A Happiness Exercise

May 10, 2025

The article What is a Reverse Bucket List from Huffington Post inspired this post. It’s all about the notion of thinking about things we’ve already experienced in our lives that are bucket-list worthy.

So first, for those who don’t know, a bucket list is typically a list of things one wants to experience before they croak. So a reverse bucket list would be a fun retrospective.

Making such a list is good for your mental health. The act of doing it will lower stress and increase your sense of well being. It will be good for your physical health, because reducing stress reducing blood pressure, heart rate, and lowers the level of stress hormones in your bloodstream. And it will be good for your spiritual health, aka, your alignment. Recalling peak experiences of our lives to mind, brings the same feelings to life in us as experiencing them did.

The payoff

As a result, we find ourselves aligned with some of our happiest, most exhilarating, most fulfilling moments, which means we have tuned ourselves to the wavelength of those and will experience more of them.

So my feeling on this is that it’s not a thing to try to do all at once. It’s a thing to ponder on, and spend time on.

The exercise

For a few weeks, or any period that feels good to you, try recalling some peak experience to mind, and write as much about it as you remember. Focus heavily on how the experience made you feel.

Start at the beginning

Think about the very very earliest memories you have that were peak experiences.

For example: I remember the day I learned to read my first word. Back then we didn’t have Headstart or pre-school. We learned to tie our shoes, and write our names in Kindergarten, and started reading in first grade back then. I remember the teacher, Mrs. Brincent. I don’t remember the names of any other teachers that early, but I remember her. She had a big flip chart with those giant silver rings on top. It was freestanding and taller than we kids were.

I remember we dragged our little wooden chairs into a half circle around that flip chart with the letter a on it. Just the lower case, not too complicated just yet. She taught us that short a sound, and we all repeated it.

The teacher flipped the page. Now there was the letter b. She told us its sound and we all repeated. “Buh, buh, buh, buh,” said a bunch of six-year-olds.

She flipped the page again, and there was the c. She gave us only the hard c sound, not the soft one, keeping it simple.

She flipped the page again. And the magic happened right there before my eyes. A word, and I could read it. The word was “cab.”

How long had I stared at the funny lines between the covers of books, wishing I understood the key. And suddenly, there it was, a word I could read! The teacher asked us if we could read the word, and my hand shot up first, and I excitedly read it aloud. I read for the very first time!

What a peak experience for me. Brings tears to my eyes to recount it here, and anytime I tell the story—which adjusts my vibration and tunes me in so more moments like will find me.

So try this out

Try remembering and writing down the details of every peak experience. Some will be wins, triumphs, achievements, promotions, awards. Some will be moments etched into your heart for the sheer breathtaking quality of the moment, like the first time I drove around a bend in an Arizona road, and the red rocks came into view, or the day I saw that full on double sun-dog in the eastern sky and had to lie on my back on the ground to get it all into a single photo.

The birth of each daughter, being in the room for the arrival of my first grandchild, The phone call telling me I’d sold my first book. The surprise party my friends threw for me when I they found out. That time I got to present a RITA Award, and that time I won one. The collection a group of writer pals took up to replace my laptop after it burned with my house. The day my husband first told me he loved me, and when he proposed. So many moments, so many wonders. I saw the seals in San Francisco Bay, and later on the same trip, a whale! I climbed Bell Rock in Sedona alone, so early no one else was there yet, and I just took in the views, breathless with wonder. I had my palm read in Jackson Square in New Orleans. I flew a small plane once. I saw the Grand Canyon. I saw Hamilton with my friend Gayle at the historic Landmark Theater in Syracuse. I rafted a section of the Genesee River at Letchworth. I’ve marveled at solar eclipses and meteor showers, and one time a fireball shot across the sky just ahead as I was driving. And more and more and more. The more I think of the more come back to me.

So many peak moments, so many wins, so much love. What a wonderful way to spend a little time each day, replaying the high points in our minds.

It’s a counter-intuitive experience

I think most of us tend to look back on the things we’ve done with a bit of a grimace and a lot of regret. We focus on our missteps, our mistakes, our embarrassing moments and failures, instead of on our very best times, and especially on the moments that brought us the most joy.

When we remember and write about those things, it’s like we’re actually writing an irresistible invitation to all things related to them, all things that feel like them, to come join us in our experience.

This exercise really does lift my vibe, which has a direct impact on improving the quality of my everyday lift.

Look, through good times or bad, our task is to journey through life as joyfully as possible, causing as little suffering or harm to others as possible—better yet, helping others, alleviating suffering, doing good. Most of all our purpose, I think, is giving and receiving as much love as possible along the way.

I hope you feel love beaming from each post here at the Bliss Blog. I’m writing it into every word.

The Huff Post Article