Best Possible Self Visualization Works (Carrillo et al., 2019)

The Question

Does the Best Possible Self exercise actually improve wellbeing across studies, and what makes it work better or worse?

What They Found

• The average person who visualized their best future scored higher on positive emotions than 69% of the people who didn't
• For optimism and overall wellbeing, they scored higher than 63% of people who didn't
• BPS beat gratitude exercises at both increasing positive emotions and reducing negative emotions
• Delivery method didn't matter: online or face-to-face, individual or group, with or without guided imagery, all worked equally well
• Shorter practice times showed a trend toward larger effects, suggesting this works best as a brief, focused burst

How They Tested It

• Pooled 29 experiments with 2,909 people total
• In each study, one group wrote about their best possible future self; in 15 of 29 studies they then spent about 5 minutes mentally visualizing what they'd written
• The comparison groups wrote about neutral topics like daily activities
• Participants were mostly young adults (average age 24), practiced for 1 to 56 days

Caveats

• Nearly all participants were university students under 35, so results may not apply to older or clinical populations
• Only 3 studies measured depressive symptoms, too few to draw conclusions about depression
• Most studies had no follow-up beyond the intervention, so long-term durability is unknown

How Reborn Helps

Reborn's guided visualization sessions use the same write-then-imagine structure that this research validates.