I was looking forward to doing the “Three Blessings” activity because, through my study of positive psychology, I have come to realize that I am prone to fixating on negative events and minimizing positive ones. I figured that this exercise could help even out the balance.
At first, it was somewhat difficult to come up with really good things that had happened, but once I got started it was easy. On evenings that I was cranky or in a bad mood, the exercise helped to lift my mood and made it easier for me to relax and fall asleep.
On two of the nights I tried the dreaming option. I don’t think it worked the way it was supposed to. On both nights I had strange dreams, like black-and-white movies. George Clooney was in one of them. I’m not sure what that’s all about.
Most of the mornings during the week I did the activity, I woke up feeling fine and maybe a little less tired than usual, but this could be evidence of a confirmation bias. I only had to work two mornings during this week, which was unfortunate because I was most interested to see if the activity would have any impact on my work performance. On both days I did seem to perform better. My thoughts were more organized, and minor hassles were less bothersome and discouraging. I can’t be certain that this was due to the “Three Blessings” activity, but it certainly seemed to help.