🦸🏻♂️ New study puts Hollywood journaling technique to the test
8 questions to boost meaning, wellbeing, and resilience.
Welcome to Super Self, the newsletter that breaks down the latest scientific studies to help you live and work smarter.
Did a smart friend with a knack for finding the best stuff send this your way? Give ‘em a virtual high-five and then hop aboard!
This week we’re talking about a new journaling exercise developed by psychologists.
It makes me very excited to finally share a new project with you!
These days many of us have a ton of priorities and problems competing for our brain space.
Sometimes it feels mentally taxing to think through it all and keep your head on straight!
I usually find the best solution is to talk things through with a friend or advisor.
The back and forth makes it easier to find clarity, especially when you’re tired and even simple decisions feel like a lot of effort!
The problem of course is you can’t go calling up your friends every time you’re procrastinating or conflicted and sometimes there’s just no one around.
But with a little twist on the latest advancements in AI, it’s now possible for you to have a smart sounding board that’s always around to help you think through whatever’s on your mind.
That’s the idea behind the new project at least and as a Super Self reader you’re invited to be the first to take it for a spin!
(You’ll also love it if you’ve always wanted to start journaling but never known which questions to ask.)
If you’re interested then you can reply to this email or message me on Twitter to receive a code for free and full access!
(Only ~100 codes left for the first batch)
Thank you for indulging the PSA and now onto this week’s new science…
SUPER SNIPPETS
🚦 Airing Concerns — two new concerning studies reveal how normal levels of traffic pollution are disrupting our brains.
The first study conducted by Canadian researchers involved hooking participants up to an fMRI brain scanner and then exposing them to either diesel exhaust fumes or clean filtered air. They found the ability of different brain regions to communicate was impaired when participants were exposed to polluted air.
But is that a big deal? How do these changes in the brain manifest in the real world?
Well, a second new study from MIT analyzed the performance of chess players based on how much air pollution they were exposed to. When players were exposed to even a moderate amount of pollution, commonly found in normal cities, the probability that they’d make an error increased by 2-3%, and the magnitude of those errors increased by 10-17%.
If the air we breathe is impeding our ability to think, what can we do?
Recommendations include:
Don’t roll down your windows in traffic and make sure your car has a working air filter if possible
Avoid congested areas if you’re walking
Previous studies we’ve looked at found indoor plants can reduce harmful levels of pollutants
Brain activity returned to normal soon after exposure in the first study but researchers voiced concern about long-term effects.
🍔 Worth it? — We know that calorie restriction makes other animals live longer, but this has been tough to test with humans.
(Camera cuts to: research team wrestling burger from hungry participant)
Well, an international team led by Columbia university took up the challenge. Their new two-year randomized controlled trial found a group that restricted calories by 25% for 2 years had a 10-15% lower mortality risk. Their DNA appeared to have aged 2-3% slower at the 2-year follow-up, equivalent to quitting smoking.
Hm… 25% of calories sure sounds like a lot though…
🤗 Phone A Friend — A new study finds that just one meaningful conversation with a friend per day can lead to a bump in wellbeing by day’s end. It was conducted by professor Jeffrey Hall—a “friendship expert”—and his colleagues who wanted to know which type of interaction would make us happier:
catching up
meaningful talk
joking around
showing care
listening
valuing others and their opinions
offering sincere compliments
Turns out they’re all equally beneficial.
Jeff, who given his official title is probably a great hang, said the following: “it didn't matter which of these quality conversations someone had. The very act of intentionally reaching out to a friend in one of these ways was what mattered most.”
📲 Wanna put this study’s findings into practice? Sign up for the upcoming 7-day social connection challenge! More info below.
✨ Valued Opinion — A team of British philosophers and linguists from Cardiff and Bath Universities found a simple way to make debates more civil: reflect on your values. Their new study found that participants who wrote about their values before a debate listened more attentively and were perceived to speak with more “intellectual humility.”
So before you fire off that incendiary tweet or character assassinate a coworker, maybe think about what matters most.
Meanwhile...
💄 Glam Hazard — Columbia finds 79% of U.S. children under 12 are regularly exposed to makeup and body products like glitter, faceprint, and lip gloss that contain toxic chemicals.
🍼 Toxic Legacy — A University of California study finds that mice pass down the negative health impacts of phthalate exposure (toxic chemicals found in common plastics) to two generations of children.
🎓 The Science of Wellbeing —
FEATURED SCIENCE
New journaling technique combines Hollywood with science
🔷 Executive Summary — A new study exposes the overlap between the hero’s journey narrative arc and the science of meaning. It reveals an 8-question journaling exercise that can boost our wellbeing, resilience, and sense of meaning.
⭐️ THE SIGNIFICANCE
George Lucas had already penned two drafts of Star Wars.
Both were in the trash.
But then he rediscovered a book by Joseph Campbell.
Contained within was the blueprint for the “Hero’s Journey.”
Campbell noticed something shocking as he studied humanity’s oldest stories.
They were all the same.
Carl Jung described this shared narrative as a “collective unconscious.”
He believed we all came into the world with a deep understanding of what makes a hero.
Fast forward to 2023 and psychologists spot a new pattern of their own.
They notice a suspicious overlap between the science of living a meaningful life and the hero’s journey:
What if the hero's journey is more than just a tale of adventure? What if it’s a template for living a meaningful life?
