so, home we stayed. i did some work during naps and will try to make up for lost time on the weekend [actually contemplating a babysitter for a few hours to catch up on work, as josh is on call. i may be crazy . . .]
3 good things
honestly, today wasn’t my favorite. the early wakeup call didn’t help, i’m feeling stressed about work projects/moving/basically everything, and today for some reason i was feeling sort of crummy about myself [for not working harder, for not having a good child care arrangement for when a. is sick, having imperfect spending/saving habits, eating too much chocolate, allowing annabel to watch glee with me when she wasn’t feeling well, etc — you name it].
BUT, i’m participating in this “3 good things” exercise. i had read about it previously [in martin seligman’s flourish, i believe] but never did it myself. however, i was signed up for it as part of the resilience course i took last week.
the premise is simple: you get an email every night for 15 nights prompting you to enter 3 good things that happened that day, and your role in making them happen. you can either share or not share, but either way you get to see everyone else’s response from the previous day that chose to share.
it’s so simple it can hardly be called a “tool”, and yet it has actually been validated in a large number of studies to a) improve depression and b) increase happiness levels in people who are not depressed. in fact, it apparently has better efficacy than SSRIs.
and you know what? i think this little “tool” DID help me today. even though i did some grumbling to myself, i noticed myself thinking, “could that be one of my good things? or how about that?”. i also honestly think that knowing that i was going to have to submit my 3 things motivated me to run [4 mi] and make dinner [chicken tortilla soup – mmm], and doing those things and writing out the 3 good things really did seem to make me happier. reading everyone else’s 3 things from yesterday gave me a boost, too.
very interesting!
1 good thing:
erin condren announced that their next life planner will be available for order next week! there’s even a cute video showing all of the new features. i really loved using my EC planner this year [initial review] and am definitely planning on getting one for next year. i actually want to provide a follow up review on how i’ve used it and my favorite features, and snapped some pics today.
the muffin helped.
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