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In the last post on happiness exercises I recommended two different exercises that the research showed to have a lasting, positive impact on levels of happiness. One of these exercises was the Three Good Things in Life Exercise.

I’ve been doing an exercise like that one called Gratitude Journaling for a while now and they’re very similar so I think I’m going to combine the two, but I’ll go over both of them.

Three Good Things in Life Exercise

You can make a text document on your computer or if you’re like me you can use a little notebook, but find somewhere to write this stuff down that’s fairly permanent, otherwise it’s easy to forget to do it.

Now what you want to do is write down three things that went well that day, and what caused them to go well. So for example my three from yesterday were:

1. My morning routine went really smoothly, (it usually doesn’t, I’m easily distracted) and that happened because I kept reminding myself that the distractions would wait and that I would get to them soon.
2. I got just about everything (missed one) on my to-do list done, and that happened because I kept working when I could have stopped and procrastinated.
3. I came up with a really great blogging idea while I was out on a run, and that happened because I know that exercise stimulates creativity and so I was actively thinking about blogging while I was running, trying to come up with some good ideas.

You can see how simple this is and that it takes no time at all. Just doing this every night at the end of your day will increase your level of happiness. You can check out yesterday’s post if you want more details on the benefits of this happiness exercise.

Gratitude Journaling

This is something I picked up from Tal Ben-Shahar, one of my favorite positive psychologists. It’s a lot like the exercise I just went over but you’re listing things you’re grateful for and a little info on why. So for example, my three from yesterday:

1. I’m grateful for sunshine: the weather has been pretty bad lately and it was great to see the sun.
2. I’m grateful for friends: I went on a hike with some friends and it was good to see them all.
3. I’m grateful for cherry tomatoes: I love cherry tomatoes and they’re coming back into season.

Again, very easy and it takes no time at all. Since gratitude journaling wasn’t included in yesterday’s post, here’s a quick run-down of the benefits of doing it (from the Emmons and McCullough article):

• Gratitude inspires reciprocity
• Gratitude builds and strengthens social bonds and friendships
• Gratitude for the benefits received from others causes you to feel loved and cared for
• Gratitude builds and strengthens a sense of spirituality
• Gratitude helps to cope with stress and adversity

Both of these exercises are really easy to work in to your routine and they both have huge benefits, I can’t recommend doing them enough.

Further Reading:
- 5 Happiness Exercises: Which Ones Work and Which Ones Don’t do Anything
- Counting Blessings Versus Burdens: An Experimental Investigation of Gratitude and Subjective Well-Being in Daily Life (pdf) by Robert Emmons and Michael McCullough

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