39 Simple Ways to Change Your Day

Recent advances in cognitive science have started to prove that what we think we experience in our daily life and work is really the product of layer upon layer of interpretation by our unconscious minds.

X happens and even before it has happened, your mind is at work, ready to interpret and ascribe meaning to it, pretty much without any conscious intervention from you at all.

This is a sobering discovery.
But in one way good news, because it means that we can change what we are experiencing at work and in our lives, without having to change what is actually happening, but simply by adjusting what our minds are up to.

Here's my list of 39 simple (and nearly free) ways to change your experience of your day:

1. Dance around to loud music from your youth
2. Say a personal "thank you" instead of just filing that email
   
3. Have a 5 minute tidy-up session
4. Call a friend
5. Go for a hike
6. Take a nap
7. Stand at the window (NB for extra oomph, you can wave at a colleague or passerby)
   
8. Cook something tasty
9. Be a courteous driver
10. Go fly a kite
11. Lie on the floor and notice everything you haven't seen before
12. Give someone a hug
13. Sing in the car
14. Walk around the block
15. Have lunch with someone dear
16. Raise your head and have a pointless think
17. Go ride a bike
18. Read a book in the middle of the day
19. Light a candle
20. Send someone a postcard
21. What snippet do you know that a colleague might find useful? - Go tell them
    
22. Visit a bookshop coffee bar
23. Drill/sand/bash some wood
24. Go commando, you know you want to
25. Watch/listen to some comedy
    
26. Rip up a newspaper and recycle bad news for something better
27. Smile
28. Wear Sunscreen
    
29. See if you can get a boomerang to come back
30. Make a cup of tea as a surprise for a colleague
31. Look at the stars/moon/clouds
32. Do the crossword
33. Stick a Post-It on your forehead labeled "remember to change my mind sometimes"
    
34. Rent a movie
35. Pray
36. Touch a tree
37. Splash through a puddle
38. Prune a bush
39. Sit in a different place/chair with a cuppa
    

Will you please add your own to this list by clicking on the COMMENTS link below?