Travis Langan, an off-duty FDNY firefighter and former U.S. Marine, was driving home last week when powerful floodwaters overwhelmed parts of the Jackie Robinson Parkway. He spotted several cars nearly underwater and immediately pulled over.

One of those drivers was elementary school principal Carmen Pinto, whose Tesla had stopped working as floodwaters rapidly filled the vehicle. She tried to open the doors, roll down the windows, call 911 — nothing worked. The water kept rising.

Langan saw her face pressed against the sunroof and started punching through it with his bare fists. He grabbed a Yeti cup Pinto handed him, smashed through the remaining glass, and pulled her out alive.

On Friday, the pair reunited at FDNY headquarters, where Langan was honored by NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani and FDNY Commissioner Lillian Bonsignore.

Pinto was emotional. She noted that Langan had a pregnant wife and daughters waiting for him at home.

Heros are everywhere independent of politics, race or gender which lifts us all up.

“If it were my family, I hope someone would do the same.” — Travis Langan

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I saw an article the other day that basically said don’t even try being happy and there is, in a way, a lot of evidence that this sentiment has something to it.

Harold Kushner wrote in his book When All You’ve Ever Wanted Isn’t Enough: “Happiness is a butterfly—the more you chase it, the more it flies away from you and hides. But stop chasing it, put away your net and busy yourself with other, more productive things than the pursuit of personal happiness, and it will sneak up upon you from behind and perch on your shoulder….”

The brain doesn’t do happiness.  It keeps us safe.  Micropractices train the brain to make us happy while we engage in other pursuits.

“The happiest people I know are people who don’t even think about being happy. They just think about being good neighbors, good people. And then happiness sort of sneaks in the back window while they are busy doing good.” 

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I asked my music industry mental health class to work with me on a drill – think about the worst thing you could say about your best friend (believe me, they hated this, but stay with me).  I asked for volunteers to share the insults – and a few brave souls started.  But these “insults” were tame.  So, I asked them to dig deeper.  A few more volunteers piped up.  When we were done, I suggested that it is so hard to insult someone you like, love or respect but why is it so easy for us to come down so hard on ourselves.

Then I asked for bulletproof statements:  tell me something about you that no one could challenge and we filled the room with positivity that lifted all of us.  I got answers like “I’m dependable”, “I care”, “I’m a great listener”.

It’s easy but not helpful to be our worst critic – a little more love for ourselves and some grace could change the way we feel.

As Brené Brown puts it “Talk to yourself like you would to someone you love.”

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That’s the message Lynn Anderson’s “Rose Garden” delivered (“Along with the sunshine there’s gotta be a little rain sometime”).  Being a broadcaster, I’ve done my share of weather forecasts and while Mother Nature does as she pleases, we don’t have control over a lot of things in life.  Amit Sood, the Mayo Clinic physician and resilience expert likes to think of it like this – we can’t control the snow, but we can carry an umbrella.

Some things are just out of our control and yet we give up a lot of happiness moaning about it.  But we always have some control and that is reason for great optimism.

Jon Kabat-Zinn is the founder of the Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction Program – he says “You can’t stop the waves, but you can learn to surf.”

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MacKenzie Scott, the former wife of billionaire Jeff Bezos gave away $7 billion of her share of the fortune in 2025 – more than her husband gave away in his lifetime. $471 billion was given by others to U.S. charities in 2020.  All in all, an estimated $1 trillion in kindness every year.

Oxford University researchers asked more than 600 volunteers to perform a small act of kindness every day for one week – nice little things, not measured by money – things like picking up litter or leaving a slightly bigger tip and they found that the good-deeders were measurably happier than the control group who went about their lives as usual.

We know two things:  the brain’s that main purpose is to keep us safe can be programmed by little micro-practices to do other things including be kinder. The benefits go both ways.

“No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.” 

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We’re living among people who wear earbuds, noise-cancelling headphones and the many distractions that come with a phone in our hand.  My students show up to class connected elsewhere until we put our phones away (me, too).

Others are often waiting for someone (us?) to break the ice.  We can show compassion by understanding that we are not the only ones who have to overcome daily challenges in life.  We do meet-and-greets before every class and judging from student input at the end of the semester, they like it (“all classes should do this”).  Since the pandemic we have been less likely to start a conversation than prior.  No special skills are required.  Everyone has the ability.  By recognizing that humans crave social interaction in person, we can be the one who goes first.

“The greatest gift you can give someone is your undivided attention.” (attributed to Richard Moss, physician and author).

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There is lots of anxiety surrounding artificial intelligence – will it eliminate jobs putting people out of work, replace live relationships or even make hit music.  Streaming services like Apple Music and Spotify can’t keep up with the fake music that is being uploaded from content farms.  And consumers like my music business students who have been interviewed only get AI right about 50% of the time when they hear a real and fake song in comparison.

No need for AI to scare anyone.  The industrial revolution caused panic among workers but when the dust settled new jobs were created in other industries.

Mayo Clinic doctors now use AI to record conversations with patients allowing them to see more of them.  And they’re doing trials on an AI-led system that identifies pancreatic cancer three years before the symptoms show up.

As I told my students many of whom are recording artists or musicians, don’t let AI scare you – be authentic and one thing AI cannot do is know what you are going to do next – it can guess, but only you know.

David Bowie said “Tomorrow belongs to those who can hear it coming.”

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I met a positive young person from Idaho last week who helps her retrain her brain to think more positively than negatively.  Example:  somebody cut her off as they are wont to do these days while driving.  Instead of saying something negative back which would put her in a negative mood, she came up with positives.

1) Maybe the rude driver had to get someplace faster than she did with good reason.

2) She wasn’t hurt.

3) She reminded herself that she doesn’t cut people off.

The brain exists to keep us safe.  But we can program it to do other things that enrich our lives like making us a more positive person.

“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose.” — Viktor Frankl

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Research shows that modern workers switch tasks as often as every 45 seconds; this constant “multitasking” increases stress, lowers productivity, and causes more errors in high-stakes professions like medicine and aviation.  Yet many people including young college students think they can adequately handle multitasking.

Successful creators like Isabel Allende and Maya Angelou use “commitment devices”—strict rituals or physical constraints like locked doors and stripped hotel rooms—to force the brain to focus on a single task.

To improve focus, you should treat attention as a limited resource by batching administrative tasks (like email), using “focus modes” on devices, and taking “little mind” breaks (rote activities like beading or crosswords) to let the brain recover from intense concentration.

According to University of Virginia cognitive scientist Dr. Daniel Willingham:

“Multitasking is a misnomer. In most situations, the person is actually switching tasks… and there is a ‘switching cost.’ Your brain has to shift its internal map of what you’re doing and what the rules are. That takes time, and it’s why you’re slower and make more mistakes.”

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In late 2025, Selena Gomez admitted she nearly walked away from her music career entirely. Burned out by public scrutiny and the pressure to meet industry expectations, she seriously considered “giving up” on recording to focus solely on acting and her brand – one of an endless stream of musicians and artists plagued by stress and anxiety.

However, during the production of her latest project in early 2026 a collaborative album I Said I Love You First, a joint studio project with her now-husband, producer Benny Blanco she experienced a creative breakthrough that changed her mind.

“I reached a point where I thought, ‘Maybe this just isn’t for me anymore.’ But then I stopped trying to make music for everyone else and started making it for me. I didn’t give up; I just gave up the version of myself that was trying to please everyone.”

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