Write about your best possible future for four days

In one study, writing about a best possible future self for 20 minutes a day, four days in a row, raised well-being.

The study

Undergraduates were randomly assigned to write for 20 minutes on four consecutive days about one of four topics: a traumatic event, their best possible future self, both, or a neutral topic. Writing about life goals was less upsetting than writing about trauma, and it went with a significant rise in well-being measured three weeks later. Months afterward, the groups that wrote about trauma, their best possible self, or both had fewer visits for illness than the neutral group.

Starting small

Imagining a future in which things have gone well, and writing it down, is a short exercise that can fit into a few evenings. It does not need to be polished.