Happiness and Joy During Turbulent Times: Dr. Margaret Chisolm Of Johns Hopkins University On How To Live With Joie De Vivre, Even When It Feels Like The Whole World Is Pulling You Down

Get religion (or some kind of community): Believe it or not, studies have suggested causal links between engagement in a religious community and happiness and life satisfaction, as well as improved mental and physical health, meaning and purpose, close social relationships, and other aspects of a flourishing life. Of particular interest to me as a psychiatrist is the finding that regular religious service attendance lowers the incidence of depression by 30% and reduces the odds of suicide five-fold. Regardless of your views on organized religion, it’s pretty clear that religious community engagement offers many benefits.

It sometimes feels like it is so hard to avoid feeling down or depressed these days. Between the sad news coming from world headlines, the impact of the ongoing raging pandemic, and the constant negative messages popping up on social and traditional media, it sometimes feels like the entire world is pulling you down. What do you do to feel happiness and joy during these troubled and turbulent times? In this interview series called “Finding Happiness and Joy During Turbulent Times” we are talking to experts, authors, and mental health professionals who share lessons from their research or experience about “How To Find Happiness and Joy During Troubled & Turbulent Times”.

As a part of this series, I had the pleasure of interviewing Dr. Margaret Chisolm.

Dr. Chisolm is Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Johns Hopkins University where she directs the Paul McHugh Program for Human Flourishing, which fosters a humanistic clinical approach to patient care. Board-certified in general psychiatry and addiction medicine, she has 3…