The Healing Power of Writing-Why I Write My Daily Blogs

I was reading my FaceBook the other day, when I came into this article. Its struck a note in my heart, why I write my daily blogs. Here's a brief summary of the article and the details in the site below:  

https://www.writeyourjourney.com/the-healing-power-of-writing/

The Healing Power of Writing: Scientific Evidence

Scientific research shows that the emotional release we receive from journaling can lower stress and anxiety. It has been shown to lead to an improved immune system and aid our overall physical and emotional well-being.

Writing things down helps us confront challenging and painful experiences. It builds resilience by allowing us to process, release and make meaning of complex emotions. It is a way of releasing story lines that keep us stuck. 

James Pennebaker, a psychologist at the University of Texas at Austin, pioneered research on the healing power of writing. People who wrote about traumatic events, he found, experienced improved physical and mental health. Writing helps us make complex experiences more manageable and graspable. It offers a way to re-evaluate the past by looking at it in new ways.

Writing to Heal: how do I get started?

How do I get started and what do I write about, are the two most frequent questions my students ask. The answer is simple. There is no right or wrong when it comes to a personal writing practice.

You may want to do Morning Pages, ie. write three pages by hand first thing in the morning. Or you might write a gratitude journal before bed.

The important thing is to give yourself permission to write freely, without allowing your inner critic to hold you back. What you write should be for your eyes only. Don’t worry about spelling or grammar. Just write as it wants to pour out of you.

Timed free-writing sessions will help you get the words out. Use the timer on your phone. Anything between five to ten minutes is great.

Use pen and paper. It will slow you down so that you can bear witness to the stories you carry. Computers are a distraction and you’ll be tempted to edit your words as you write. You want to capture first thoughts and raw emotions in your journal. Writing things down and editing are two different processes.

Make sure your writing is safe. Think of your journal as your sacred space where you can show up authentically, without filters, without make-up. Where you can safely say the things you are ashamed to verbalise, where you can vent and rage and most of all, where you can be vulnerable.

How to access the healing power of writing

1. Do a brain dump

Dump whatever is in your head onto the page. Just get the words out. It’s ok if it feels like you’re vomiting on the page. Think of it as decluttering your head. You are dumping your thoughts, emotions, doubts…whatever it is that needs to be let go of, so that your mind can become spacious and calm.

2. Write a diary ( Or my Daily Blogs)

Writing a diary can be as simple as writing about your day. Write about the things you did and did not do, the people you interacted with, the things you ate, the news you watched, the things you did or did not do to care for yourself or the ways you allowed the news to affect your anxiety levels. Think of a diary as a way of making an inventory of your heart.

Date each entry so that you can track your internal changes and personal transformation and healing over time.

3. Write to practice self-compassion

Write for 10-15 minutes about what you need from yourself to feel less vulnerable, less cranky, less anxious…or whatever you may be feeling right now.
Another great way to use writing as a self-compassion practice is to write a letter to yourself from the perspective a good friend, assuring you that whatever happens, you are loved and cared for.

4. Write a gratitude journal

Gratitude is a secret superpower that helps to build resilience and happiness. Too often we focus on what we lack—and right now we lack a lot of things that we used to take for granted before the pandemic. Gratitude is a way to look at what is abundant and good in our lives, despite the current crisis.

Writing a gratitude journal can be as simple as listing five things that you are grateful for at the end of every day: your warm bed at night, access to drinking water, your cat, your veggie garden, your inner resilience…

5. Use a writing prompt

A writing prompt can be a quote, an inspirational card, a photo, a question, or a sentence stem.

I hope you find this article interesting and have answered your questions why I have been blogging almost daily since 2009.  

Meanwhile, I received a corrected Christmas Card from THD the other day

https://chateaudumer.blogspot.com/2024/12/an-unexpected-christmas-card-from.html