Small Practices for Brighter Days With Paula Felps and Michelle Jones

Live Happy Now

Live Happy LLC

Mental Health, Health & Fitness, Health & Fitness:mental Health

4.7 • 522 Ratings

🗓️ 3 March 2026

⏱️ 20 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

A new Gallup poll says that Americans are feeling unusually pessimistic about the future, with optimism hitting its lowest point in two decades. This week, host Paula Felps and social media manager Michelle Jones dig into the poll results and explore why so many people are struggling emotionally, and — more importantly — what practical, evidence‑based habits can help us stay grounded, hopeful, and connected during difficult times. They also share what’s ahead for Happiness Month and how listeners can participate in this year’s community‑driven #HappyActs initiative. In this episode, you’ll learn: Why Americans are reporting historically low levels of optimism. How negativity bias and nonstop news consumption intensify feelings of gloom. Why balancing heaviness with humor or uplifting content can help regulate emotions.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Thank you for joining us for episode 560 of Live Happy Now.
0:08.5	As we enter March and observe Happiness Month, we're going to kick things off by talking about gloom and doom.
0:15.3	I'm your host, Paula Phelps, and today I'm joined by Live Happy social media manager Michelle Jones,
0:20.4	who's here to talk with me
0:21.8	about the results of a new Gallup poll that shows Americans are not in a good mood.
0:27.1	We're going to talk about those results and the practices you can use to turn it around.
0:32.1	Then we'll talk about what we have planned for Happiness Month and the International Day of
0:36.2	Happiness on March 20th,
0:37.7	so you can be a part of it. Let's have a listen.
0:41.3	Michelle, welcome back to Live Happy and thank you for joining me on the show. Hey, Paula, good to be back.
0:48.1	Well, it's a big month for us. It's a special time of the year. It is March, and tell us why that is so important.
0:55.5	Merch is Live Happy's Super Bowl. It is Happiness Month. International Day of Happiness is March 20th.
1:02.4	We are ready to roll. And we need to clarify, we are not giving away Super Bowl rings for this.
1:07.9	Not this time. Maybe next year. That's going to be our merch grab for next year. Perfect.
1:14.0	Advertising and Super Bowl rings. Done. All right. We have our plan for next year. But for
1:20.0	2026, it's not going to be like that. But you and I wanted to get together and talk about this because
1:25.5	it is such an interesting time in history
1:29.0	to be celebrating happiness. In reality, right now, America is really going through a dark and
1:35.0	difficult time. And you and I had received this recent poll from Gallup, and we talked about that,
1:41.6	and it's showing that we as a country are really not in a very good mood.
1:46.7	So anyone who's listening to this, if you've been feeling heavier lately, you're not imagining it. It's not just you. It is a real thing for this country right now. So Michelle, do you want to talk a little bit about some of the findings from this poll. I'm not going to call them highlights because
2:00.9	they're really not. They're not. No. Yeah. So in 2025, 59% of Americans gave a high rating when
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Live Happy LLC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Live Happy LLC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.