An important benefit from writing a journal or a blog is the review in self-selected words of one's thoughts and experiences. Martin Seligman, often cited as the father of positive psychology, in his book "Flourish" says that one of the most researched practices he knows in the area of positive psychology is that of listing three parts of one's day that were positive. He reports that his classes often found quite strong benefits from doing so and continued doing so long after the course ended.
I have been doing that daily for about a year now and I agree it is very worthwhile. I am often surprised at the events that take a little while to come to mind and how positive they can be, despite the fact that it took me a minute or two to bring them to mind. That is the same thing I found throughout life with books and movies: some that I had no easy recollection of were totally wonderful at the time of occurrence and in retrospect when I did recall them. I imagine that just as our basic protective wiring design is aimed more at detecting and avoiding danger than at savoring positive events, my memory can bring to mind negatives and complaints and fears more easily than the good parts of a day.
Normally, I can't really recall each breath that I took during a day but each is a complex miracle, chemically, physiologically, and mechanically. I have stored away the act of raising my hand as I would in taking an oath as a sign to myself of the steady supply of wonders I experience. Being able to raise my hand and arm is definitely a good thing and I know many seniors with difficulties and pain in trying to do that. Emails from friends, smiles of greeting and appreciation, central heating in Wisconsin winter, a car that runs and fuel I can afford - no doubt about it, I have plenty around me that is positive.
Taking a moment to look over a mental inventory of the good things I have and stating a few of them, describing what some positive is and how it feels to experience it increases my ability to focus on the positives and mentally balance them against the negatives. The practice of realizing and describing something clearly positive is helpful in increasing my sensitivity to what is good in and around me. In fact, describing our houseplants and my wife's steady care of them increases my insight into the positive side of her contribution, the plant's beauty and steady life, the fascinating way it quietly grows right in front of me in a way that I can't immediately detect and all sorts of beauties and delights that normally pass beneath my notice. Our shoes, adding another day or hour to my life, the daily newspaper - virtually anything I pick has fascination and intriguing complexity in it, on it, by it, through it.
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Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety
