Arthur Brooks

Okay.

So this is kind of how I'll put it together.

I promised you three.

It's actually two, but now I'm going to talk about how I'm trying to do this in my own life.

Here's how I do it.

I use the research that I'm talking about by starting my morning,

with a quick reflection on two or three things that i'm looking forward to right when i wake up in the morning the first thing that i do is i i say a prayer that's how i start my day um at some point in the show i'll give you my daily prayer um if you're interested put it in the notes if you are if you're not say don't do that okay but then i reflect on two or three things i'm really looking forward to and for me it'll be my morning workout routine i just i want to do it man i'm just super grateful to wake up and be able to go to the gym even when i'm tired

I'm getting to do this podcast, having dinner with my wife, whatever it's going to be, whatever that day is going to bring, just kind of looking ahead a little bit, savoring that.

I imagine each of these events vividly for a few seconds, and I make an effort to smile when I'm doing it.

Because what am I doing?

I'm neurocognitively programming myself to savor that thing, to remember it more, to imprint it in a positive way so that the episodic memory of that event, when it actually becomes the past, will be positively valenced

Boy, there was a lot of jargon in that last sentence.

Forgive me for that.

And then finally, before I go to bed, I think back vividly on each one of these experiences when it is now a memory with a sense of gratitude.

And I'll express that gratitude with whoever I'm with.

And it's almost always with my wife.

When I'm going to sleep, it's either with my wife or I'm alone.

Now, I screw this up.

I fail to carry this out because my caveman limbic system wants to hijack the process and wants me to worry about somebody looting my cave and stealing my jerky.

and animal skins.