A week ago, I blogged about taking the positivity challenge. The idea is that you spend seven consecutive days looking on the positive sides of everything. I tweaked the concept slightly by putting in a restart clause if I lingered on a negative thought for too long.
First off, I’ll admit I had three restarts, including one this morning. They were because:
- A ridiculous family argument
- Mental funk/upset about the state of my stomach
- Disturbing dream
The disturbing dream was a silly reason – it seemed so real I woke up feeling quite upset and on edge, and wasn’t able to shift it for a few hours.
I tried reframing the stomach issues, and failed. I spoke to T about the idea (the seven day positivity thing) and she made the valid point, one I’d said in the original post, that not everything can or should be reframed, and that needn’t mean ‘failing’ the task.
So that’s what’s happened, but more importantly, what effect has the time so far had on me? Well, in bullet-point form:
- I’m feeling much better
- I’m smiling and laughing far more than usual.
- Conversations in group social situations flow more easily
- Time passes quickly
It’s been a thoroughly worthwhile endeavour so far, and I’ll be starting the seven days again from tomorrow morning. Here’s to a good week.