Write about the thing for fifteen minutes, four days running
Not journaling. A specific protocol, with a specific dose.
Do this
For four consecutive days, write continuously for fifteen to twenty minutes about a difficult experience and how you feel about it. Do not stop to edit. Nobody reads it. Then stop - this is a course, not a habit.
Why it works
Expressive writing has produced small but repeated benefits to physical and psychological health across many trials. The best evidence suggests the mechanism is constructing a coherent narrative rather than venting: people whose language shifts toward causal and insight words over the four days improve most.
Where it fails
Effect sizes are small and have shrunk as trial quality improved. It can make things temporarily worse in the days immediately after, and it is not appropriate soon after acute trauma. Endless unstructured journaling about the same grievance looks more like rumination than like this.
How you’ll know
Read day one and day four side by side. If day four contains explanation and day one contains only complaint, it worked.