The power of positive thinking is an often discussed phenomenon. Thinking happy can make for happiness and success. On the surface, it seems like a completely logical phenomenon.
The opposite of positive thinking is the self-fulfilling prophecy. If you think you’ll be unhappy, you’ll find a way to be unhappy.
So, if positive thinking can help you be happy, then creating a daily focus on positive thinking should help to reinforce daily happiness.
For the week of this experiment, I will create a happy thoughts list.
What is a happy thoughts list?
It’s a list of things that make me happy in a particular day. For the purposes of this experiment I’ll focus on 3 things each day. I can make the list at any point in time during the day, and I’ll post it up each night.
The hypothesis is that by focusing on making my happy thoughts list each day, I’ll be better equipped to deal with the unhappy moments that I might encounter.
What is my happy thoughts list for today?
My three happy thoughts for January 9th are:
1. My cat, Tobias, who fell asleep on my chest when I came home from work. An adorable gesture that made my night.
2. My wife, specifically the smile on her face when she discovered that I don’t like Ferrero Rocher, so she gets to eat all of the ones we got for Christmas guilt free.
3. Mailing presents to people. No one really mails things randomly anymore, so whenever I get the chance to mail someone something, it always makes me smile to think of the look on their face when they open the package.
[...] Day 1 [...]