How to be happy when the world makes you depressed (Reissue)
Savvy Psychologist
Macmillan Holdings, LLC
4.6 • 1.4K Ratings
🗓️ 11 March 2026
⏱️ 7 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
228. Hold on to your handbasket! Every day, the headlines push our buttons of alarm, despair, and fury all at once. What’s a thinking, feeling human to do, besides invest in a Hunger Games-style bow and arrow? This week, in an episode that originally ran in January 2019, Dr. Ellen Hendriksen offers 4 tips to be happy in a world that can feel like a Mad Max chase through the headlines. As true today as the day this episode first dropped!
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome back to savvy psychologist. I'm Dr. Ellen Hendrickson, and every week I will help you meet life's challenges with evidence-based research, a sympathetic ear, and zero judgment. |
| 0:16.6 | 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. |
| 0:26.4 | 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. |
| 0:39.6 | I have frequent reminders to be thankful for all I have. |
| 0:43.1 | Nonetheless, I am often unhappy because of the many ways that humans are unkind to each other and to our planet. |
| 0:51.0 | Now, Lynn's beautifully articulated problem isn't unique. Every day, the headlines push |
| 0:56.7 | our buttons of alarm, despair, and fury all at once. And when those headlines start to blend |
| 1:02.4 | suspiciously with the handmaid's tale or bring to mind visions of Wally, sorting through post-apocalyptic |
| 1:08.2 | garbage, it's easy to feel sad and hopeless. So what is a thinking, |
| 1:14.0 | feeling human to do? Well, much like the climate change episode from a few weeks ago, I can't promise |
| 1:20.5 | to fix the world in 15 minutes or less, but before you move off grid and start brewing your own |
| 1:25.9 | zombie repellent, you can try these four |
| 1:28.3 | tips to be happy in a world that can feel like a mad max chase through the headlines. |
| 1:34.4 | Tip number one is feel what you feel and let it spur you to action. |
| 1:40.5 | So in my humble opinion, one of the few negative side effects of the happiness movement |
| 1:45.0 | is the mistakenly sky-high expectation that we feel happy most, if not all, of the time. |
| 1:52.2 | But set those expectations against a backdrop where, according to a Gallup poll, |
| 1:58.1 | 87% of people worldwide don't like their jobs. According to the CDC, |
| 2:03.4 | around 40% of marriages end in divorce. And according to anyone not living under a rock, the headlines |
| 2:09.2 | pummel us with bad news 24-7. The result is major dissonance. So, instead of fake |
| 2:16.6 | smiling through the negativity, lean into all your feelings. |
| 2:20.9 | We are wired for a wide range of emotions, from the peanut butter and jelly of sadness, anger, and |
... |
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