 Hey, spectaculares, welcome back to another video. Your support helps us make psychology and mental health more accessible to everyone, and we wanna thank you for that, so thank you. Now, let's continue. Do gloomy feelings of misery follow you around sometimes? Do you wish there was some way to shake it off? Your mind plays a significant role in contributing to those miserable feelings. We don't want to invalidate any of your sadness, but we do want to encourage you by letting you know that you can take an active role in fostering happiness to help with those unshakable sad feelings. So let's look at six ways your mind tricks you into being miserable. Number one, you can get stuck replaying past experiences in your head. Do you get stuck thinking of an embarrassing memory from years ago? Was it when you said something that you now wish you could take back? Was it when you made a bad first impression? It can be hard to let go of past experiences that made us feel ashamed, embarrassed, guilty, or upset. The memory can randomly pop up out of nowhere, and all those hurt feelings can come rushing back. While it is important to heal and reflect on negative experiences in your life, it's just as important to allow yourself to move on. Number two, your inner voice is extremely critical. Do you criticize yourself more than you should? Do you wish you could be as kind to yourself as you are to your friends? Meg Selig from Psychology Today emphasizes the importance of healthy self-talk and having a positive inner voice. While it's important to be real with yourself and acknowledge how you can improve, it's equally important to support yourself with a positive, encouraging inner voice. Try praising yourself for what you do well or for the accomplishments you make throughout the day. Even if it's as simple as doing the dishes or making your bed, the small but positive practice will make a huge difference on your overall outlook and self-esteem. Number three, you naturally compare yourself to others. When someone else succeeds, do you feel discouraged? Does it feel like they're farther along in their accomplishments than you are? Are you worried that you lack something that they have to succeed? We all feel like this from time to time. Although it's natural to look at everything you don't have and despair, making these comparisons takes your attention away from appreciating and acknowledging what you do have. Number four, you never feel satisfied with what you have. Similar to comparing yourself to others, your mind may trick you into being miserable by constantly reaching for more. There's nothing wrong with having ambition and goals, but sometimes we let the promise of a bright future take away from the satisfaction of what we've already accomplished. It's important to strike that balance between being grateful for what you have and setting new goals. According to psychologist Melanie Greenberg from Psychology Today, mindfulness is a great way to get into the habit of appreciating your current present. Dr. Greenberg explains that mindfulness not only helps you accurately observe your situation, but it also helps you fully accept your thoughts and feelings. Meditation, journaling, and actively practicing gratitude are good techniques for fostering mindfulness. Number five, your mind comes up with cognitive distortions. Do you immediately assume the worst possible outcome or conclusion for any situation? Like if you happen to fail an exam, then your next thought is that you'll never succeed in life. This is a cognitive distortion called catastrophizing. A cognitive distortion is an umbrella term for when your mind misinterprets a situation, often making it out to be worse than it actually is. Common examples of cognitive distortions are catastrophizing, overgeneralizing, and jumping to conclusions. These distortions can all cause you to stress over problems or situations that might not be feasible or realistic. And number six, you push down negative emotions. Have you ever heard of toxic positivity? Toxic positivity is when you inadvertently mask feelings of anger, disappointment, regret, or any other negative emotion by pushing them down and trying to be happy instead. A positive attitude helps to foster happiness in your life and is a good mindset to have. But that positivity can become toxic if you try to use it as a shield for all of your negative emotions. All of your feelings are valid, the good, the bad, and everything in between. Shoving down your negative emotions doesn't allow you to process them and move forward, causing emotional stress. We hope this helped you discover some ways your mind tricks you into being miserable. Did you relate to any of these points? Did you find this video helpful? Let us know in the comments below. Please like and share if you think this video can help someone else too. The studies and references used are listed in the description below. Don't forget to hit the subscribe button and notification bell icon for more Psych2Go videos. Thanks for watching and we'll see you next time.