 Lately, I've really been wondering, how do you be happy when it feels like the world is on fire? This is fine. What is wrong with me? How come I've been sleeping on Anna Akana and not making videos about her? It is up everybody. This is Chris from the Rewired Soul, where we talk about the problem, but focus on the solution. And if you're new to my channel, my channel is all about trying to help you improve your mental health. And what I like to do is pull different topics from the YouTube community and use those to kind of teach you how to improve your mental and emotional well-being. So if you're into that, make sure you subscribe and ring that notification bell. So yeah, like I don't know. I've had this kind of like epiphany or clarity and it was because of you. It was because of all of you beautiful people out there. Like I've had a few people lately in the comments or in the live streams just kind of mentioned. There's something Tristan's mentioned a few times. Like why don't you focus more on the positive stuff? Why don't you focus tomorrow on the positive stuff? I'm like, yeah, why don't I focus more on the positive stuff? So some of you who follow what I post in the community tab, I always post in there. So make sure you're checking that out. I said, give me some positive like YouTube role models that you want me to talk about because typically what I've been doing since I've kind of like just pivoted slightly with my channel, I pull in stories from the YouTube community, but a lot of them is like drama and weird, you know, and stuff like that. And I'm still attracted to it, but I try to turn it into a positive. But someone like Anna Akana, like I was first introduced to her not that long ago by my girlfriend and I saw Anna's video where she was singing about her cats and it was amazing. But RIP, she lost one of her cats. Hopefully the cat's okay, but she lost one of them. It ran away. But yeah, Anna Akana does so many videos about mental health and she's such a positive, just amazing human being. I'm like, yo, I'm gonna get this thing kicked off by talking about Anna Akana and her new video. But anyways, before I jump into that, by the way, I had another light bulb moment. I make a ton of videos. I make too many videos, right? And like this morning, I had a thought where I wanted to just talk about something and I almost made a video. I'm like, no, no, I'm just gonna write this and I want to send it out to my email list. But I never tell you guys that I have an email list. Okay, so I want to start utilizing my email list is 1000% free to you. And I know here on YouTube, I make a lot of videos about YouTubers, but like when I just get these like random thoughts or ideas like this morning, I wanted to write about why it's important to not be petty, you know, like I want to send that out in email. So check out the description down below. I'm also going to leave the link in the pin comments, like sign up for my email list, you get a free copy of my ebook. The first one I wrote where it shows my story about overcoming addiction and anxiety and depression. But then I'm also going to regularly send out emails or just mental health advice 1000% free. So sign up for it. All right. Anyways, so yeah, let's jump into Anna Akana's new video. And like I was, I saw the thumbnail for it. I'm like, yeah, yep, that's me. So there's a meme for those of you who don't know. It's this little dog in a hat and I don't know who edits Anna's videos, but it's amazing. But there's a dog in a hat and like the world of the whole house is burning down. And the guys like the dog is like, it's okay. Everything's fine. Right. And like, that's how I used to live. Like that's how I used to live. Like my life was crashing down around me. And like, I was just lying to myself and being denial and or just, you know, I just didn't want to deal with things. So in Anna's video, she's talking about how, you know, this year's been rough for a lot of reasons for a lot of people and all of us have our own experiences. Some of you reached out to me like we just had the midterms elections. A lot of people were stressed out and anxiety around that. And now things might be giving you more anxiety, you know, or whatever. But like, Anna, what she starts talking about is how she has this friend in her life. This friend, Linda. Okay. I have a friend named Linda and something that always amazed me about her is just how happy she is. And randomly, I was just like, Hey, how are you able to be so happy all the time? Anna, the best way to be happy later is to be happy now. The problem is that most people, specifically young people, think that they'll be happy when, you know, when I get that job, when I'm in that relationship, when I find what I'm looking for, then when they get it and they're not happy, they just move the goalposts to later down the line. And when you get to my age, you realize if you want to be happy later, you just have to learn how to be happy now. And yeah, like when Anna said that, I'm like, I can relate. I can relate. Like, I did not understand how people could be happy, independent of their circumstances. Like, what does that mean? What does that mean? Like, so something that they talked about in the video was a lot of people say, they even if you're not saying it, you think it, I'll be happy when, right? So you're thinking, I'll be happy when I get, you know, a significant other. I'll be happy when I make more money. I'll be happy when I get this job. I'll be happy when I get the new house, the new car. And when you're doing that, you're not happy. But when I meet people who are happy no matter what, I was like, how do I get that? I want that. And something I've talked about in previous videos is this, and I'll say it again, if you want what they have, you got to do what they do. So when I met people who are happy regardless of what they had or didn't have, I'm like, how do you do that? Right? And part of it was Anna's friend Linda said, like, you know, if you want to be happy about the future, you need to be happy about the now, right? And it's so funny because Anna's like, what the heck are you talking about? That's how I was. And that's how I might come off to some of you. Like if you're in that dark headspace, like it just sounds like ridiculousness, right? But what they're talking about is actually something called mindfulness. So for the last few months, I have been following her advice and actively choosing to be happy in moments where I'm not. And it sounds easy. It's