We all get a stress head full of hassle on a regular basis.

God knows the number of times I’ve woken up with an already thumping head due to my life and work schedule. I’m sure you can recognise that too. Some may argue it’s the price of modern life. I’d say it’s been around for decades and probably will for plenty more.

Our heads are our computers. They run our show.

They arrange, support, calculate, scan for threats, store information, remember information, and generally are like a 100 PA’s.

Boy, do they do a lot!

However, just like overworked assistants they get stretched and pressured and it all becomes hassle. Too much hassle. The head almost hurts and feels attacked from all sides.

When we are hassled we get anxious, angry, and forgetful. We just don’t like it. It causes major stress as I’ve written about in SuperMind Saturday.

But, there is one very telling reason why you should welcome hassle.

It may be just about to save your life!

High level hassle.

Sit back and enjoy the flight, is what the captain of our plane tells us.

So, sit back we do, pop on a movie, get fed some meals, recline in our seat, and leave our stresses on the ground for a while.

That’s what Peter Hogenkamp and his partner did on his late night Cross Air flight from Berlin to Zurich in November 2001. He was tired and really needed to get some shut eye, but the three members of the Dutch-German all girl group, Passion Fruit, were being noisy and disruptive in the seats in front. They had been at a gig that night and were still in electric mood and excitedly fired up.

Hassled and with other seats available they switched rows away from the annoyance hoping to get some rest before they landed.

Not longer after flight 3597 plunged into wooded hills 2.5m short of the runway killing all but nine people. Peter and his partner Jacqueline and one member of the band survived.

Peter was so hassled he changed seats, but this changed his whole life by saving it.

This is how hassle works. It may not be some message from the angels or the fates favouring you. What it will be is forcing a change that can save you from a lot of future problems and, potentially, save your life.

Hassle may be help all along.

Late but alive.

We have all been running late for work.

Whether it’s sleeping in, kids delaying us, or traffic snarl ups, we’ve all turned up behind time. Often this leads to little consequence bar a minor ticking off, but once in a while it prevents us losing far more than a few minutes work time.

That was what was going through Prasad Govenkar’s mind one morning as he struggled to get to work without being late. His alarm clock decided not to work and he spilled coffee down his shirt in the rush to be ready.

Worse still the trains were delayed due to signalling problems on the line. He was hassled and prepared himself for the rebuke from his boss in the city for not being at his desk as usual.

But those hassles that played out in his mind would be the very saviours that kept him alive.

The city was New York, the date was September 11th 2001, and his office was in the World Trade Center.

The collective stress of his non-functioning alarm, black coffee mishap, and train hold ups that had his head racing, soon had it racing for a different reason. Fundamentalist terrorists flew 2 passenger airplanes into both Twin Towers with the loss of nearly 3000 lives. All those in and around Prasad’s office space were killed.

Hassle had once again stepped in so he survived.

Minor not major.

Now I don’t want to paint a bleak picture here.

Any hassle you go through doesn’t predict some bad omen has been prevented from getting to you. The truth is even if they make us tear our hair out, most hassles are only short term annoyance and irritations. They are usually minor not major.

There is another point I’m making.

Hassle may be a re-direction.

It provides feedback about our life that, if we were to consider more, is trying to get us to evaluate things.

Traffic delays yet again on our commute may ask if we’re doing the right role in the right place. Or similar if we have continual staffing shortages that push up our workload. Or our partner always changing plans and we never know what we’re doing half the time could be a hint that the relationship might not be the one for us.

These won’t kill us as such, but they hassle us to get our attention.

I actually think hassles may secretly be wake up calls. They dial up the frustration so much we just want out of the specific scenario or life situation that it links to. After one too many awful days in a job that doesn’t appreciate us and there was no pay rise, we decide it’s finally the point to start our own business. We’ve tried to mend old family wounds with family members we didn’t create, but after another painful gathering, it’s best friends only for us now.

And the biggest alarm clock of all with hassle – heath alerts.

They usually come with body and mind related effects – migraines, anxiety, etc but also extremes can lead to more serious symptoms. At which point you get the message that this has got to stop for the good of your wellness.

Hassles can be our friends you see!

Hear the hassle.

Hassles effectively shout at us. They don’t do whispers. Or subtlety.

We all notice them, which is a good thing inside out. The skill is to look beyond the presented problem to the bigger picture of why that keeps showing up. If we can spot the background truth we are on our way to positive change.

Leaving the house for the wrong job 20 mins earlier to miss the jammed roads meaning less sleep just ain’t it. Working out that the current job or hours is the culprit will give you leverage to make changes.

Being annoyed by your partner’s constant change of schedule so you are going to have it out with her once and for all may not be wise. The true baddie in this just might be you in the people you continually date in the first place that treat you like this.

So, take a wider look at your repeat hassles.

They DO point the pathway out of them through proving you are on a wrong turning somewhere. And, hardest of all, that it has been your own choices, actions, and beliefs that had landed you right in the middle of them.

Hassles don’t start your headaches, they come to end them.

Because hassles change lives, guide lives, and even save them!!

Photo attributions – free to use under Pixabay Content License by yogendras31 and JESHOOTS-com and Sammy-Sander and kinkate and madartzgraphics.