I read somewhere that when you are struggling you should start a diary (journal) and record the bad things that happened to you each day so that you could avoid those things in the future.
The way it worked is that you write down in a journal what went wrong or upset you during the day, why it upset you, and how you can avoid it in the future. The theory was sound but the practice isn't. Some of the things that impact on us negatively are out of our control therefore all that you can do was try your best to ignore them when they occurred.
Then I read about keeping a positives diary. At the end of each day I was to write down one positive thing that happened to me. At the end of the week I could look back through the diary and see what positive events occurred which would stimulate my brain in a positive way.
It is a medical fact that if you think positively then you will feel better. Research has shown that by thinking positively you can add 7 years to your life whereas medical intervention can only add 3 years.
Doesn't this make more sense? If you focus on the negative things in life all of the time then our brain will continue to look for negative things. As you probably know, the brain focuses on negative things anyway in its pitiful attempt to help us. Not very helpful really.
If on the other hand if you were to write down only positive things your brain will learn to focus more on the positives, on the happier moments. Over a period of 60+ days your brain will focus more on happier events and not so much on the bad ones.
Don't worry if you are concerned that your brain won't be there to 'help' you with the negative stuff, it will still do so. It just won't be as prominent.