Journal one positive experience
Now that you’re a in peaceful and relaxed state of mind, take out your journal and write in detail about one positive experience you’ve had during the previous day. Make sure to bullet point each detail you can remember. Take no more than two minutes doing it.
According to popular psychologist Shawn Achor, best-selling author of The Happiness Advantage and Big Potential, this simple exercise allows your brain to relive the experience and teach it that the positive behavior matters. Achor says it works because the brain can’t tell the difference between visualization and actual experience. In essence, you’ve just doubled the most meaningful experience in your brain.
According to Achor, if you perform this ritual every morning for 21 straight days, your brain reprograms itself with this trajectory of positivity running throughout your life. In fact, research found that after performing this ritual six weeks in a row, patients who suffered from chronic pain or disease had dropped their pain medication by 50 percent six months later.
