Best Possible Self Exercise

What is the Best Possible Self Exercise?

The Best Possible Self (BPS) exercise has a person imagine specific details of their future after everything has gone as well as it possibly could. Sometimes the exercise is broad or sometimes it’s for specific categories such as Fitness, Finances, Family, Career, etc. The Best Possible Self exercise is well researched as a Positive Psychology Intervention (PPI), and has been shown to increase well being and mood. The best possible self exercise was pioneered by Laura King in 2001, as a variation of the Expressive Writing exercise.

The best possible self exercise can be done by yourself, at home. It works best with participants who are able to conjure up strong mental imagery in association with the details they think of. Most often the exercise involves a phase of conjuring the mental details and imagery, optionally with the eyes closed, and then recording those details afterwards.

The benefits of performing the Best Possible Self Exercise

The best possible self exercise has a lot of research around it, with the original article being referenced over 600 times. Benefits are mostly around mental wellbeing, such as increase in positive affect, decrease in negative affect. However certain studies have also looked at physical health benefits and productivity focused goal attainment.

Improved Mood

Improved mood, more specifically increased positive and decreased negative affect, usually measured by PANAS (Positive Affect Negative Affect Schedule) is the most common benefit for the Best Possible Self Exercise.

In the very first study, The Health Benefits of Writing about Life Goals, subjective well being was looked at, and a short term increase was noted. Another important study that looked at how mental imagery plays a role, found that those who did the best possible self exercise increased their positive affect measure by around 12%, and a decrease in negative affect by on average 14%.

References

• The Efficacy of Positive Psychology Interventions to Increase Well-Being and the Role of Mental Imagery Ability
• The Health Benefits of Writing about Life Goals
• How to increase and sustain positive emotion: The effects of expressing gratitude and visualizing best possible selves
• What Is the Optimal Way to Deliver a Positive Activity Intervention? The Case of Writing About One’s Best Possible Selves
• The Best Possible Selves Intervention: A Review of the Literature to Evaluate Efficacy and Guide Future Research
• Become more optimistic by imagining a best possible self: Effects of a two week intervention

Improvements to Depression

A 2021 study looking at those with chronic health conditions found a 66% reduction in cases qualifying for depression, after 5 weekly 30-minute writing sessions following the BPS exercise. A 2009 meta analysis also found similar results more broadly across a wide range of positive psychology techniques.

One study found depressed individuals generated less specific goals, and less specific explanations. This potentially suggests a link with the specificity goals generated by BPS as a factor for affecting depression, and simultaneously suggests that doing BPS may be more difficult for those with depression.

Overall these studies [1][2] have looked at how future-oriented focus and generative positive imagery can reduce negative rumination, particularly in those vulnerable to depression.

References

• Life goal reconstruction for people with chronic health conditions: Feasibility of a brief internet-based writing intervention using a minimally monitored delivery
• Enhancing well‐being and alleviating depressive symptoms with positive psychology interventions: a practice‐friendly meta‐analysis
• Reduced Specificity of Personal Goals and Explanations for Goal Attainment in Major Depression
• The benefits of self-compassion and optimism exercises for individuals vulnerable to depression

Fewer Health Center Visits

In the sample of college students, it was found that those in the experimental group, performing the BPS exercise, had fewer health center visits than those in the control group, who wrote about their dorm rooms. The paper outlines how “Writing about life goals was significantly less upsetting than writing about trauma and was associated with a significant increase in subjective well-being.”

In a similar vein, researchers have looked at using the Best Possible Self exercise as a public health tool for prevention of type 2 diabetes [1][2]. Though in this case more through deliberate planning and goal attainment towards a healthier lifestyle. Similarly a 2018 study looked at implementing a BPS style intervention for those with eating disorders, and suggested that it “produced modest improvements in patients with EDs that are receiving current treatment for ED”.

References

• The Health Benefits of Writing about Life Goals
• The best possible self‐intervention as a viable public health tool for the prevention of type 2 diabetes: A reflexive thematic analysis of public experience and engagement
• Efficacy of the Best Possible Self protocol in diabetes self-management: A mixed-methods approach
• Implementation of a Positive Technology Application in Patients With Eating Disorders: A Pilot Randomized Control Trial

Improved Goal Attainment

Imagining what our future self will look like helps us define specific, personal goals that we truly resonate with. Specific and Relevant goals are two critical components of the SMART goal framework. BPS as a self exploratory tool can be helpful for determining which goals are important to us. One study of medical students found that “Nearly all (90%) residents in our study felt confident in their ability to assess their strengths and weaknesses. […] residents were significantly less confident in their ability to write specific goals to address self-identified weaknesses and develop and follow-through with plans to address these goals”

The simple act of writing down detailed goals can be very helpful. A one year study which found a roughly 50% increase in goal attainment between those who wrote their goals down and those who didn’t. While this isn’t specific to the best possible self exercise, it is a side effect of it if you haven’t written your goals down. As mentioned above, specific and relevant are two critical properties of achievable goals. Another study from 2010 found that students who wrote and reflected on goals were more likely to have better academic outcomes.

