You know those commercials on TV, the ones for the exercise equipment that promises to give to rippling mussels if you work out for just five minutes a day. Whenever I see those commercials I always wonder, “do people actually buy into that?” I suppose some people must. I’m basing this assumption off the fact that every garage sale I have ever been to has had one of these “quick fix” exercise machines available for purchase. Sometimes I worry that a lot of the mood altering techniques we have read about in this class may be viewed by people in the same way as those exercise machine commercials.
When I started the “Three Blessings” activity I was al little skeptical. “Will this really work?” “Do I even have three things that go well enough every day to write about?” These were just some of the doubts I had. When I told one of my friends about the activity I believe his exact response was, “Oh my God, when did you start reading Chicken Soup for the Soul?” I decided that if I was really going to get something out of this activity I was gong to have to silence my negative self-talk and really take the positive possibilities the activity could potentially offer seriously.
As the week started I had to remind my self not to over think when it came to deciding what to write down for my blessing. On both Monday and Tuesday night I would catch myself thinking, “I don’t know, I mean is that something that’s good enough to count as a blessing.” Once I was able to get past that mental obstacle I began to experience the benefits that this type of activity had to offer. I would find myself falling asleep with a peace of mind. I was more appt to focus of the good things (regardless of how small) rather then the negative. Most importantly I notice that my levels of appreciation for my day-to-day life have risen substantially.
I said at the beginning of this post that I worried that these techniques we have learned might be viewed by those unfamiliar with them as a gimmick. My real fear being that people who would benefit from what we are learning would be less appt to participate in these activity due to their “Chicken Soup for the Soul” sounding nature. They might think “That can’t work its to easy.” After my experience I can honestly say (at least for me) not only did this activity work but was also (for the most part) easy. I plan to keep this activity going along with recommend to friends that might be starting to feel depressed. Hopefully they will experience the same results that I have.
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