Hi everyone and welcome back to another episode of the savvy psychologist.

I'm Dr. Ellen Hendrickson and every week I'll help you meet life's challenges with

evidence-based research, a sympathetic ear, and zero judgment. The garbage disposal

breaks. You can't find your wallet. The bus roars right past your stop. What to do? Well, by request from

listener Abdel Karim in Morocco, this week we'll cover how to handle life's daily hassles. Now in

isolation these daily stresses little annoying things like sitting in traffic

losing your phone inept customer, waiting in a long line or office

drama, excuse me, I believe you have my stapler, are pretty manageable, but stack a bunch

of hassles together or make them frequent and reliable, rush hour

commuting anyone, and you get a completely different story.

Indeed, a 2014 study in the journal Experimental Gerontology followed almost

1300 male veterans for more than 20 years and the researchers measured

daily hassles in the men's lives and found that those who experienced consistently frequent

hassles were over three times as likely to die over the course of the study than those whose lives were relatively hassle-free.

So why do small daily stressors have such a big impact?

Well, first, they're often uncontrollable. You don't get to pick the timing of your car

breaking down or your neighbor blasting his music. Second, they make you feel

powerless. There's often nothing you can do about, say say a traffic jam or unthinking bureaucracy.

And sometimes daily hassles like noise, pollution or overcrowding

blend into the background, raising our stress without us even realizing.

So how to deal with life's little hassles. Here are four ways, none of which involve

banging your head against a wall.

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