Better Moment Bookmarks
Intentionally capture and return to positive moments so stress doesn’t define your reality.
Included in these Programs: STEP Training - LEAP Courses
Tool Overview
Better Moment Bookmarks are a practice of deliberately noticing, capturing, and revisiting positive or neutral moments for when stress or trauma are controlling the story.
Under chronic stress, the brain naturally prioritizes threat. Over time, this can distort perception, making difficult experiences feel more dominant than they actually are. This tool helps rebalance that lens by strengthening awareness of safety, calm, and meaningful moments as they happen.
Instead of waiting for perspective to shift on its own, you actively build it better, moment by moment.
Quick Practice: Try It Now
Here’s how we place bookmarks during positive moments.
Take notice when you are in a moment that brings feelings of calm, accomplishment, joy, or peace, and then follow these steps:
1 - Turn your attention on purpose
Notice what’s happening right now. Be descriptive, specific, and nonjudgmental.
2 - Engage your senses
What do you see, hear, feel, smell, or taste? Let your body register even the minor details of the moment.
3 - Be fully here
Pause. Slow down. Let the moment land instead of rushing past it.
4 - “Bookmark” it
Mentally mark this as a moment worth remembering.
5 - Return to it later
Revisit the moment, especially during stress, to reinforce a more balanced perspective.
Common Mistakes
Dismissing small moments which are often the most powerful to bookmark.
Staying in your head instead of your senses will miss the most important memory markers for your brain.
Only trying this when overwhelmed instead of making it a regular practice.
Forcing positivity instead of broadening your perspective on all parts of reality.
When to use
When stress is making everything feel heavy or overwhelming
When positive feelings seem to “not stick”
During recovery from difficult events or environments
As a daily practice to build resilience over time
Before or after high-stress interactions (meetings, conflict, caregiving, etc.)
RELEVANCE
Why it works
Better Moment Bookmarks draws from:
CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy) → Actively reshaping attention patterns to counter negative bias.
DBT (Dialectic Behavioral Therapy) → Mindfulness and present-moment awareness without judgment.
Trauma-Informed Approach → Rebuilding the brain’s ability to recognize safety and regulation in real time.
Related Tools
Emotion Wave Surfing → for staying with emotional experiences in real time
Drive Your Attention → for intentionally shifting focus
Radical Acceptance → for reducing resistance to difficult realities
Identifying Primary vs. Secondary Emotions → for clarity in emotional processing
Learn this in training
Regular Unpacking is taught as part of the STEP program, where participants practice applying it to real experiences and build it into ongoing routines.
