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Writing Improves Your Health (That Easy, Yes!)
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After two weeks, the researchers found that the study participants who wrote about topics with an emotional charge showed more improvements in their PTSD symptoms, as well as lower levels of anxiety and depression.
Some research even shows that writing can speed up physical healing as well. A study at the University of Auckland in New Zealand found that adults who spent 20 minutes a day writing about their lives for 3 days each were actually able to physically recover from wounds faster. Again there were two groups, and the topics were either their daily routines or an upsetting event in their life. Two weeks after they stopped writing, the participants volunteered to receive a small puncture wound on their arms. Interestingly enough, the group that wrote about the emotional topic which upset them healed faster than the group that wrote about mundane daily tasks.
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Why Does It Work?
Writing about things can allow you to objectify them and put them out of your head. If you have a lot of troubling disjointed thoughts on your mind, putting them down on paper or typing them out can help give the person a sense of release. It can also help you gain some sense of control, clarity, and detachment from what is bothering you. When you see your problems stated out clearly, you are really looking at them in a different way, and it allows you to let go of the stress and take steps to proactively deal with the root causes.
Writing out things that you are grateful for can also help you reduce stress. If you are more appreciative of what you already have, you’re probably less likely to stress out over the day to day pressures of life.
Give it a try. Spare 20 a minutes a day for at least 3 days in row and spend it on writing out either things that bother you or represent some sort of emotional weight on your mind, and see if it does not make you feel better. Alternatively, try keeping a gratitude journal and write about what you are grateful for. It may just give you a whole new, more positive, and less stressful outlook on life.
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