Sunday, March 25, 2012

Beautiful life diary to cultivate happiness

From the book 59 Seconds by Richard Wiseman, this is a list of writing topics that you can do over the course of a week -- spending just 59 seconds each day -- to cultivate happiness. And each activity is backed by actual scientific research.

I had intended to do this from early on this year but have not done so. But that's not going to stop me from starting now.


  • Monday: "Thanksgiving" [list 3 things]; be grateful even for small things over past week
  • Tuesday: "Terrific times in life"; describe it and how you felt
  • Wednesday: "Future fantastic"; imagine life in the future as a realistic reality and write about it
  • Thursday: "Dear"; someone dear to you. write a letter to them describing their impact on you and how as if this was the only opportunity to tell them
  • Friday: "Reviewing the situation"; reflect over past week and write 1 sentence on why each of 3 things that went well for you and why each turned out so well


I'd highly, highly recommend this book. It is a fascinating read and has loads of very insightful and useful tips and cuts through the self-help scrap-heap.