Being overly critical of ourselves can increase anxiety about a situation. Mulling over what happened is like self-criticism on repeat.

Tips for silencing your inner critic:

• Stop expecting perfection from yourself. Learn to accept your mistakes, acknowledge them, then put them behind you and focus instead on continued growth.
• Stop looking for what's wrong about you and focus on what's right about you.
• Turn your attention to what could go right instead of what could go wrong.

Unhappy people are waiting for something or someone to make them happy. However, if you wait for others to make you happy, it will never happen. You are responsible for your own experiences. Your happiness depends more on your attitude and what you choose to do than on external circumstances.

Tips for exercising your brain for happiness:

• Treat each day as a treasure. Make every day count.
• Don't put off starting your passion project you've been thinking of.
• Stop comparing yourself to others. Instead, choose to become a better version of yourself.

Forgiveness is essential for your emotional growth. Forgiveness does not mean putting yourself in a position to be hurt by the same person over and over. It means acknowledging that you were wronged, then putting it behind you and moving on with your life.

How to forgive:

• Forgiveness means letting go of the anger and pain and moving on to a better place mentally.
• Commit to stop focusing on past experience.
• Resentments can break a relationship. Choose to focus on your positive experiences instead.

Negative people tend to attract more negative people. Unhappy people like to have others indulge them while they wallow in self-pity. While we all will feel sad at times, staying unhappy can do more harm than good.

What to do about it: Choose your company. Surround yourself with happy and optimistic people as much as possible. Spending time with people whose behavior is more positive will slowly train your brain to think and act like them.