Its easy to get stuck. We fall into the monotony of every day life and don’t even realize how effortless everything becomes. When Sam and I come home from a long day of school and work, we sit on the couch and allow our minds to wander as we watch our shows. He will ask me about my day and I will quickly tell him every negative thing that comes to mind: Work was long, I didn’t have time to get coffee, my to-do list keeps growing, I was bored at home… because its easy to talk about what went wrong. The real challenge is learning to no longer fixate on the bad aspects of your day and instead seeing the good, and even more, being excited to share it.
A friend once told me the secret to a happy relationship: the four minute rule. This rule entails that you can only speak about what went right in your day for your first four minutes with your significant other. That’s right, absolutely nothing negative can sneak past your lips until minute five. Positivity can be a hard thing, but surely there has to be something good that happens every day, right? So embrace the good, and those four short minutes might just turn your bad mood around. I believe life can be a completely joyful thing if you allow it to be.
One thing I am extremely thankful for is having a reason to celebrate. Whether its celebrating a birthday, a new job, or the barista at Starbucks spelling your name correctly for the first time, life is so much better when you find an excuse, any excuse, to be happy. One of my four-minute-positives today is reaching 400 likes on my Facebook page. While that may seem like a small number to some, it is a huge accomplishment to me. At the end of March I reached 300 likes and before April is even over there have been over 100 more; each and every one of those likes is a huge compliment to me and I couldn’t be more thankful for the support from friends and strangers/ future-friends alike.
To celebrate even more, I have decided to give away a two person, one-hour lifestyle session! To enter, submit a photo with a short story about someone that is your reason to celebrate. The two of you will receive a session together, to take place in the LA area between May and July. Whether you are a mom wanting a session with your child, a best friend, or a newly engaged couple, I’d love to hear your story! Email entries to jessica@jessicamwood.com by May 6th.
Now give the four minute rule a try and maybe you will find that all the bad things that happened today didn’t matter so much after all.
I agree, celebrate the little stuff. I hope your contest goes well.