I read this article about a study which examined changes in optimism. They took two groups of people, and asked one to record three things that they were grateful for every night before bed for three weeks.
At the end of the study, those who had maintained the practice were significantly more optimistic about things than the control group. The study also found that the boost in optimism was permanent, and persisted well after the 3 week period.
I thought this was a really great idea, so every night before bed, I write down three things I am happy about and three things I am grateful for. I’m only two nights in, so we’ll see how it goes, but I’m liking it so far.
I was going to say to do this later when there’s less stress to deal with, but then I realized that there is always time to try to reinforce happy thoughts, rather than negative ones. I think I’ll give this a try.
