Today’s Positive Psychology Exercise: Three Good Things
Many people have a tendency to focus on negative experiences. In positive psychology, we often say “bad is stronger than good.” For example, the positive emotion that someone feels if they find an unexpected $20 is usually less intense than the negative emotion that someone feels if they lose $20.
The Three Good Things exercise, also referred to as Three Blessings, is an activity designed to focus your attention on positive experiences. The activity is simple: at the end of the day, write down three things that went well. These can be anything – from the small and ordinary to great and important. After you write down your three good things, write down why you think each good thing happened.
The Science
Emmons, R. A. & McCullough, M. E. (2003). Counting blessings versus burdens: An experimental investigation of gratitude and subjective well-being in daily life. Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, 84(2), 377-389.
Direct link to full-text PDF: https://whish.stanford.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/GratitudeArticle.pdf
Abstract: The effect of a grateful outlook on psychological and physical well-being was examined. In Studies 1 and 2, participants were randomly assigned to 1 of 3 experimental conditions (hassles, gratitude listing, and either neutral life events or social comparison); they then kept weekly (Study 1) or daily (Study 2) records of their moods, coping behaviors, health behaviors, physical symptoms, and overall life appraisals. In a 3rd study, persons with neuromuscular disease were randomly assigned to either the gratitude condition or to a control condition. The gratitude-outlook groups exhibited heightened well-being across several, though not all, of the outcome measures across the 3 studies, relative to the comparison groups. The effect on positive affect appeared to be the most robust finding. Results suggest that a conscious focus on blessings may have emotional and interpersonal benefits.
