Saturday, July 25, 2009

Five good things

As you may or may not know, years ago I suffered from an eating disorder called binge eating disorder, or emotional overeating. When in therapy trying to sort this out, my phsycologist asked me to list five good things that happened to me during the day, and to do this every single day. What a daunting task! Five good things! 5! My life was one big depressing mess, I never had even one good thing happen to me during the day, let alone five...

Or did I?

When I first started keeping this list, it was very difficult. I would list things like 'The cat jumped on my lap' or 'The sun was shining today', trying to make it to five. But then, I started to pay more attention during the day, knowing I had to fill out the list at night. And after two or three weeks, I also started listing things I had an active part in, not just stuff that 'happened to me'. So I would list that I had enjoyed a nice cup of tea in that same sunshine, or that I had given the cat a good brush and then had a nice cuddle with him.

This family lists five good things every evening at the dinner table, for a completely different reason: to share how their day has been. And they even developed a nice little booklet, to make it easier to keep track of things.

Try it out! You'll be amazed at how many 'good things' happen during your day!

4 comments:

  1. Awesome post.When my kids were younger we would do this at the table.We also did what was the high point of ya day & what was the lowest. Ya'd be amazed at the conversations.Such as Lowest "Sally was mean to me today" then ya can use it as a life lesson for them. Such as "I'm sure Sally didn't mean to be hurtful towards you.Maybe something is bothering her, and she needs a friend to talk to" My kids loved this as dinner time.Sometimes they would try & start it as we were making dinner. lol
    Wishing you 100 Beautiful things today & always. Big Hugs~

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  2. thank you so much for the fyi, on crackle. i went to you tube and found so many other ways as well, awesome. wanda

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  3. You're very welcome Wanda, YouTube is a great source of inspiration!

    And thank you so much Poetic Dreams! Wishing you and yours 1000 beautiful things too!

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  4. Sometimes I do this with the kiddies at the table but I never thought of making it a regular event. What a great idea.

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