Things to try

Shame unfortunately convinces many that they are unworthy or unlovable. Take time to praise and love yourself; for example, write down three things you like about yourself every day.

Non-stop exposure to anxiety-producing news can amp up any difficult feelings you’re already having. If you find yourself feeling worse after scrolling your feeds, do what you can to limit stressful content. You can decide to check in only at certain times, turn off notifications, or unfollow accounts that create stress and focus on ones that help you feel calm and connected.

Be like Mike. He credits tapping in to the power of his mind—visualizing himself winning—to helping him become a master of basketball. And it’s is something you can try too. What’s the equivalent to making a basket, or winning a championship trophy in your life? If you picture yourself achieving this in your mind, your brain actually does the work to create a new neural pathway. In non-science speak, this means when you visualize something vividly, and repeatedly, the brain feels like you’ve actually done the thing you’ve imagined. So when the situation arises in real life, you can be calm in the moment and worry a little less about how to do the thing because you’ve already experienced it your mind.

Visualization can have a powerful impact on your wellness or psyche. If you're in a funk or not feeling particularly inspired, try taking moment to think back on the last time you felt truly joyful. What sparked it? Is it a person, a place, a situation? Is there something you can do for yourself today that will maybe inspire that same emotion? Investing in your own personal joy is always worth it.

Do something nice for yourself after you complete a task or have a win—big or small. This might be taking a break, talking to a friend, or getting outside for a bit.

Look for ways to give your mind a break and find moments of happiness, including keeping up with hobbies and interests or exploring new ones. As an added bonus, participating in fun and engaging activities helps us develop resiliency and healthy coping mechanisms, and may even increase how long you live, according to The National Institute on Aging.

Stress or worry might lead you to interpret situations negatively, be overly self-critical, or doubt you ability to deal with stressors. To reframe negative thoughts, avoid thinking of them as facts and consider other possibilities. Doing this over time can help reduce the negative emotional response to stress. The world is hard enough, you don't need to be hard on yourself, too.

Aside from just sounding good, research shows that listening to music actually increases blood flow to regions in your brain that generate and control emotions. And studies show that faster music (usually performed at a tempo between 140 and 150 beats per minute) tends to generate more positive emotions than slower music. Queen’s “Don’t Stop Me Now” (at 156 BPM) is just one example of a song that might give you some positive emotions—it's the first of 10 in a research-backed playlist. But don't let us stop you from making your own playlist of songs that feel good to you.