I have a list of words on my desk that come from a support group webinar I attended a while back. The vertical list reads “acceptance, anger, connection, energy, frustration, guilt, irritability, openness, optimism, patience, self-compassion” in that order. As CarePartners, we were encouraged to look at these words and consider our own feelings regarding each of them. As I said, they sit on my desk where I can see them every day but at a glance, I only catch the top third usually ending at “frustration.” What I wonder is whether these words, simple as they may be, are unintentionally setting a tone for my day? Would it be better to rearrange the list so that I see only positive feelings rather than interspersed with negative ones? After all, sometimes it is the little things that matter the most.

The list begins with acceptance, a rather neutral concept. What if it started out with optimism? Then, I would drop the next word which is anger and replace it with openness followed by connection and energy. I would round out my top five, which is usually all I see anyway, with self-compassion. Replacing those negative words that I look at every morning with more positive ones, could it really help change my outlook?

I often hear that mindset is everything. If I am going to be happy, I need to think happy thoughts and surround myself with happy images. I am going to revisit the list of words, not to think about how they impact me but simply to rearrange them so that the positive ones are what I see most. Who knows, maybe it will help me start my days with thoughts of optimism and openness rather than acceptance and anger? I definitely think it’s worth a try.