Imagine Your Best Future
Imagine Your Best Future
A visualization ritual to picture what life would feel like if everything went right.
Imagining your Best Self or Future is a visualization activity that has shown positive effects on wellbeing. It was originally developed by researcher Laura King as a derivative of a trauma writing program that asked undergraduate students to write about either a traumatic event, their imagined best future, or both for 20 minutes, four days in a row. While all were found to have a positive long-term effect on wellbeing, writing about their best ideal selves also gave students a positivity boost in the present moment.
How to do it
Set aside 15 minutes a day for the next two weeks either in the morning or evening to write. This can also be done as a one-time exercise, but (as with many things in life) it has been shown to have the strongest effects if done consistently over a few weeks.
Imagine your life in the future through a lens of unshakeable optimism. Ask yourself what life would look like if everything went right. What if everything you’ve been working hard for comes to fruition? Try to call a vivid picture to mind. Think about different areas of your life such as your relationships, health, career, community, and home. Your ideal life need not be grandiose. What would it look like if life went right in the most wonderfully ordinary ways?
Write about your optimal life in as much detail as possible. If you get stuck, try using the sentence starter “life would be really good if…”
This ritual can also be used to interrupt depressive or anxious spiraling behaviors by redirecting the powers of the imagination away from all things that could go wrong in the future to all things that could go right. Both daydreams are ultimately not true (yet), but one uses the powers of imagination to foster positive feelings and optimism, rather than our premeditated fears. The exercise, when done with sincerity and detail, can have a measurable effect on wellbeing regardless of the truth of the story we are telling ourselves.
Alternate Version
This ritual can also be done for citizens to imagine a better society, especially activists and civic servants who may be feeling jaded by the slowness of progress or the seemingly insurmountable challenges of society’s problems. It could be a great way to open conferences, retreats, or other civic gatherings where participants will be asked to think creatively about solutions for the future.
Notes from the Science of Wellbeing
A meta-analysis of 29 studies examining the effects of Best Possible Self Interventions found that the exercise has a positive influence on wellbeing, optimism, and positive affect both at the time of the exercise and into the short term future (Carillo et al, 2019). It was even found to have a stronger influence on these factors than traditional gratitude practices. The strength of results was also linked to the total minutes spent writing, suggesting that repetition is key to greater benefits.
“‘Hope’ is the thing with feathers –That perches in the soul –And sings the tune without the words –And never stops – at all …”