Last week on the BBC News website, an article by Cathy Edwards on the health benefits of writing was published. In it, Edwards discusses some of the many studies that have been done on the correlation between writing about feelings, traumatic experiences and secrets, and how putting those thoughts and emotions on paper can lead to faster healing, lower blood pressure, and reduced risk of cancer.
Whether you write in a journal with pen and paper or keep an online blog which you share with the public (or not), you keep all of your writings close at hand or shred your creations immediately after you’ve recorded your thoughts, writing is a great way to express yourself and process your feelings.
Professor James Pennebaker’s top tips for expressive writing
- Ask yourself if you need to write. If you find yourself thinking about something too much, dreaming about it or obsessing about it in some way, writing could be beneficial.
- Promise yourself you’ll write for a minimum of 15 minutes a day for three or four days.
- Don’t worry about spelling.
- Write for yourself, not for an audience: this is not a letter to someone, this is for you.
- Plan on destroying what you’ve written, though whether or not you actually destroy it doesn’t matter.
Read the full article here:
Writing – for health and happiness?
How does writing help you?