References

• The Impact of Commitment, Accountability, and Written Goals on Goal Achievement
• Building a practically useful theory of goal setting and task motivation: A 35-year odyssey.
• Setting, Elaborating, and Reflecting on Personal Goals Improves Academic Performance
• Factors Associated with Successful Self-Directed Learning Using Individualized Learning Plans During Pediatric Residency
• Motivational mindsets, mindset churn and academic performance: The role of a goal-setting intervention and purpose in life

How does the Best Possible Self exercise work?

There are many pathways to potentially describe how the Best Possible Self exercise impacts mood and health.

Through positive emotions

The “broaden-and-build” theory states that positive emotions impact life because they help us consider new options, and then build our lives in the direction of those options, permanently increasing our personal resources. Similarly and put forth by the same researcher, the upward spiral theory posits how positive emotions impact our lives by generating more of themselves, triggering an upward spiral towards emotional well-being.

Positive emotions not only increase our emotional well being but have the capacity to decrease our stress levels, and improve immune function [1][2][3]. It’s also been observed that optimistic people tend to use active problem-focused coping, which reduces stress and improves long term immune and cardiovascular function [1].

Through enhanced clarity of meaning

One study found that those with lower mental imagery capabilities actually benefited more from the exercise. This suggests that the important mechanism by which BPS works is by creating specificity where people are lacking it. This is further supported by another study that looked at the link between depression and lack of goal specificity. The study found that those who were depressed lack specific goals and specific explanations around those goals.

More generally the organization of self narrative and meaning making in our lives is an important factor in feeling positive about our lives.

Through neural activation

Mental imagery is an important factor in the best possible self exercise. One study found that those with lower mental imagery capabilities actually benefited more from the exercise. Past research in the field of neuroscience has shown a link between mental visualization and neural activation, resulting in both neural and functional similarities to as if you had actually experienced that thing.

However the above result is a point of controversy, with some arguing that by imagining the thing happening we have reduced the motivation towards it, since our brains have already gotten the reward from it. This is part of the reason for the suggestion to perform mental contrasting when considering BPS, as suggested in Future thought and behaviour change.

Alternatives to consider to the Best Possible Self Exercise

Gratitude

Comparisons of gratitude to the best possible self exercise have been done twice [1][2]. In both studies it was found that the Best Possible Self exercise was more effective, finding that “Results [...] suggested that the BPS exercise may be most beneficial for raising and maintaining [a] positive mood”.

Expressive Writing

Expressive writing, also known as the Pennebaker Protocol, was one of the original inspirations for the Best Possible Self exercise. However the original paper by King did not look at a direct comparison to expressive writing, rather to a baseline exercise of describing a room. However, one paper which looked at eating disorders did directly compare expressive writing to both daily planning and the Best Possible Self exercise, and found that participants who did the BPS exercise reported higher psychological well-being at a 3-week follow-up, and were less distressed than the trauma writing condition.

Mental Contrasting

As mentioned above regarding reward center activation in the brain, one study suggests utilizing mental contrasting, or imagining both the best possible self and the obstacles, as superior for motivation compared to just the Best Possible Self exercise.

Considerations of the Best Possible Self Exercise

Belief

One key point made in What Is the Optimal Way to Deliver a Positive Activity Intervention? The Case of Writing About One’s Best Possible Selves, found that students who read a testimonial extolling the virtues of the BPS activity showed larger gains than those who read neutral info or did a control task.

Online vs. Offline

One study looked at doing the Best Possible Self exercise both online and offline, and found “No differences [...] between participants who completed the positive activity online versus in-person.”

Salience

One 2004 study found that salience of one’s best possible self was correlated with subjective well-being. Suggesting that we should consider how well we resonate with the best possible self we are imagining. We should ensure that we are focusing on a Best Possible Self that speaks well to us, rather than external forces.

Exercise Pairing

One study suggests that a “shotgun” approach to practicing positive psychology interventions in general may be more beneficial than just a single exercise. This suggests that we can pair the Best Possible Self exercise with other positive psychology intervention exercises found on the Jopro platform for added benefit.

Pacing

Researchers found that participants had greater improvements in well-being and symptoms of depression by continuing the practice even after the intervention was over. This suggests that continual practice of the exercise may be beneficial. [1]

Further supporting the idea that continual practice is helpful, it was noted that in an online, 7-day BPS intervention, the effect tapered more quickly for participants with higher depression scores. This further suggests that pacing is important, and that continued practice at regular intervals may be beneficial.

Another study looked at comparing short repeated sessions of BPS, such as twice per week for two weeks, to daily writing over longer periods, and found that those in the short sessions maintained optimism boosts, while those in the longer sessions eventually reported the exercise as tedious.