There are all these emotion threads around, but they're all focused on... well, emotions. I've been talking to Imaginary Spock a lot lately, and let me tell you, that guy has some things to say about emotions.
On the other hand, while we can't really give up emotions without doing severe psychological damage to ourselves, it is definitely possible to hack our brains using science, and trick them into being more satisfied with life. One of the ways I've found to do that is to verbalize positive things as much as possible. Science tells us that people who spend a lot of time talking about their problems are actually less happy, because they spend more time thinking about negative things. People who prefer not to talk about their problems tend to be happier, because they verbalize primarily positive things, which has a very real effect on their state of mind.
This is not to say that one should never talk about bad things. Sometime it's necessary to vent, or talk through difficult situations. "Ignore it and it will go away" is not generally a good strategy, and unpleasant things regularly need to be dealt with. But this thread isn't for that. This thread is for verbalizing (at least in writing) all the good things that happen. I've been keeping a private blog for a while now where I just list all the good things that happened each day, and all the things I accomplished, and I'm finding it really makes a difference. Even though as I'm typing it, I'm thinking "well sure this happened BUT only because I endured unpleasant things XYZ," but I just don't write that down. Then later, I can go back and read it, and believe it or not, I don't remember the bad things. I remember the good things I wrote down, enjoy looking back and seeing all the good things that have happened. The bad stuff that came with it mostly just fades from my memory, because I haven't really spent any time thinking about it since then.
I thought it would be nice to share this pleasant brain hack with my B12 friends.
What this thread is NOT:It's not a discussion thread. If you want to talk about the stuff that happened to you, or ask for advice or opinions, please go to one of the emotion threads (or start your own thread). Short exchanges are permitted, but not encouraged, and people are asked NOT to spend pages on discussion. It's also not a place to come for congratulations. The point of this is not to impress other people, but purely to focus your own thoughts on good things by writing them down.
What this thread IS:It's a place to write down good things. That's it, just write it down. You don't have to add details or explanations if you don't want. The point is not for others to read it, but for you to write it down. Later, you can go back and read old posts. You might be surprised to find that, like me, you have managed to forget many of the bad things that went with the good ones. Even if you think you had a miserable day, try to think of just one thing, however small, that was good. And you might be surprised that even when you feel like you've had a bad day, you can come up with a pretty impressive list that says otherwise.
If you're having trouble, just imagine that you need to write a resume for a dream job where you have to persuade the reader that you've had a good job. Nevermind why you need to do that, it's just part of the application process. Only people who have had a good day today will get the job. Try to put a positive spin on things that were only so-so, if that's all you can think of. A week or a month later, go back and read it. Part of brain hacking is understanding that we can (surprisingly easily) edit our memories. Tell yourself it happened this way, and you will eventually start to remember it this way. The long-term cumulative effect is a lot of happy memories that tell you that you have a good life and should be happy. And who are you to argue with that kind of logic?
With all that out of the way, here's my post for today:
- Wrote 876 words for my novel.
- Climbed up on the kitchen counter to change a burnt-out light bulb in a 3-meter high ceiling, for the first time ever.
- The weather was just lovely.
- Found potentially perfect software for writing the game I've been working on for months in my spare time.
- Had fun playing with the cat.
- Discovered a way to keep the kids in drama club quiet for about 5 full minutes.
- Got an early happy birthday message from my grandparents in the USA.
- Rediscovered a nice photo of me with kid R during his preschool carnivale party.
- Started re-reading The Restaurant At the End Of the Universe.
- Realized that even though I decided not to do the 52 books challenge this year, I've actually already read 17 books since January.
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Topic: Things You Accomplished Today (Read 17727 times)