In a month or less, I’ve changed my bad days to good days, and the outcome of my days have improved due to a practice I’ve implemented into my nightly routine. I call it “The Nightly Triple Tens.”
Before I began doing these triple tens, I looked at life and sometimes felt “meh.” It was like someone had attached a weighted leash to me, and every time something negative happened in my day or in my head, I wasn’t only pulled back from progress, but I was pulled down to an exhausted, prostrated state.
Enemies against my self-confidence often pulled on this leash. You’re not that pretty. YANK! You’re articles aren’t that good. YANK! You’re not wanted. YANK! All that self-doubt kept on tugging and pulling until I laid on my knees, wondering if it held any truth.
Then, new forces would come in, ones I can’t name because they always changed, but we can call them this: Bad day moments. An argument with my husband. Falling and failing plans with friends. Anything random that caused stress, stress, stress. Those YANKS brought me from my knees to my hands.
And the final blow? I couldn’t stop thinking about them. I thought over and over on the bad things about me and my life and with that last YANK, I lied on the ground, face first.
Sometimes, this negative thinking consumed my mind. Other times, it interrupted and irritated my days. Whether it happened frequently or not, I knew I needed to change it. I was tired of the disappointment, bad habits, and self-doubt that continued each time this thinking persisted. I needed to try positive thinking.
This could help solve my problems. I knew this because the world has widely spread the news that positive thinking can change your life—make it better. Many psychology studies support this, including the 1985 study “Optimism, Coping, and Health: Assessment and Implications of Generalized Outcome Expectancies” by Michael F. Scheier and Charles S. Carver, which helped laid a foundation for this phenomenon.
I needed to reverse the following negative thinking: My self-perception. My outlook on my day. My hyperfocus on my self when things go wrong.
I remembered a time when I used to finish my nightly prayers and continue thinking about additional people I would want God to bless. It always felt nice, and bonus, it helped me to fall asleep. If I could combine my psychology knowledge with the sciptural advice and past habit, “when thou liest down at night lie down unto the Lord,” then I could change things (Alma 37:37). Thus, the nightly triple tens became.
Each night, I would lie in bed, eyes closed, and mentally rotate through three lists: ten things I liked about myself, ten good things that had happened that day, and at least ten people I wanted blessed (aka, I wanted to have good things happen to). In addition, each night I tried to use new point in the list, although unavoidably, repeats happened here and there.
These lists did not and do not go by quickly for me. At first, it took me a while to think of ten things I liked about myself, or on a “bad day,” I had to scavenger around my memories to find ten good things that had happened. Over time though, it became easier to think of things that I liked about myself. I saw the good more quickly in my days. I still took my time when going through the list, but I took the time because I wanted to choose the most important things that I liked or that happened, not because I couldn’t think of any.
Surprisingly, this helped improve my ability to fall asleep. Granted, I less frequently experience difficulty in this area, but on nights when my brain boomed with activity, I quieted it down by slowly going through these lists.
The nightly triple tens gave me good nights, even after bad days. I continued to practice this habit, and as I fell asleep with positive thinking, it seemed that this attitude became infused with me during the night and continued on to the next day. I began to get less and less tugs of self-doubt. Bad parts of the day showed up less, and disappeared more quickly after their arrival. My gratitude and recognition of others grew more as I thought less about myself and more about them.
I obtained a love for my life and a love for the world I lived in.
All because I listed thirty good things each night (and truth be told, I even fell asleep many times early on in the list…and it still worked!). Positivity carries power into our lives. It enables us to make our own lives better, rather than waiting for it to happen circumstantially.
I am so glad that I have this routine. My life has not felt as easily enjoyable as it does now, not since long ago. So, maybe this seems silly, but if it can transform your nights and your days, maybe give it a try. Make the nightly triple tens a part of your night. It just might make life that much better.
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