[Flavius]

(01-24-2016 01:25 PM)scorpion Wrote:  

In my experience one of the best habits to cultivate is actively maintaining a grateful perspective on life. Literally, count your blessings. Write them down on a list. For maximum benefit, start with the most basic and go from there.

I'm not sure where I bookmarked it, but there was a video talking about studies done related to happiness. This was one of the key things mentioned. Specifically, he recommended adding 3 new things to the list every day.

For me, I keep a separate list of the things I saw as blessings during the months after I lost everything, and nearly died, in a natural disaster. You can get a lot of perspective on the things dragging you down internally when you remember that a couple years earlier, you were grateful to have more than one pair of pants, enough underwear to last a week, and some food and water.

Prior to that, the thing that had the most profound effect wasn't a habit as much as eliminating a useless habit: I got rid of my cable tv. There is very little of value on there, and what is valuable can be found on the internet in less time than it would take to watch it.