Effects of (very) brief writing on health: The two‐minute miracle

Abstract

This study tested the lower boundary of the dosage required to garner health benefits from written emotional expression. Participants wrote about either a personal trauma, a positive life experience, or a control topic for 2 minutes each day for 2 days. Emotion word usage in the essays was examined and physical health complaints were measured 4-6 weeks after the last writing session. Trauma and positive experience essays contained more emotional content than the control essays and such content was of a similar percentage to that demonstrated by past research. Both the trauma and the positive experience conditions reported fewer health complaints at follow-up than the control condition.

Online Positive Affect Journaling in the Improvement of Mental Distress and Well-Being in General Medical Patients With Elevated Anxiety Symptoms: A Preliminary Randomized Controlled Trial (Preprint)

“…Overall, the current findings suggest that PAJ has potential utility as an intervention for managing mental distress, particularly elevated anxiety symptoms, and other aspects of well-being among general medical patients. This is consistent with, and extends, prior research on positive writing interventions as a way to improve aspects of health and well-being [55,69,70,71].…”

“…In healthy samples, Armitage and colleagues [54] found beneficial effects of completing a self-affirmation questionnaire or self-affirming implementation intention on alcohol intake at one-month follow-up, while Burton and King [55] observed that participants randomized to write only two minutes for two consecutive days in a lab about a recent positive event showed moderate reductions in physical symptoms (Cohen's d=.65) at 4 to 6-week follow-up.…”

Pursuing happiness in everyday life: The characteristics and behaviors of online happiness seekers.

“…Finally, the last intervention, "Optimism," involves a "thinking optimistically" exercise, which prompts users to think about their best possible future scenario and write about it (for well-being benefits, see Burton & King, 2008;Lyubomirsky et al, 2011;Sheldon & Lyubomirsky, 2006).…”

One Thousand Good Things in Nature: Aspects of Nearby Nature Associated with Improved Connection to Nature

“…Research has found writing about experiences for just two minutes for two days can bring benefits (Burton and King, 2007). Menary (2007) also suggests that writing is thinking in action, with writing being supported by both manipulations of the external environment and neural processes, such that writing is not just an output of thought, but shapes and enables our thinking.…”