Book of Happiness

A fellow member of HBL recently posted on his very positive experience with maintaining a "book of gratitude", a technique I have heard of before. Jean Moroney of Thinking Directions describes the technique in a past issue of her newsletter.

Here's a daily practice I learned from Martin Seligman, author of Learned Optimism and Authentic Happiness.

Once each day, write down three good things that happened in the last 24 hours. You can write them before going to bed or first thing in the morning. You can write them in a journal or in a calendar or on a Post-it. You can include important achievements such as winning a contract or simple pleasures such as eating a good meal. All that matters is that you write down three such items, every day.

As you can guess, the purpose of this practice is to reinforce a positive outlook and avoid feeling overwhelmed by negativity. Even on the worst of days there are a few bright spots, and bringing them to mind helps you maintain perspective.

Keeping such a journal, which I agree with Jean Moroney should be called something like a "book of happiness", intrigues me enough that I am thinking about doing it myself. Has anyone here tried it? I am interested in hearing about any practical suggestions or experiences with this technique.

-- CAV