Perhaps this type of story stands the test of time because it reminds us of the essential ingredients for wellbeing and purpose.
What would happen if we learned to see our own lives as if we were one of Campbell’s heroes?
This week’s study has the answer.
🧪 THE STUDY
Ten researchers teamed up from some of the best universities in the world to conduct a series of 8 experiments.
They began by distilling the hero’s journey narrative down to 7 core components:
The hero… (#1 - Protagonist)
experiences a change in setting or life circumstances… (#2 - Shift)
that sets them off towards a goal… (#3 - Quest)
during which they encounter friends and mentors… (#4 - Allies)
as well as obstacles… (#5 - Challenges)
but eventually triumph and grow from the experience… (#6 - Transformation)
enabling them to return home and benefit their community (#7 - Legacy).
For the first round of experiments, they simply asked participants to tell their life stories.
They were looking at whether people who report having meaningful lives naturally tend to describe their story as a hero's journey, both to themselves and to others.
For the second batch of experiments, they asked everyone to complete a journaling exercise. It was designed to help people see their lives as a hero’s journey and test whether meaning and wellbeing increased as a result.
⚡️ THE FINDINGS
People with purpose are heroic storytellers
It turns out that people with meaningful lives naturally tend to use a hero’s journey structure when they tell their life stories.
They’ll tell you about the quests they’ve been on, the dragons they’ve slain, and the friends and lessons they encountered along the way.
The relationship was so robust that the researchers wondered whether HJ storytelling was associated with other benefits.
And it was!
Higher wellbeing
Higher life satisfaction
Lower rates of depression
Every scale measuring meaning in life they used yielded the same result: people who report living meaningful lives are more likely to describe their life as an HJ.
But do we see our lives as meaningful because we use the framework? Or do we all start using the framework only once we have a meaningful life?
What’s the direction of causality?
Hero journaling directly causes benefits
To answer this question, they created a journaling exercise that consisted of 8 writing prompts:
Protagonist — what makes you you? Think about your identity, personality, and core values.
Shift — what change of setting or novel experience prompted your journey to become who you are today? (What was your call to adventure?)
Quest — what overall goal were you striving for that led to who you are today?
Challenge — what challenges or obstacles, such as a nemesis/rival or negative event, stood in the way of your journey?
Allies — who supported or helped you in your journey?
Transformation — how did you personally grow as part of your journey to become who you are today?
Legacy — in what ways has your journey left a legacy?
Reflecting on the various aspects of yourself and your story, describe how you might see yourself as a hero on an epic journey.
A control group was given 8 writing prompts that were more neutral.
Completing the HJ exercise significantly boosted feelings of meaning and wellbeing across all experiments compared to the control group.
Even participants who already felt as though they lived meaningful lives experienced a further increase in meaning and wellbeing.
They even used additional exercises to show it was specifically the hero’s journey driving these effects.
They found the effect wasn’t as strong when people thought of themselves as heroes without any of the hero journey elements.
Nor when they reflected on the hero's journey elements but in random order and without weaving them into a narrative.
It seems there’s a magic to the specific structure and arc of the hero’s journey.
Finally…
A hero’s journey mindset makes us stronger
Their 8th experiment revealed one last benefit.
The HJ exercise changed people’s relationship to obstacles.
They came to see obstacles as an expected—even necessary—part of their journey toward eventual transformation and triumph.
This led participants to use more resilient coping strategies in response to challenges.
They also engaged in higher levels of “positive reappraisal”—interpreting the world around them in more productive and empowering ways.
It seems adopting an HJ mindset can help us rise to challenges just like our favorite heroes.
💎 THE TAKEAWAY
When we accept the call to adventure, forge allegiances to overcome obstacles, and give back to our communities, we set ourselves up to live our best lives.
History’s greatest storytellers have woven these elements into a single arc that reminds us of these timeless lessons.
We unlock greater meaning when we learn to recognize these elements in our own lives.
And we start to take on life’s challenges with some serious main-character energy.
Today's newsletter is brought to you by Harold the Habit Tracker
Turn knowledge into action!
Many of the studies we look at explore habits and routines that can improve our lives.
I’ve teamed up with Harold, the SMS Habit Tracker, to start running challenges that can help you put these healthy habits into practice.
This month is all about social connection!
Challenge yourself to have at least one meaningful conversation per day for one week and develop an awareness of your social habits along with their relationship to your wellbeing.
Sign up to join in with the upcoming 7-day challenge.
*currently available in the U.S. only
LATEST BOOK RELEASE
Gnar Country: Growing Old, Staying Rad
by Steven Kotler
The New York Times bestselling author and human performance expert tests his knowledge and theories on his own aging body in a quest to become an expert skier at age fifty-three.
Cutting-edge discoveries in embodied cognition, flow science, and network neuroscience have revolutionized how we think about peak performance aging. On paper, these discoveries should allow older athletes to progress in supposedly “impossible” activities like park skiing (think: jumps and tricks.) To see if theory worked in practice, Kotler conducted his own ass-on-the-line experiment in applied neuroscience and later-in-life skill acquisition: He tried to teach an old dog some new tricks.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“Life has no meaning. Each of us has meaning and we bring it to life. It is a waste to be asking the question when you are the answer.”
― Joseph Campbell
Adventure calls,
Lewis 🦸🏻♂️
P.s. I've heard that forwarding this issue to a friend who might enjoy it will give you seven years of good karma. Who knows, worth a shot?