Writing to your past-self can make you feel better

This study investigated how writing compassionate letters to one's past or future self affects mood, considering the writer's attitude toward their past, present, and future, and the focus of the writing (social vs. self-experience). Experiment 1 (150 undergraduates) showed that writing to one's past self decreased negative feelings more than writing to one's future self, especially for those with negative time attitudes. Experiment 2 (62 undergraduates) revealed that focusing on social experiences was more helpful than focusing on self-experiences. Writing a compassionate letter to one's past self, particularly focusing on social connections, can improve mood, especially for individuals with negative time attitudes.

Eriko Sugimori, Mayu Yamaguchi, Takashi Kusumi