Welcome to episode 305 of Live Happy Now.

We talk a lot about the importance of social connection for maintaining our well-being,

but how do you find happiness when you're socially distanced?

I'm your host, Bala Phelps, and this week we're looking at how to stay connected even when we're apart.

Dr. Jennifer Wegman is a professor

in the Department of Health and Wellness Studies at Binghamton University. She teaches classes

including stress management and contemporary health issues and her audiobook, Resilience,

How to Master Stress, Reduce Anxiety, and Live Well, provides listeners with a new informed mindset about

stress. She's here today to talk about how we can improve our happiness and our connections

while staying safe and healthy. Jen, welcome back to Live Happy Now. Thank you. I'm so excited to be

back. This week we are looking at how we can practice happiness even while we're

socially distanced. And, you know, a lot of people right now are facing such a mental health

crisis due to COVID. And, you know, what I'm seeing is people want to be safe, but it's our nature

to be social, not socially distanced. So first of all, what are you seeing in this realm?

Well, especially in the population that I deal with on a regular basis, which is college

students, I'm seeing a lot of struggle. And to be honest, there are some populations in college

that are really just starting to throw their hands up and say,

we need to connect. And if that means that we're not going to social distance, then we're not

going to social distance. And then that's translating. And this is across the country, too,

to increase in cases. So I know that college students are trying to balance being separated from each other and having

the natural college experience that most of us who went to college had and trying to be safe.

So there's this kind of wax and waning of their ability, really, to maintain their mental health

...