A few months ago one of my teachers (yep, went back to school) made a suggestion in passing. He said, "before falling asleep at night, ask yourself, 'What 3 things went well for me today?' " I thought, why not? Sounds simple enough. Here I sit, 5 months later, and I don't think I've skipped a night since.
The first week or so was kind of crazy. Why? Because my mind wasn't used to such an oddly focused question. I've spent several decades recounting the the day's missteps, faux pas, and failures. So wrestling back the controls from the Negative Nancy so firmly ensconced in my brain took a little more effort than I'd anticipated.
My head would hit the pillow, I'd pose the question, and before answer #1 could congeal into a cohesive sentence, little miss negative would be ya, but blah this and blah that. "Maybe so", I'd say, "but that has nothing to do with the question I'm currently seeking to answer, which is, 'What 3 things went well for me today?' Tonight I'm not looking for a recap of the day's failures. I might look into it later but for right now I want to recall, 3 things that went well for me today."
Sometimes my mind would offer things that went well for others, or me 15 years ago. Nope, don’t fall for it!
After a few days of concerted effort, I no longer struggles to stick with the question. Synapses began forging new pathways in my brain. I could almost feel it happening. I know that sounds like an overstatement, but I kid you not. Good things were happening. I’d wake up throughout the night aware of my mind still searching for things that went well. In fact, I had a little trouble staying asleep when this experiment first started. But I'm over that hump now.
These days I find myself making note of the good things that happen throughout the day, just so I can report and recount them before falling asleep.
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