Welcome to episode 315 of Live Happy Now.

When the pandemic struck last year, many people wondered how it was possible to be happy

with all the stress and tragedy going on around us.

But today's guest took the time to show us how.

I'm your host, Paula Phelps, and this week we're talking with New York Times bestselling author

Tal Ben Shahar, whose new book, Happier No Matter What, looks at how we can cultivate hope,

resilience, and purpose, even during the most difficult times of our lives.

Let's hear what he has to say.

Tal, thank you so much for coming back on Live Happy Now.

Thank you, Paul. It's great to be back.

Well, we had a wonderful reason to have you back because you've got a new book out, and it's called

Happier No Matter What.

One thing that I really like about this book is that right up front, you talk about COVID and

quarantines and how that affected us.

So why was it important for you to write a book that specifically spoke to this time in our lives?

What happened as soon as COVID hit and social unrest and, you know, it seemed like our world was,

or we were losing control over our world, many people approached me and said,

you know, what is the relevance of the science of happiness now? Isn't it a bit redundant?

You know, one of my friends went as far as suggesting that we quarantine happiness for a while.

And in response to that, I wrote the book. And the basic argument is that not only is the science of happiness still important,

it's actually more important than ever.

Yeah.

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