Here is a really simple and effective gratitude like practice that you might find useful in improving happiness. In my household we have used this practice almost daily for a year and it has helped my daughters (and the rest of us) with improved happiness, better study habits and overall improved levels of responsibility. Typically this is a dinner table exercise (You do eat dinner with your family don’t you?), but we also practice is in the car when traveling and at any time we are all together.

The practice is known as “Three Good Things” and consists of the following:

• Name something good from you life today.
• Answer the question: Why is is good?
• Answer the question: Why did it happen?
• Rinse repeat 2 more times.

I first read about this practice from Dr. Martin Seligman, the father of positive psychology on his site authentichappiness.com. You can read more about it in this article:

Positive Psychology Progress Empirical Validation of Interventions

by Martin E. P. Seligman and Tracy A. Steen - University of Pennsylvania, Nansook Park - University of Rhode Island, Christopher Peterson - University of Michigan

Isn’t this really a gratitude practice?

The short answer is yes, absolutely. However the concept of gratitude is more abstract than something good in your life. With middle school and high schools kids, when we practiced gratitude, they were at a loss some days to find something to be grateful about. But they are never at a loss to come up with something good from their day. Even when they have a really bad day, at least they cam come up with ‘the day is over’.

How can this help with study habits and grades?

We had been doing this practice for about 3 weeks when my oldest said: “I got a 97 in History!” Dad Says “Why is that good?” “I love history and good grades are always good!” Dad Says “Why did it happen?” “I studied more than usual.” When she said that, bingo, the lights went off. You could see it in her face, the realization about the consequences of study and grades. Sure, as parents, we have again and again stressed the tie between effective study habits and good grades. But people learn best from their own data. And all the times we had talked in the past about study just clicked with her. Bingo that is it. SHe got it!

It really hit my oldest in a dramatic way. From that point on she has focused more on study habits and commitment to study and grades have continued to improve. And we now hear frequently about something good at school tied to personnel effort and commitment.

What about good things that are out of our control?

The beauty of this practice is the good thing can be anything. We don’t pass judgment on ‘the good thing that each of find in our life. Just make sure that everyone answers the two follow on questions regardless of the nature of the good thing. Over time the good things will cover so many different scenarios that this practice will turn into a focused gratitude conversation.

• Good Thing: “The beautiful sunrise this morning was great.”
• Why is it a good thing: “Because I love sunrises.”
• Why did it happen: “God decided we needed a good sunrise.”

• Good Thing: “The meatloaf I’m eating right now.”
• Why is it a good thing: “Because It’s my favorite home cooked meal.”
• Why did it happen: “Mom is a good cook and she made meatloaf when I asked for it.”

• Good Thing: “Friendships with distance friends.”
• Why is it a good thing: “Because Sally is a really good friend and I love talking with her.”
• Why did it happen: “I contacted her even though it has been a long time and she lives hundreds of miles away.”

What else do I need to know?

Get started today with this practice. Everyone benefits and you can even do it alone. It’s simple and the benefits grow over time. By focusing on good things it will take your mind off of the negative news in the world. And if you believe in the law of attraction - LOA (I do) it will help bring more good things in your life and it will open your eyes to much of the goodness that is with us each and every day.

Where can I find out more?

Start with Dr. Seligman’s site and this wonderful ted video where Dr. Seligman talks about what makes us happy. This is must see video.

And post a comment or two here. Lets get a dialog going about Three Good Things!

I’m always looking for ways to re-purpose my photos and express my creativity. And I love it when technology and technique resonates with my right brain.  Its gets better when my kids can express their creativity so eaily.  Well I’ve found just the right site for creating digital stories. Animoto.com is a great site for assembling a video story using text, pictures and music.

Last May I heard about Animoto and immediately signed up for a $30 account.  I made a few movies and then just moved on.  Today I revisited the site and was excited to see the addition of new features, like easily added text transitions and much nicer and smarter  transitions.  Even better, they now make it easy to download pictures from one of your flickr sets and they have a lot more and higher quality, license free music.

