The human brain is wired to notice the negative comment and give it more weight than a positive one. Some of us are naturally cheery and need only 2 or 3 positive experiences to balance out each negative one. The safe ratio is thought to be 5 to 1. How can we ensure we keep our ratios good?

One way is to practice gratitude. There are various ways to do this. A simple one is to write down 3 things we are grateful for at the end of each day. Some days this can be easy; others it may be hard and we may have to write simple things like 'the air that I breathe' or 'my bed'. The simple act of noticing what we are grateful for starts to build a reservoir of good we can tap into and allows us to fall sleep in a positive frame of mind so that we are less likely to wake up grumpy (!) I started doing this along with several other gratitude related practices in the summer. It works.

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Readers who submit articles must agree to our terms of use. The content is the sole responsibility of the contributor and is unmoderated. But we will react if anything that breaks the rules comes to our attention. If you wish to complain about this article, contact us here