Have you ever noticed that if you go to sleep mad, you often wake up still feeling mad? Or if you go to sleep dreading the next day, you wake up feeling dread? How about if you go to sleep feeling good, that you wake up feeling good?

The mood we are in when we go to sleep often carries over and can profoundly impact us the following day. But we don’t have to be victim to a bad mood that started the day before. We can consciously direct the day we are going to have tomorrow by choosing our thoughts and emotions as we go to sleep.

This can look like meditating before bed, clearing our mind of thoughts and emotions, or—most powerful of all—looking for things to appreciate.

I say most powerful because when you go to bed feeling appreciation you wake up feeling appreciation. And the more appreciation that you feel, the more things you attract into your life to appreciate.

It’s as simple as thinking of the things that happened during your day that you appreciate. It can be the smile on your child’s face, or the silly thing your cat did that made you laugh. It can be appreciation for the abundance of food that you were able to choose from, or that you have a roof over your head, or a comfortable bed to be resting in. It can be the softness of your pajamas or the perfect weight of the blankets that feels like a light embrace. It can be appreciation for having 10 fingers and toes, legs that work, or whatever about your body you can appreciate. It can be appreciation for the love that you feel in your life and the people who are important to you.

The wonderful thing about appreciation is the more you think about and list things that you appreciate, the more things you can think of. And this gets even easier with practice.

Then when you wake up in the morning, consciously notice that lingering feeling of appreciation. Remind yourself of all the things you were thinking about the night before that you appreciate. And then get up and start your day.

I bet you’ll notice more things throughout your day to appreciate, too. It truly is a wonderful way to begin your day—and live your life.

Together we can do it!