Simple, and extremely effective. The way to make a positive mindset to create is to jot down your personal highlights of the day. Make it part of your evening routine - then preferably use paper, such as a Gratitude Journal, and not a phone screen - or do it first thing in the morning so you start the day on a positive note.
When you dwell on positive things, you become calmer, happier and more social. In addition, people who regularly keep a gratitude journal have stronger immune systems, less high blood pressure and fewer health issues. Again, something to be happy about.
This is how you create a positive mindset
Write down three things that you consider the highlight of the day behind you. Be as specific as possible, so do not write, "I had a great workout," but write, "I was proud to have run ten kilometers within the hour for the first time.
Robert Emmons, professor at the University of California, has the following tips. Focus on persons you are grateful for, not things. Research by his colleague Sonja Lyobomirsky shows that gratitude for (acquiring) possessions does not add that much to a positive mindset.
Try to go beyond dry enumerations, and dwell on what it would have meant if you had not been able to experience these highlights. And: focus on surprising highlights. Those stick better.
Focus on positivity
Those who train themselves in this benefit on many levels. You learn to focus on positive elements of life, making us there, said Emmons, become more part of it.
Negative emotions are neutralized. Indeed, expressing gratitude helps against feelings of depression, studies show British research.
The University of Manchester found that gratitude is an important predictor of overall well-being. Grateful people have more self-confidence, and can handle stress better.
Emmons conducted research among more than a thousand people who kept a gratitude journal, and finds that they had fewer health issues, had less high blood pressure and took better care of themselves. They sports more often and slept better.
Exactly how you jot down that gratitude doesn't matter much. You can choose a journal, a digital journal - Day One is pleasant and user-friendly - or a ready-made Thanksgiving book, like Ernst-Jan Pfauth's, a "diary for a more contented life.
