Before you went to sleep last night, you probably had a pretty good idea of what you were planning to do when you woke up. Did you do a little mental review of the next day’s activities?
Because most of us have some kind of schedule that we try to keep it is perfectly natural to give those activities some thought ahead of time. But let me ask you this: did you also give some thought to how you’re going to feel when you woke up this morning?
It is one thing to consider what we are going to do, but it’s quite another to consider how we are going to feel.
Emotional planning
The reason you knew what you were going to do when you woke up this morning is that you gave it some thought. You considered how your day was going to go beforehand. Why not do the same thing with regard to your emotional state?
When you take the time to visualize yourself waking up in the morning feeling great after a wonderful night’s sleep, fully energized and ready to go, you are actually planning for tomorrow. Now, instead of planning your activities, you are planning your emotions!
How can we do that?
First, take a few moments to visualize a pleasant morning experience. Then indulge yourself in those good feelings, actually allowing yourself to get all wrapped up in how wonderful it is to wake up feeling really good.
When you go to bed with positive thoughts about the next day, guess what? Chances are you will actually wake up feeling good because you have already experienced it in your mind. You’ve already been there once and your mind doesn’t know the difference between the actual experience and the imagined experience.
When you wake up tomorrow your mind is going to recall what you already programmed into it. As far as your mind is concerned, you’ve already had this experience once and it felt great. It is exactly what your mind expects to happen.
Planning your emotional experiences
Why not give some preliminary consideration to how you are going to feel, not just tomorrow morning but every morning? In fact, why not take it a step further?
If you are going to work tomorrow, why not stop and imagine yourself going to work and feeling absolutely wonderful about it? See yourself in an unexplainably good mood all day long. Consider any activity that’s going to affect your day and feel yourself enjoying it! When you actually have that experience, you will be preprogrammed to enjoy it.
Use your emotional leverage to create an enjoyable reality
The fact that your mind records your “visualized experiences” as real gives you a wonderful opportunity to master some very useful advanced life skills. All you need to do is practice these skills to benefit from them.
Thousands of scientific studies over the last 40 years have proven that athletes can radically improve their performance using this technique. Why not use this same approach to improve your perception of tomorrow?
Take control of your attitude
We have much more control over our feelings and moods than most people give themselves credit for. I invite you to start exercising that control immediately. I encourage you to start planning ahead by making an emotional schedule for a great day - no matter what activities you will be involved in.
You already know to some degree what you’ll be doing. Why not choose to also know ahead of time how you’re going to feel about it?
Emotional planning means giving some forethought to how you are going to feel about upcoming activities and events.
How do you expect to feel tomorrow?
Do you feel that you can realistically plan your emotional attitude”
The lines are open!
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{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi Jonathan. I absolutely agree that we can plan our emotional future. A positive attitude, like everything else, requires practice. Many of us have unknowingly planned the opposite by expecting a bad day a work or a let down from our spouse, so why no plan in the direction of joy. I so loved this post!
Greetings Nea, you are so right about the tendency to unknowingly program ourselves a for disappointing experience. Anytime we say “I’m not looking forward to tomorrow because …….” we have already set the stage. Even if it’s a task that we are not particularly excited about we can always focus on how good it will feel to get it done.
Hi Jonathan, I practice visualization a lot to plan my future, but I’ve never used it in this way to plan my emotions.
This would be a great habit to get into, and I guess once it becomes a habit it becomes much easier to do and becomes second nature.
Hi Steve, isn’t it funny how we can use some technique or strategy successfully in one area of life and never think to apply the same approach in another area? I’ve been thinking a lot lately about all the mental and emotional connections we make in our own lives. There are so many different possible combinations and our perceived quality depends so much on the choices we make. They actually form the structure and direction of our thought process.
Hi Jonathan,
I find the state of my mind before going to sleep has a powerful influence on my dream state, but I never thought about using that consciously to influence my emotional state the following morning. Thanks for this idea.
Hi Sandra, I would love to hear how using this simple strategy work for you. These are the kind of easy to implement life skills that I really appreciate. It’s so gratifying when we can use simple techniques like this to help shift our overall life experience in a positive direction. I am a little surprised that this article hasn’t generated a bigger response. Maybe it’s too easy!
Hi Jonathan,
Emotions definitely play a powerful role in how we experience our day and life.
For it is our emotions that influence our thoughts and our thoughts then influence how we experience life. The two are so intertwined.
I find that if my head is clear from mental clutter, it is easier to see the beauty of life and the possibilities. Being in nature or meditating or walking is a great way for me to just clear my head and just see the beauty of it all.
Hi Nadia, yes, yes ,yes, “The two are so intertwined.” The more we get that the better life becomes. Thank you for that short, to the point observation!
Im positively suprised about this topic, seeing others to plan their emotions ahead. It doesnt matter if you believe in the law of attraction or not, this will improve your day greatly. Let’s take it further!
Hi Michael, I believe in the law of cause and effect and that’s where most of my strategies are born.
In spite of all the time I spend in this general area of thinking, writing, and talking about well being, I absolutely never thought about this idea. This is terrific. Thank you!
Hi Galen, isn’t it funny how instinctively we plan everything else, and yet it never dawns on us to use that same approach with our emotions?