A shared universe › Blog › The three good things exercise · Español
It is a simple exercise: every night, before going to sleep, you write down three things that went well that day and why they went well, and you keep it up for at least a week. It takes about ten minutes and is one of the best known in positive psychology, although later studies have found smaller effects than the first one.
It was proposed by Martin Seligman, one of the founders of positive psychology. In a study published in 2005 in American Psychologist, with his colleagues Steen, Park and Peterson, he randomly assigned people who visited a website to six groups: five different exercises and one control. Three of the exercises increased happiness and reduced symptoms of depression in a lasting way, and three good things was one of them.
According to the summary by the Greater Good Science Center at the University of California, Berkeley, those who did it for a week felt happier straight afterwards and also one week, one month, three months and six months later. The participants were mostly educated Americans, so it is not clear how far it applies equally to everyone.
In 2012, Mongrain and Anselmo-Matthews repeated Seligman’s study with a better designed control group and with a pleasant exercise that acted as a placebo, to separate what belongs to the exercise itself from what any positive task brings. Three good things again increased happiness in a lasting way, but so did the pleasant placebo. On symptoms of depression, the exercise was no better than the control.
In their conclusions they suggest that these brief exercises may lift mood because they bring good things from one’s own life to mind, and that their effect on depression is more modest than was thought. In other words: it is a good habit for looking after the way you see things, not a treatment.
On some days what went wrong takes up almost all your attention, and the good things slip by unnoticed. This exercise does not deny the bad: it trains your eye so that the good has room too. Asking yourself why something good happened also helps you see what you or others contributed.
Dwelling on the good at the end of the day is very close to what psychology calls savouring good moments: going back to them calmly so they last a little longer.
Three good things has a fixed shape: every night, three, with the reason why, for a week. A gratitude journal is freer: you write once or twice a week, with no set number, and you can dwell on a single person. If after a few days the three things start to feel repetitive, the journal may suit you better.
It happens, and it is not a failure. You can write just one, or something as small as the fact that the day is over. If while doing the exercise you find yourself going over what went wrong, gently come back to what went well, however small.
If nights with nothing good follow one another for weeks, or the sadness does not lift, this exercise is not enough and it is worth talking to your GP or a psychologist. In Spain you can talk to a person at the Teléfono de la Esperanza, 717 003 717, at any time. If you are thinking of ending your life, call 024: it is free, confidential and answered 24 hours a day. If there is immediate danger, call 112. In another country, call your local emergency number or a helpline there.
If one of your three good things deserves to shine, you can light it in A shared universe as “What I’m grateful for”, without saying who you are. Others will be happy with you, and you can also spend a while keeping other people’s stars company.