Explore Shorts: Writing about writing
Write to Heal: 5 Easy Methods
Don't wait to heal! Start now, here's how.
When it comes to writing, more often than not, we think of self-expression, creativity and earning an income.
Writers and would-be-writers dream of seeing their words published in a shiny book, selling out in bookstores and Amazon like hot cakes.
While all these reasons are perfectly valid incentives, writing serves another important function — healing.
You don’t even need to want to be a writer to use it as a source of healing.
I’ve used it to heal from anxiety, abusive behaviour, loneliness during the lockdown and from a broken heart.
Read on to explore five ways to heal through writing.
Disclaimer - These recommendations aren't replacements for appropriate medical treatment.
1. Free writing
This one is the easiest and, in many ways, the most effective. It also requires minimal effort.
How to begin?
- Jot down things as they come up — images, ideas, emotions and memories.
- Write without a care. Don’t worry about grammar, language, handwriting or even finishing your sentences. It doesn’t need to be legible or intelligent. The only reader is you!
- I prefer blank unlined sheets so that even line spacing isn’t a bother while free writing. I even write healing letters in this format to people I love or hate.
- If you are experiencing, or have experienced, disturbing overwhelming thoughts and don’t know how to express them, or don’t have anyone to express them to, then write them down.
I felt this way in 2021 and desperately wanted to express myself. Free writing helped me work through the clutter to reach my real emotions.
- When you feel better you can use the same method to write your thoughts down in a more positive way. Be thoughtful about how you repeat the experience, trauma or emotion and look for different perspectives.
I have used this method to change my story into a positive one. Sometimes it also helps me process negative experiences.
Read my freewriting exercise to heal from romantic issues:
Here's some professional advice:
You have to be careful about using the tool, however. Pennebaker cautions that writing about trauma may initially trigger temporary distress. He also emphasizes that the timing of the writing matters. Studies have shown that people who write about a traumatic event immediately after it has occurred may actually feel worse after writing about it, possibly because they are not yet ready to face it. Pennebaker advises his clients to wait at least one or two months after a traumatic event before writing about it.
- To Get Over Something, Write About It, Manfred F. R. Kets de Vries, Harvard Business Review
Additonal use — Writers can also use this method before beginning an article, poem or story. It helps to gather all your thoughts in one place, without worrying about how it sounds or what it looks like.
(Check out these 5 easy tips if you want to be a writer but don't know where to begin)
2. Journaling
Do you remember that diary you kept under lock and key as a kid?
Safe from prying eyes.
A secret world that even parents were not allowed to enter.
Why did we ever stop?
Journaling is like keeping a diary, but for adults.
Journaling is an age-old technique of regularly recording your experiences, ideas, thoughts and emotions.
It works fantastically well if you’re going through a difficult phase, a crisis or health issues.
It helps you keep a track of improvements, achievements, good and bad days, and your performance over a period of time.
Don’t feel like writing? Draw!
Don’t feel like journaling alone? Make a group. You can also use group journaling to keep in touch with people.
Why do I recommend it?
I had the opportunity to explore visual group journaling with a friend who was diagnosed with cancer. I could see it helped in so many ways.
How to begin?
Here are 3 great journaling prompts, to help you begin:
#1 What are some of my achievements from the past week/month?
Tip: Write down small and big achievements, be generous with yourself.
#2 What are some things that I struggle with? How can I make it better?
Tip: Spend some time writing potential solutions rather than ruminating on faults and limitations.
#3 If I could learn one new thing, what would it be?
Tip: Use this prompt to explore yourself, even if you can't drop all your plans and join a class, it’s good to explore your interests.
Still not sure about how to begin? Watch this great video by Skillshare:
3. Storytelling
Sometimes the way we experience things may be different from how it happens.
How does it help?
For instance, I experienced brain fog caused by anxiety that was triggered by a physical ailment. It made me question my reality. Now, I use the same questions as elements for speculative fiction.
A famous instance involves Carl Jung, the founder of analytical psychology. He was charged with treating a young schizophrenic girl. When asked about her, he said ‘she lived on the moon’.
Surely, she only thought she lived on the moon?
But Jung was having none of that. He said she lived there, because that is how she experienced her reality. He called this ‘psychic reality’.
In other words, if his patient’s subjective experience was of living on the moon, then the only true claim he could make was that she lived on the moon.
“By telling me her story she had in a sense betrayed the demon and attached herself to an earthly human being. Hence she was able to return to life and even to marry. Thereafter I regarded the sufferings of the mentally ill in a different light. For I had gained insight into the richness and importance of their inner experience.”
-Memories Dreams Reflections, Carl Gastav Jung, 1961, p 128
So, don’t call yourself crazy if you experience something that seems different from reality, impossible or magical even. Recognize it for what it is — fuel for stories.
4. Non-fiction
We know it. A one-year-old baby knows it. Children around the world know it. Even monkeys and dogs feel it.
What am I talking about?
The simple truth is that unfairness hurts.
There’s a universal preference for fairness that lasts well into adulthood, even after we learn that life is unfair.
“Life is never fair, and perhaps it is a good thing for most of us that it is not.”
-Oscar Wilde
When we are faced with unfairness, abuse, and even violations of our human rights, we don’t always have access to the kind of justice we desire.
Unless you consider writing about those experiences. Consider writing articles about topics that impact you and you care about.
Even if it is news that makes your blood boil.
You can write for journals, newspapers and digital publishers like I do. Or you can vent your frustrations with a well-researched Medium article.
"I first experienced the recuperative effects of intentional expressive writing during the 2008 recession, living in 650 square feet with a spouse who had been laid off just as I became pregnant with twins. I penned a column (“Love in the Time of Layoff,” Recession Wire) that brought relief and release by helping me own what I was living through."
- Writing Can Help Us Heal from Trauma, Deborah Siegel-Acevedo, Harvard Business Review
Who knows? You may even discover a way out, or find a support group of people who face similar problems.
Still upset?
This cute video of how kids make things fair by Oxfam International will make you smile:
5. Leave a comment
You can also just begin to heal through words by leaving a comment here!
Feel free to share your thoughts or experiences of healing.
Why?
“. .sometimes one feels freer speaking to a stranger than to people one knows. Why is that?
Probably because a stranger sees us the way we are, not as he wishes to think we are.”
-The Shadow of the Wind, Carlos Ruiz Zafón
Sharing with someone, even internet strangers, is a great way of grappling and healing from all kinds of issues.
Why wait to find a willing ear when we are there for each other?
And what better platform than Medium, where so many people share and care about personal experiences.
Don’t overthink it, start healing now.
Even if it is by sharing a comment under here.
Feeling close to nature is another great way to heal, check out 7 books that may help:
Want to be a writer, but don't know where to begin? Read this:
Hi! Thanks for reading.
If you liked this story, please "clap" and feel free to leave a comment.
I have written short fiction to heal from stramge experiences and disturbing stories that I hear. Read this one about a beach holiday from hell, or this one about a strange camping trip.
I have written about all kinds of issues that move me. You can find them on my Journo portfolio to see the stuff I’ve published and been paid for.
You can also find other articles if you scroll down this page.
If you want to read more stuff like this, feel free to hit the “follow” button, so it shows up in your feed.
Happy browsing!
