Thank you for joining us for episode 445 of Live Happy Now.

Studies show that our world is becoming less optimistic, but this week's guest believes we can change that.

I'm your host, Paula Phelps, and today I'm talking with Dr. Emily Bashar, a psychologist whose private practice specializes in mental

illness, collective trauma, grief, and relationship dynamics. She's also co-host of the

Optimistic American Podcast, where she and co-host Paul Johnson strive to create space for a positive

and hopeful view of America and help us feel more optimistic about the future.

Emily's here with me today to talk about why we're feeling less optimistic these days,

what we can do about it, and importantly, how we can make it through the holiday season with our

optimism intact. Let's have a listen.

Emily, thank you for joining me here today.

Thank you so much, Paula.

I'm really excited about your mission and learning more about you and what you're

contributing to positivity and optimism through your podcast.

So thank you.

Well, I'm excited about everything that you have going on.

And we're going to talk about the optimistic American movement and also how this relates to the holidays. But I wanted to know in your private practice with everything that's going on in the world today, how do you see that affecting, say, your client's optimism? You know, I see people going in one of two directions.

Either they're totally closing themselves off from the world and shutting people out and

really focusing on living a day-to-day existence with, you know, what am I trying to accomplish

today and really in a survival mode? And then to the other extreme,

absorbing everything, impacted by everything, very distressed, highly anxious, more and more

paranoid and concerned about what is happening in the world today, feeling more despair, a sense of hopelessness,

helplessness is quite big and grief-stricken, honestly.

...