 Many people are already doing a daily review whether they realize it or not. When we go to bed at night, there is a natural tendency for all of the things that happened during the day to show up and be reprocessed. The difficulty for many people is that they have a mental filter that screens out the all the day's good interactions and leaves them to only process the bad. And when it comes to the bad, people often re-process those events in ways that only increase their worry and anxiety rather than lessening it. Reviewing your day in an effective way A daily review practice is a good compliment to the morning gratitude practice. It's a way to bring balance into your thinking and to make sure you are including the good along with the bad when you go over your day. Doing this process can be an effective way to help turn off the heavy rumination many people experience when they've had rougher days. The beginner's technique for this practice is relatively easy to implement. 1. Do This Right Before Sleep. You may want to do it earlier in the evening depending on your sleep schedule but this practice functions well as a way to release the things on your mind when you go to bed at night. The thoughts from your day will often readily come up at this time anyway so this technique provides a structured way to do that review in a more helpful way. 2. Balance the Positive and the Negative. The natural tendency for many people is to only review the negative events of their day. Go back and start at the morning and walk all the way through the events and interactions of your day. Look for and notice the positive as well as the negative. Keep the balance. 3. Find the Lessons to be Learned. As you recall the negative moments during the day, take the time to deal with them effectively. Often times, people will catastrophize the negative events in their days and make them worse than they are. As you review the negative aspects of the day, take the time to find the positive things that may have (or will) come from those negative events or interactions. "What is the unseen benefit?", "What can I learn from this?", and "What lesson is it that I am learning through this?" are helpful questions to ask yourself. Take the time to add this into your routine this week. It is a beginner's daily review practice. As you become accustomed to this work, you will be able to add in the more advanced techniques when we cover them later. Take the time to begin reviewing your day in a structured way. Sundays – Practice Skills and Activities Daily skill practices and further information to help you grow in your meditation practice or increase your emotional intelligence skills. Comments are closed.
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