not easy at all. It involves like really focusing hard on what I'm grateful for until that feeling is sort of evoked in me, resisting negative thought patterns, upturning limiting beliefs and really staying on top of what I'm allowing myself to think. Yeah, I love how Anna just described that and what she's been practicing. But I love how like, she doesn't say it's easy. Like that's the thing. Like when we talk about improving your mental health, a lot of people are like, Oh, it's hard. Well, hate to break it to you. No, it's gonna be hard. It's going to be hard, but it will be worth it. Right. And Anna talks about how she's been working on this for a few months. So just in case you don't know why my channel is called the rewired soul is you can actually rewire brain. So like when, when Anna's talking about forcing this happiness, forcing this positivity, like it's not like walking around with a fake smile on your face. It's being present and noticing what you're happy about right now, looking for it. Okay. We have something in our brains or brains are designed to have this negative bias. Okay. Way back in the day, part of our evolution was we had to spot any potential dangers because it kept us alive. But the problem is that now that that can fuel depression, it can fuel anxiety. So I'm not sure if Anna is practicing mindfulness, but that's what I want to talk to you about. Because I can definitely relate with what she was saying, like everything was just awful around me and you guys, I didn't understand how people could be so positive. Like I was, I used to legit be like your okay, for an interview, winning the poo fan. So I'm just like, all right, everything's going to be terrible. Oh, who cares? Like that used to be me. That used to be me. And to just, you know, I have to be mindful of the ways I've changed. I'll never forget. I will never forget when Tristan and I first started dating, right? Tristan said, like, you're really optimistic and that blew my mind. Somebody calling me optimistic. Like I used to be such a negative person that people didn't even want to be around me because I was such a bummer. So I'm glad that she said that, but like, it's crazy that people noticed that about me because I've changed so much. And I always try to tell you guys like, I'm nothing special. If I can do this, so can you. But again, just like Anna Akana said, it takes work. Okay. So Anna didn't dive too far into it. So I'm going to give you a couple tips real quick. So one of them is, take out your phone. All right, you might be watching this on your phone. Take out your phone and go to the iTunes store or the Apple store, whatever it's called, or go to the Android store or the Google Play store, whatever it is. Type in mindfulness apps and find free ones. Find free ones. Okay. Five to 10 minutes a day. The specific one that I want you to look for is called loving kindness meditations. Okay. These help train the brain to focus on the positive. Some of the meditations are going to involve thinking about someone you love or care about. Like when I lead people in loving kindness meditations, you know, typically they say they were thinking about their son or their daughter or their husband or wife. Some people are like, they were thinking about their dog or their cat or whatever it is. But it's about intentionally fostering these positive emotions. Okay. And what happens is, is over time, you're able to kind of summon that, if you will, throughout your day. And it helps bring you back to the moment. So you can be happy now instead of worrying about the future and what you may never get. Right. So like they were talking about in this video is the problem is, is that when we, when, when our happiness is conditional, we're always moving the goalpost. I've made videos in the past about there's this, there's this delusion that happiness revolves around success, but it's the exact opposite. All right. Success revolves around happiness. You have to find the happiness first, then the success will follow. Okay. Like you guys, I can't explain to you, and I might do this before Tristan and I move this week, but I live in the hood and I've lived here for five years. All right. I don't drive a fancy car like I am one of the happiest guys you've ever met. And it's because I practice this stuff. All right. So aside from downloading a meditation app and doing loving kindness meditations, this is also going to help with self compassion, by the way, but also gratitude list. I'm going to tell you guys gratitude list until you start doing them. Like you think I'm like messing with you. I'm not messing with you. Like forcing yourself to be grateful and figuring things out to be grateful about will help retrain your brain. Okay. Science proved it. Science has proved it. All right. But anyways, anyways, if you are not subscribed to Anna Akana, you are tripping because she has so many amazing videos about mental health. She's very creative. The editing is spot on. Like she is such an awesome, positive creator. But again, again, like let me know what other positive creator creators you follow on the platform so I can do more videos like this, but also sign up for my email list. It'll be down in the description and in the pinned comments because I'm going to be sending out like just random emails with like mental health tips. So Monday morning, maybe I'll be inspired to write an email. So when you're going off to work to a job that you don't like, maybe you get a little motivation from your man, Chris. All right. But anyways, let me know down in the comments below. Let me know down in the comments below. Like do you find it hard to find things to be grateful for? All right. I want to see what you guys say. And let's do this too. If you're having troubles finding stuff to be grateful for, I want the rest of you to reply to that comment and tell them something to be grateful for. How about that? Because sometimes we need other people to inspire us. All right. But anyways, that's all I got for you with this video. If you liked this video, please give it a thumbs up. If you're new, make sure you subscribe and ring that notification bell because I make a ton of videos and a huge, huge, huge thank you to everybody supporting the channel over on Patreon. You are all amazing. And if you would like to help support me spread a message of hope when it comes to mental health, make sure you click the top on that Patreon icon right there. All right. Thanks so much for watching. I'll see you next time.