If you’re reading this, and you’ve been feeling depressed, would you like some easy tips to help you feel better? In this article, I’m going to share 5 behavioral activation tips that are easy to use. If you work on this, either by yourself, or with a loved one, you’ll start to feel better. What is Behavioral Activation? And Why Should You Care? Think of yourself as a car. You’re a prime model, but you’re engine is cold from not being used in a long time. That’s what it’s like when we’re depressed. Things we used to enjoy doing no longer hold any pleasure. For example, we may stop hobbies (like video games, running, or hanging out with friends or family). We avoid responsibilities of daily living, like bathing, showering, paying bills, cleaning our house, or going to work. We remember when, like a car, we used to run effortlessly down the highway. But now, our engine is stalled. Behavioral activation is like jumper cables that can get our batteries started. Clinical psychologists studied behavior of depressed people and found out that there is depressant behavior and anti-depressant behavior. Here’s a graphic from Therapist Aid that illustrates this concept. The key to feeling better, sometimes, lies in our actions! We need to act our way into feeling better. 5 Behavioral Activation Tips 1.  Keep It Simple! When we’re depressed, performing the smallest actions can seem like trying to climb Mount Everest. In the words of C.S. Lewis, “Mental pain is less dramatic than physical pain, but it is more common and also more hard to bear. The frequent attempt to conceal mental pain increases the burden: it is easier to say “My tooth is aching” than to say “My heart is broken.” So the more simple a solution is, the better. That’s why, for $4.99, you can download Moodivate, an app developed specifically to make behavioral activation easy. Unfortunately this app is only available for iPhone users at this time. If you can’t get the app, or if you don’t want to pay for it, here’s what you can do. a) Watch this video from Therapist Aid to better understand behavioral activation. b) Download the free positive activities worksheet from Therapist Aid. It’s pretty self-explanatory. Don’t think about how you currently think about positive activities.  Rather, think about positive activities you used to enjoy doing. A lot of this therapy is “fake it till you make it” , or “act as if” you were feeling better. If you’re having a hard time thinking about ideas, use this free activities list to choose from. 2. What Am I Doing?!  Pay Attention Before we go any further, how we need to examine our daily routine. Looking at ourselves is always painful. I remember being in debt before I got married.  I went to a debt counselor. The first thing we had to do was to list out my debts and see what I was dealing with. It’s also like that when we need to lose weight. We need to step on the scale and look at our weight. So, what I want you to do, is to simply record and observe! Action Step: Go to Psychology Tools and register to get free access to all their worksheets. Here’s the a href="https://www.psychologytools.