I could spend a lot of words describing what Animoto is and how to use it. But the best way for you to learn about it is to just play with it. You can sign up for a free account and create short movies (30 seconds). So why don’t you watch the video and then go to animoto.com and create a 30 second video.

If you are beginning to practice self hypnosis you might find this useful. Trust yourself and it gets easier. Have confidence that you will go deep. And if you don’t just assume that is for good reason and that you will give it a go next time.

I’ve been doing self-hypnosis for sometime as a way to relax, obtain improved focus and achieve a meditative and spiritual lift.  I both listen to guided visualizations that I have recorded and ones that I have purchased.  But mostly, I prefer to now just put myself in a trance with out an audio guide. I have my own induction technique that involves imagining wires from my forehead to all parts of body. In the my forehead is a big switch.

I leave my eyes open and tell myself “you will go into a deep meditative trance for X minutes and will achieve (insert what ever goal I have for the trance here). I then count down from 5 to 1. BY the time I get to 3 or so it becomes very hard for me to keep my eyes open. When I hit 1 I imagine the switch flipping and wham, I can feel my body relax in one big drop.

The cool thing is, just before I talk to myself, I look at a clock and decide when I want to wake up.  This morning I put myself under at 5:38 for 20 minutes. I woke up at 5:57.  During the trance, sometimes it feels like I’m really deep and sometimes not so deep. But in most cases I wake up within 1 minute of the stated time or right one time.  Every once in a while, while under, I’ll ask myself if it is time? But when it is really time it just comes to me with another count 5, 4, 3, waking up, 2, normalize, 1 and I’m awake.

Even when it doesn’t seem deep, the time goes by really fast. So I know I’ve gone right brain or alpha.

Let me know how your meditation works for you.  BTW - I also meditate most mornings for 15 to 20 minutes. And some evenings in bed. In bed I usually use a guided meditation and fall asleep. But just as the voice start the count down to waking up, wham, I’m awake.  So because I wake up at the right time I know that I’m hearing the guided meditation.  I then roll over and get a great night’s sleep.

You can view all of my posts on meditation/self-hypnosis here!

I’ve completed (or nearly completed) two portraits after my Drawing on the Right Side of The Brain class concluded.  Its been hard finding the time given course curriculum development for my new gig as an Adjunct Instructor in the School of Continuing Studies at the University of Richmond.  But when I have sat down and started to draw, it just flowed. It feels really good to be able to drawn something that vaguely resembles what I’m attempting.  Now I need to learn some more technique. Practice makes perfect.

These are some of the things I have learned:

• Occasionally take a break for 10 minutes and get away from the Drawing. Come back and shift to right brain and look again at the subject or the photograph and see what I wasn’t seeing before.
• Concentrate on the darkest darks.
• Tape the drawing on the wall and look at it from a distance.
• Look again at the angle of the eyes, mouth, nose and lips.
• Hair, I’m starting to get how to draw the hair. Can’t yet put that into words.
• I get jazzed with energy when drawing and then I’m tired. Dog tired. I think that is from the left-right brain shifting that is going on. I find that at work also sometimes when I have to think critically then create a solution.
• Careful with cross hatching on a girls face. If it is too distinct it looks like facial hair. So now I can do beards better.
• I’m getting better with cross hatching and shading. These little devices help a lot -Blending Stumps.
• I like mixing pencil and charcoal sticks for the darkest darks. But there is no turning back once the charcoal goes down. See the next item.
• The eraser is my friend.

Its feeling like with practice I can get really good really quick.  So I’m going to try to get at least 2 hours in a week till my course development is complete, then hopefully 4 hours or more a week.  Also our wonderful intructor is going to teach an advanced class this summer with advanced drawing techniques, cross hatching wonders and color theory.

You can see all my posts on drawing here.

Here is my second mini saga.  Hope you enjoy it.

Taking Fight!

Kindergarten is so much fun. Monkey bars delight me. Oh no I’m falling. The pain burns. Where did the pain go? No pain! Why, I’m floating. How strange. I can see myself. Look at the blood. Everyone is standing around looking scared. I’m not scared. Look at me, I’m flying!