Is Writing the New Miracle Cure?
Why writing is powerful medicine
In my last post, How Yoga and Writing Saved My Life, I introduce how I learned to rely on my yoga and writing practice to recover from illness. Here I want to begin to break down how writing works in the healing process. I will highlight some of the irrefutable evidence that writing about illness heals, and discuss why I believe telling stories about illness is, or should be, a healthcare treatment unto itself.
What: There is ample proof that writing is highly effective treatment for many ailments. Over the past two decades, University of Texas scholar Dr. James Pennebaker has been conducting extensive studies on the impact of Expressive Writing exercises on patients across the spectrum of illness. Narrative Medicine expert Dr. Mehl- Madrona also writes about this eloquently in his groundbreaking book Narrative Medicine.
How it Works: Expressive Writing is generally done one-on-one with a therapist or in a group setting, where individuals put aside twenty minutes 1–3 times a week and write about their lives, in a stream-of-consciousness style. This writing is not meant to be published or shared; it’s meant to act as a “dumping” area for the individual to give voice and language to hidden parts of their experience.
Results: These studies prove that writing does wonders for mood elevation and lowering blood pressure, in addition to alleviating insomnia, depression, and anxiety. It has also been shown that regular personal writing exercises, when done properly in a group under supervision can be highly effective for persons coping with chronic illness or trauma. It has also been proven to increase employment rates for recently incarcerated individuals, help cancer victims respond to treatment, and offers meaningful support, self esteem and practical skills for homeless women.
As a patient — like being a writer — our job is to observe closely what is around us; what is being said, shown, and how we are impacted so we can become our own advocates. At a time when conventional medicine in the US is a leading cause of death, and doctors have on average less than 15 minutes to deliver a diagnosis after meeting with a new patient, writing is not simply a luxury. Essentially, “writing practices invite us to become an “expert in yourself”, as author Charlie Barber writes, “so that we don’t so willingly, blindly, cede our will over to the care of doctors.”
While Expressive Writing has been studied in a clinical setting, it is not the only form of beneficial personal writing. To broaden the discussion, let’s say there are three kinds of writing: clinical writing, spiritual writing and literary writing. All inform each other and offer great joy, relief and wisdom to caregivers and patients alike.
The Pennebaker approach of Expressive Writing is a valuable case study; many leaders in the spiritual community have also been promoting this type of personal writing for decades. Perhaps most notably, Julia Cameron talks about this kind of writing in her seminal bestseller The Artists Way, where she instructs readers to write Morning Pages. She suggests writing three pages of stream of conscious handwritten pages each morning. Other popular spiritual leaders like Marianne Williamson and Gabrielle Bernstein refer to practices like this as conversations with God. These pages are celebrated for promoting insight, inspiration and release, and undoubtedly have innumerable health benefits.
In his beautiful memoir Intoxicated by My Illness, Anatole Broyard also describes the need to write about illness in order to survive. He writes, “a sick person needs other strategies besides medical ones to help him cope with his illness.” He continues, “storytelling is a natural reaction to illness.”
For literary writers, form, craft and process makes a difference; how a story is told matters. Literary writing elevates personal expressive writing and offers an opportunity for a transcendent experience for the reader, too. Dani Shapiro, a champion of literary voices, writes and speaks widely about the importance of craft and also the spirituality of the writing process. She doesn’t mince words, but simply states, “Writing saved my life.”
“Writing saved my life. It became my release. Writing, pounding on that keypad every night helped me pound out the stress in my life as a teenager.”
— Dani Shapiro, Still Writing
Brought together, literature create a transcendent (and also healing) experience. Beyond the immediate relief that writing exercises may offer a patient, there is a higher calling in Narrative Medicine, an approach to healthcare which values the patient narrative, to bridge the gap between artist and physician, and writer and patient that may offer a transformative moment.
It’s exciting to see healing writing programs are on the rise. A wide array of institutions, research organizations, and popular outlets ranging from Columbia University to The Daily Om’s “Writing Heals” are all promoting varying types of prescriptive writing programs for patients, doctors and caregivers. These courses offer an alternative to the isolation of illness and diagnosis. As Judith Hannan writes, “without words, illness isolates us.” Writing is the end of isolation.
In the upcoming Program in Narrative Medicine at Kripalu June 19–24 we will emphasize patient stories and the role of literary skill in medicine.
Dani Shapiro, Lewis Mehl Madrona, Charles Barber and Judith Hannan will all be featured in the forthcoming Program in Narrative Medicine at Kripalu (June 19–24). Join us to discuss how writing helps us foster a more holistic, connected approach to healthcare. More details here: http://buff.ly/1MBH5Hm
