I was very generously gifted a book – The Magic by Rhonda Byrne (of ‘The Secret’ fame) before I went on long service leave.
I have to admit it took me a few weeks before I picked it up. I remember all the hype about ‘The Secret’ – people becoming all sorts of disgruntled because they’d wished and wanted and the good stuff still hadn’t come their way.
I also remember seeing an interview with the people who wrote ‘The Secret’. They said they’d all been hanging out together stoned when they came up with the idea. Not the most reliable state to be discovering “the truth” of the law of attraction.
So I was slightly sceptical about ‘The Magic’. However, I like to keep an open mind and picked it up.
The first activity suggested is to write the things you are grateful for and why you feel grateful for them. Every day. 10 things.
There are some sound psychological reasons for this:
- By forcing your mind to focus on the good things you’re more likely to look for them during the day.
- Gratitude has been shown to improve your psychological health.
- Spending at least 11 seconds on the positive things helps your brain hang on to the positive more readily and not be overwhelmed by the negative.
Of course there are more reasons but let’s not get too carried away with why you would do it. Let’s just get on with how.
Speaking from personal experience (of at least 2 weeks now) taking the time to do this activity daily is definitely helpful.
I have experimented with doing this in a number of ways – written by hand with lots of detail; handwritten but shorthand; dot point reasons for being grateful for the thing; on the computer.
The way that seems to have the most impact and the longest lasting good feeling is to write by hand, to really think about why you’re grateful, and to write this in full detail.
Obviously the longer you think about how grateful you are the more you’re counteracting the negative network.
There have also been studies that show that writing by hand:
- reduces stress
- increases memory (so you’re more likely to remember the things you’re grateful for throughout the day) and
- increases creativity and cognitive flexibility.
So many reasons to practice this activity!
So my challenge to you is practice this until I get back. Not long to go now before I see you again 🙂
