After a bad day: think it over, or say it?
· Source: Lyubomirsky, Sousa & Dickerhoof, JPSP, 2006
On a bad day, putting it into words did more than going over it in your head. On a good day, the opposite.
After a bad day: think it over, or say it?
Saying it helped. Thinking it over didn’t. Students spent 15 minutes on three days with their worst experience. A month later, those who wrote about it or talked about it into a recorder were more satisfied with their lives than those who only thought about it. Replay the good days. Don’t take them apart. In the same research, people who analysed their happiest day felt worse afterwards than people who simply replayed it in their minds. Say the hard parts. Replay the good ones. Halflight keeps both, under their dates.