Writing yourself “love” letters helps alleviate pain, finds York U study
Posted November 8, 2010 5:01 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
It may feel strange, but writing yourself a love letter could help alleviate depression, a York University study reported.
Researchers found that by writing a feel good letter could lead to a long time boost in emotional well being.
In the exercise, participants had to address an upsetting event, trying to comfort themselves like they would do for a friend in the same situation.
Findings concluded that people who wrote themselves a compassionate or optimistic letter every day for a week were less depressed up to three months later.
After six months, they had an overall increase in happiness.
Although, the lead author on the study said those who exhibited extreme neediness did not see an improvement in their mood.
The study of more than 200 people is in the Journal of Positive Psychology.
