I participated in a very useful group CBT course last year, in which the tutor encouraged attendees to identify small positive changes we could make to our lives quite easily. Each change might be small – a “one percent difference” – but implementing a series of 1% improvements regularly (at least one every 2 weeks) will add up to a big improvement inside a year – other things being equal.

The first small change she suggested was to start the day with a large glass of water rather than going straight for the tea/coffee (good idea, IMHO - and free!) Attendees came out with various suggestions which included

• Improve communication with friends and family e.g. diarise a fortnightly phone call or Zoom with grown-up kids.
• Health-improving ideas, like 5 minutes of morning stretching, a 10-minute walk before breakfast, or a specific dietary improvement.
• Things to brighten up the home (e.g. flood a dull room with houseplants).
• Things to reduce or eliminate life's small irritations e.g. use large colourful key fobs to prevent loss of keys (VG suggestion for me!)
• Ration your news intake e.g. by changing the  home page on your PC from BBC news to the weather forecast.
• Hire a house cleaner once a fortnight.

Which of these do you think might your life 1% better? And any other suggestions?

Oldie But Goldie

A Moodscope member