CHOOSE YOUR REACTION!!!

Mastering the Skill of Choosing Your Reaction: The Power of Gratitude Journaling

What I have found hardest is the skill of choosing your reaction.

On the other hand, there is a lot of science as well as celebrities endorsing its effectiveness.

It’s dead simple: All you do is write down three to five things for which you’re grateful or thankful or that brought you joy. You can do it every day or every few days—just do it regularly.

According to the science, it opens your mind to looking for the positive in everything. It trains your mind not only to look for happiness, but actually to be happy with what you already have. It stops you taking what you have for granted. You learn to appreciate people, possessions, and events in new ways.

Eventually, it alters the structure of your brain and even changes your personality to one more positive in outlook.

It takes time, but the benefits abound—better sleep, better health, better social relationships, less pain, lower blood pressure, more energy.

Stress Busting: Practice Makes Perfect

So how about practicing the skills for when you need them?

Take a few deep breaths every day so that when you start to feel stressed, it’s natural to start breathing that way.

Put the effort into supporting your friends and family. Maybe try a bit of meditating.

Take the time to keep your gratitude journal. Just write down a few things you’re really grateful for: the splash of cheerful color from that flower blooming in the garden, the chatty email you got from your friend, the delicious piece of cake your neighbor brought you.

Then, the next time that disaster scenario leaps into your imagination, imagine how you’ll choose your reaction. You won’t go into panic mode. See yourself using the skills that you’ve been honing, dealing with the crisis in a positive way or even preventing the crisis in the first place.

Then imagine that it happens for real: You scarcely need to think of the skills you need, as your daily practice makes it natural for them to kick in straight away. That’s just the way you operate these days.

Starting with a few words that recognize a benefit and pleasure that you’ve enjoyed, you’ll learn a skill that can in the end, make a difference to your whole life.

Get writing today.