 Hey, psyched goers, welcome back to our channel. It's your outpour of love and support that drives this channel's mission to spread awareness about mental health and psychology. You help us make psychology and mental health more accessible to everyone, so thanks for that. Now, let's begin the video. Do you sense your mental health is declining? Are you not feeling as cheery or motivated as you once were? Well, guess what? You've come to the right place. We at Psyched Go are about to give you four valuable tips to help you improve your mental health to be the best it can be. We're in this together. Number one, make yourself a priority. Are you often too busy or too tired to relax and do something you actually enjoy? You may be studying or working too hard, or perhaps you don't stop and take notice of what your body needs. Have you had a calm moment to simply breathe and wind down? Did you eat too little today? Did you get enough water? You didn't, did you? You sneaky little Psyched Go are. You may not care about yourself enough to get a good eight glasses a day, but we here at Psyched Go, we care about you. Neglecting self-care is detrimental to our mental health. Research has shown that what we eat affects not only our mood, but how we think as well. And if you don't eat enough, odds are, you aren't gonna feel great. Exercise and enough sleep are also vital to our health. So if you're watching this late at night on your phone, hear these tips and then call it a night. Your mental health will thank you tomorrow, I promise. Number two, create positive thoughts. Are you aware of your thoughts? You may say, of course I know what I'm thinking, but less often do we actually stop to consider what it is we're thinking, what we're saying to ourselves, and if it's something we'd say to others. Think about it. Are your thoughts more often positive or negative? According to a new 2020 study from psychologists at Queens University published in the journal Nature Communications, the average human has around 6,200 thoughts per day. In another study published in the National Science Foundation, it was found that of the thousands of thoughts each individual has per day, 80% were negative and 95% were the exact same repetitive thoughts as the previous day. So we repeat a lot of negative thoughts, but this next study will really put things into perspective for you. In another study from Cornell University, scientists found that 85% of what we worry about never happens. Not only that, 79% of the subjects found that either they could handle the difficulty better than they thought or that the difficulty taught them a lesson they felt was worth it. So this is my advice to you. Stop, breathe and think about what you're thinking about. Is it positive? Is it healthy? More importantly, is it something you would say to a friend who was worried too and looking for comfort? It's always best to treat ourselves like our best friend. Be there to comfort yourself with positive thoughts and when in doubt with a worry, try to ask yourself, is this worry productive? Am I making this more difficult than it has to be? Number three, say what you feel. Guess what? There's a writer here inside your screen and she's writing to tell you it's late and she's tired, but she's feeling better now and she wanted me to let you know. She's keying you into a little psychology secret. Expressing how you feel makes you feel better. A brain imaging study by psychologists at UCLA revealed that verbalizing our feelings makes our sadness, anger and pain less intense. When we see a photograph of a fearful or angry face, we have increased activity in a region of our brain called the amygdala. This serves as a warning of danger in our brain. In the study, researchers used functional magnetic resonance imaging to study subjects brain activity. Researchers had 30 subjects view photos of individuals making different emotional expressions. Below each photo were the words angry or fearful. Subjects then had to choose which word to assign to each face. Some subjects were instead given two names below the photo, Harry and Sally, and had to assign gender appropriate names to the photos. Researchers found a decreased response in the amygdala when the words angry and fearful were expressed by assigning them. They did not see the reduction in the amygdala response when using the words Harry and Sally. Meaning if you put your feelings into words, you feel better. While the amygdala was less active when subjects labeled a feeling, the right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex was more active. And it makes sense why this region of the brain has been associated with thinking in words about emotional experiences. So if you want to better your mental health, try talking to a friend or psychologist about your feelings or write them in a journal. Just the act of writing in words about how you feel can have positive and powerful effects. Number four, be compassionate to others. A little compassion can go a long way. Wouldn't you want someone to show you a little love and kindness? And I bet when you treat someone with kindness or do someone a favor, you often feel a little bit better too, don't you? Well, there's research to support this. According to research from psychologists, Ed Deener and Martin Seligman, altruism can lead to improved mental and physical health as well as speed up recovery from disease. And brain imaging research from Naomi Eisenberger at UCLA has found that providing support for others may have unique positive effects on key brain areas involved in stress and reward responses. So if research shows that a little compassion and support can predict decreased stress response in the brain and improve mental health, what are you waiting for? Odds are you've been considering helping out others in some way, now's your chance. Reach out to a family member or old friend who could use some support, donate to a charity, or volunteer with an organization you care about. I'm sure they'd love the support as much as you. After all, what a better way to lift yourself up than to lift someone else's spirits up in the process. So will you use these tips? Did you find them helpful? Are you going to drink more water? I'm watching you, Psych2Goers. Will you express your feelings into words down in the comment section below? We are here to listen because we care about you and wanna hear you out. After all, your mental health may just thank you. If you find it hard to manage your life and suspect you might be suffering from an undiagnosed mental illness, we encourage you to seek professional help. If you found this video helpful, don't forget to click the like button and share this video with someone whose mental health could use it. Subscribe to Psych2Go and hit the notification bell icon for more content like this. And as always, thanks so much for watching. See you soon.