Pushkin

Welcome to a special set of episodes of The Happiness Lab.

The now global spread of coronavirus is affecting all of us.

This disease has brought a host of medical, economic, and political problems.

But it's also given us a ton of uncertainty and anxiety,

which are beginning to have an enormous negative impact on our collective well-being.

But whenever I'm confused or fearful, I remember that looking for answers in evidence-based science is always the best way to go.

And that's where I'm hoping this podcast can help.

If your brain works anything like mine does, you may have spent a lot of this challenging COVID-19 crisis in a near-constant state of mental remination.

My intermonologue has been constantly racing.

From students and family members I need to check in on, to what's left in my pantry for dinner, to the latest scary statistics, to, oh no, did I just touch my face?

My entire brain is like zipsy-zipsy-zipsy from one stressful thing to another.

The continued uncertainty of this awful situation has made it nearly impossible for me to switch my thoughts off.

And I know I'm not alone.

One friend recently mentioned that even when she has gotten a chance to relax, to sit down with a good novel, she feels like she ends up reading the same sentence over and over again, because her brain keeps jumping from one scary scenario to the next.

If we're going to make it through this collective crisis with our mental health intact, we need to find ways to keep all our roominative thoughts under control.

The good news is that modern science and ancient traditions have converged on an effective and completely free way to quiet our racing minds.

That's the practice of meditation.

If you've listened to past episodes of the Happiness Lab, you probably already heard about the benefits of meditation.

But today I want to talk with someone who's seen these benefits firsthand.

Someone who started out as a huge skeptic, but has converted to the power of mindfulness.

And so I was super excited to welcome to the Happiness Lab, ABC News correspondent Dan Harris.

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