Every night before I go to bed I do a mental health exercise where I list 3 things I was thankful for that day. It’s a habit that is supposed to make you appreciate the good things and help get past the bad.
On unremarkable or bad days the list is that I wasn’t in constant/chronic pain, that I got to eat and drink all that I needed, and that the day is over and I’m in bed and statistically very safe. It may not seem like much on bad days, but if you’ve ever been missing one or more of those 3 things then you know it’s a HUGE set of problems to appreciate not having.
One of the best feelings I ever felt was laying in bed the night after a car accident earlier in the fay. It was enough of an accident that I was glad to reflect on it not being any worse, but it also wasn’t bad enough to injure anyone.
When I climbed into bed that night, I was seriously doing that thing dogs do when you take them outside and they flop and wallow around on the grass with their feet flailing carelessly in the air. That bed felt so damn good that night, and I try often to remind myself that it’s the same comfy and safe bed now that it was that day.
This is a very very good habit to have. It does wonders for mental health including reducing existential dread and depression. It’s not a silver bullet but it helps tremendously.
I try to remember whenever something bad is happening to me like a cold, or getting laid off, I’m grateful to not be a victim of genocide or taken as POW in Russia. Hell, not having to be drafted in the military like Americans did in Vietnam.
Being grateful in the face of suffering is its own CBT
