.
They weren’t hiding their heads in the sand or pretending the disaster hadn’t happened.
It’s intuitive that happiness helps create and sustain emotional resilience.
But the converse is true, too.
Medical studies confirm it.
By switching from nursing their personal sense of tragedy to encouraging empathy with others who might have it worse.
That’s why so many volunteers feel deep joy in what they’re doing.
Suffering is never good, of course.
This may not be the time to focus on fun and laughs.
But something deeper can help.
Holocaust survivor and psychiatrist Viktor Frankl famously called it tragic optimism.
