7. Thinking


What is the difference between the right and the left hemisphere?





Where am I, in the context of thinking, feeling and the present moment?





What to feed my mind with? What is missing on my "Healthy thinking plate"?







How can I learn more about the topic of Thinking?





What else do I want to remember about this topic?



Homework: GRATITUDE DIARY

Every day in upcoming week, write down up to five things for which you feel grateful. The physical
record is important—don’t just do this exercise in your head. The things you list can be relatively
small in importance (“The tasty sandwich I had for lunch today.”) or relatively large (“My sister
gave birth to a healthy baby boy.”). The goal of the exercise is to remember a good event,
experience, person, or thing in your life—then enjoy the good emotions that come with it.

As you write, here are nine important tips:

1.       Be as specific as possible—specificity is key to fostering gratitude. “I’m grateful that
my co-workers brought me soup when I was sick on Tuesday” will be more effective than “I’m grateful
for my co-workers.”

2.       Go for depth over breadth. Elaborating in detail about a particular person or thing for
which you’re grateful carries more benefits than a superficial list of many things.

3.       Get personal. Focusing on people to whom you are grateful has more of an impact than
focusing on things for which you are grateful.

4.       Try subtraction, not just addition. Consider what your life would be like without certain
people or things, rather than just tallying up all the good stuff. Be grateful for the negative
outcomes you avoided, escaped, prevented, or turned into something positive—try not to take that
good fortune for granted.

5.       See good things as “gifts.” Thinking of the good things in your life as gifts guards
against taking them for granted. Try to relish and savor the gifts you’ve received.

6.       Savor surprises. Try to record events that were unexpected or surprising, as these tend to
elicit stronger levels of gratitude.

7.       Revise if you repeat. Writing about some of the same people and things is OK, but zero in
on a different aspect in detail.

8.       Write regularly. Whether you write every other day or once a week, commit to a regular
time to journal, then honor that commitment. But…

9.       Don’t overdo it. Evidence suggests writing occasionally (1-3 times per week) is more
beneficial than daily journaling. That might be because we adapt to positive events and can soon
become numb to them—that’s why it helps to savor surprises.

… and write down your comments, thoughts, feelings from this exercise.

What was it like? What did you learn?









How did your buddy help you with learning this week?