For Your Own Sanity

There I was, scrolling through something — as one does at an ungodly hour when sleep is apparently optional — and I came across this little prompt:

“Tell me something good that happened to you today. No matter how small it may seem.”

And I thought… oh. I know this feeling.

I once had a dear friend who called me every single day. Every morning it was “Have a beautiful day” and every evening “Tell me something good about your day.”

What I didn’t expect was what that did to the hours in between. I moved through my days with such ease, because somewhere in the back of my mind I knew I’d want to have something good to tell him. So, I started noticing. Really noticing. The small things, the unexpected things, the things that made me smile before I even knew why.

“He was essentially training me to collect beauty. 

One good thing, it turns out, is a bit like a thread. You pull it gently and the whole good sweater starts to unravel. In the best possible way. One leads to another, and another, until you’ve given yourself this whole quiet gift of a day you might otherwise have thrown away entirely.

And who knows. Maybe you wake up different. Maybe a night filled with the good stuff quietly shifts something. Stranger things have happened.

Not long ago I had a day that was meant to be a celebration — and in many ways it genuinely was. But things kept unravelling in ways I couldn’t control, and by the end of the evening it had all blown up rather spectacularly in my face. I went to bed thoroughly grumpy, which if you know me, takes some doing.

But before I turned out the light I picked up a pen and started writing down every good thing I could remember from the day. And they just kept coming. And coming. Until somewhere in the middle of that list I stopped, looked at the page, and thought —

Actually. That was a really great day.

So tonight — before your head hits the pillow — find one small, good thing. Just one. Let it lead you somewhere.

It’s a gift you give yourself. Every single night. And it’s free, which frankly makes it even better.