Welcome back to savvy psychologist. I'm Dr. Ellen Hendrickson. Happy New Year and every

week in 2019 I will help you meet life's challenges with evidence-based research,

a sympathetic ear and zero judgment.

So listener Lynn wrote in and asked, quote, how to find happiness or at least comfort in a world that is fundamentally

broken in so many ways. She writes quote I cannot help but be sad to think about things like plastics in the ocean, wildfires in the west,

caravans of refugees about to be met with military force, and the extermination of the Rohingya.

I have frequent reminders to be thankful for all I have.

Nonetheless, I am often unhappy because of the many ways that humans are unkind to each other and to our planet. Now, Lynn's beautifully articulated problem isn't unique.

Every day the headlines push our buttons of alarm, despair and fury all at once.

And when those headlines start to blend suspiciously with the Handmaid's tail or bring to mind

visions of Wallie sorting through post-apocalyptic garbage, it's easy to feel sad and hopeless. So what is a thinking, feeling

human to do? Well, much like the climate change episode from a few weeks ago, I can't promise to fix the world in 15 minutes or less.

But before you move off-grid and start brewing your own zombie repellent,

you can try these four tips to be happy in a world that can feel like a Mad Max chase through the headlines.

Tip number one is feel what you feel and let it spur you to action. So in my humble opinion one of the few negative side

effects of the happiness movement is the mistakenly sky-high expectation that we

feel happy most if not all of the time.

But set those expectations against a backdrop where according to a Gallup poll,

87% of people worldwide don't like their jobs.

According to the CDC, around 40% of marriages

end in divorce.

And according to anyone not living under a rock,

...