Happiness in the Time of Covid-19, Climate Change, Violent White Supremacy, etc.

Perhaps surprisingly, a season of unrelentingly grim news is the perfect time for a serious discussion of both personal and collective happiness. That is because genuine happiness is the opposite of a self-indulgent quest for pleasure. Rather, deep inner happiness leads to thriving, performing at our best, and greater compassion – along with a much-needed enhanced capacity to feel positive emotions. Parent, politician, activist, farmer – however you contribute to making life better for others, genuine happiness can help you do your work better. 

I am definitely a fan of pleasure.  At the same time, my social justice activism provides substantial meaning in my life – and meaning is just as important as pleasure in building a happy life. 

These days, because there’s a lot more meaning than pleasure in my life, I am diligently focusing on positivity as much as possible – though, it must be said, without blinders on. This is a good step for all of us privileged enough to be able take it. Otherwise, the news could overwhelm our ability to work effectively. Further, happiness is contagious. We have the opportunity, as spiritual leader Jack Kornfield puts it, to “be a beacon of well-being, love, and care that not only touches but uplifts those whom we encounter.” 

There are scores of happiness strategies in my book and elsewhere that you can use to deliberately tend to your happiness. Here, as a sample, are three timely strategies: meditating, signature strengths, and grounded optimism.

Meditation, which builds mindful awareness of the world around and within you, is beneficial is so many ways. A regular meditation practice may literally rewire our brains to make us more compassionate. Now is definitely the time for to be our most compassionate selves—including compassion for ourselves. 

Additionally, mindfulness is a vital building block for other happiness skills, such as growing empathy and kindness, or appreciating the connection between animal and human well-being.  Mindfulness is incredibly helpful for productive conflict resolution and forgiveness. Meditation can increase gratitude, another key to happiness. 

Meditation can also just help you feel better. When I am distraught, meditating calms me down. In other words, meditation builds resilience.

Here’s another great tool: using your signature strengths. In the early 2000s, positive psychology researchers identified twenty-four universally admired virtues and strengths which each of us has to some degree. Each of us is especially gifted with a handful of these twenty-four traits. That handful are our signature strengths, a core part of who we really are. 

You can ascertain your signature strengths by taking a free survey at the VIA Institute on Character website. Dr. Neal Mayerson, chairman of the VIA Institute, says knowledge and use of our strengths will “tip humanity toward our better nature and increase human goodness.” We certainly need all the extra tipping we can get these days! 

Just to give you a flavor, here are three pertinent strengths: courage, humor, and perseverance. Obviously, the struggles of the day demand courage. And lord knows, we need all the laughs we can get! It’s clear that we are confronting deeply rooted paradigms that will be extraordinarily difficult to shift. This could be a powerful moment of change, but not without significant perseverance.

And that’s just three of the twenty-four! Imagine each of us, using our different signature strengths, working together. It’s a beautiful thought!

The third strategy for increasing your happiness is to be more optimistic. Martin Seligman, known as the father of positive psychology, says optimism is “invaluable for the meaningful life. With a firm belief in a positive future, you can throw yourself into the service of that which is larger than you.”

Optimism and pessimism are not innate – they are learned traits. You can choose to be more optimistic. You may believe that optimism is disconnected from reality. That is not the kind of optimism I am talking about. As Abraham Maslow put it, “False optimism sooner or later means disillusionment, anger, and hopelessness.” I am advocating optimism that is firmly grounded in reality – a healthy optimism which is literally good for our physical selves. 

Admiral James Stockdale, the highest-ranking naval officer to be held prisoner during the Vietnam War, once observed that the POWs most likely to survive that experience were those with reality-based optimism. Neither falsely optimistic prisoners who thought they would be released almost immediately nor pessimistic POWs who believed they would never be released survived as well.  

Stockdale said, “You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end—which you cannot afford to lose—with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they may be.”

Collectively, we’re having to face some pretty brutal facts. I, for one, want faith in the form of grounded optimism, on our side. We must prevail. 

Let me close by bringing to mind a photo taken after Hurricane Michael destroyed Mexico Beach, Florida. The photo showed one well-built house standing alone among miles of rubble, the remains of other beach houses. The owner of the surviving house was not happy with his isolated good fortune. In an interview, he wept for his neighbors. 

So, it is with happiness. It is not about isolated good fortune. Nurturing our own happiness while simultaneously doing our best to create a more just and joyful world – that is the true happiness path. We are in this together.

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Ginny Sassaman is a co-founder, past president, and advisory board member of Gross National Happiness USA, the creator of The Happiness Paradigm, and the author of “Preaching Happiness: Creating a Just and Joyful World” (Rootstock PubLishing, 2020). Since 2013, she has served as a lay preacher at Unitarian Universalist churches in Vermont, Massachusetts, Wisconsin, and South Carolina. Originally from central Pennsylvania, Ginny and her husband spent many years living in Washington, D.C., before settling near Montpelier, Vermont, in 2001. She has a master’s in mediation and a certificate in positive psychology, and teaches secular meditation classes.

Preaching Happiness: Creating a Just and Joyful World

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Category: Contemporary Women Writers, How To and Tips