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"A million years ago&amp;amp;#8212;OK, maybe only about five&amp;amp;#8212;I used to do this thing where I&amp;#x27;d wake up and almost immediately write a haiku. A lot of the time, the haikus were not very good&amp;amp;#8212;they were about feeding very meowy morning cats or odes to my still-warm comforter&amp;amp;#8212;but I just found the entire stash, and you know what? They&amp;#x27;re kind of awesome. (Not for their poetic grace, that&amp;#x27;s for sure.) But it reminded me about research showing that taking a second every day to write down something that makes you happy can actually make you happier and improve your head state. Maybe you want to acknowledge something nice that&amp;#x27;s happened to you today (like that smile you shared with a random stranger on the train, or how fresh the air felt after it rained), or something bigger in your life that you don&amp;#x27;t take time to acknowledge too often. It works because we can all tend to get pretty wrapped up in the irritations or annoyances of life, and this exercise forces you to stop and feel grateful for the good things. Gratitude is a powerful thing. And not only will you feel better almost instantly, you&amp;#x27;ll also get to look back over the collection of wonderful things in your life that have made you happy before&amp;amp;#8212;even if they&amp;#x27;re in bad haiku form. Will you try it? How do you remind yourself to be grateful? Photo: Thinkstock"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.glamour.com/health-fitness/blogs/vitamin-g/2013/09/mental-health-minute-write-dow>