Writing isn’t JUST for writers. How writing improves health, reduces stress, and makes things much better for everyone
A regular writing habit is beneficial. And not only for writers.
In fact, writing your deepest thoughts and feelings brings significant health improvements. Both mental and physical.
In the late 1980s an American social psychologist James W. Pennebaker carried out many studies that explored writing as a form of expressive therapy.
He found out that expressive writing helps people deal with emotional upheavals. This in turn improves their health and wellbeing.
After experiencing traumatic events like death of family member, divorce, serious illness, natural disaster, war, people are likely to become depressed. They can get sick, gain or lose weight, and even die from heart disease or cancer.
Those who keep their trauma a secret feel much worse off compared to those who talk about these experiences. Still many people who experience trauma don’t talk about it. There are many reasons why. But one of the most common reasons: they fear the reaction of others.
Writing about a painful event is almost like talking about it, only in this case you are both talker and listener. Being completely honest with yourself in writing results in feeling better.
Pennebaker’s studies suggest that expressive writing makes a positive impact on our physical and mental health. Let’s discuss this in more detail.
Expressive writing improves physical health
Ongoing chronic stress weakens our immune system and makes us susceptible to disease. To understand how stress affects our health, let’s explore chemical reactions that happen in our body when we experience stress.
Imagine a situation. You started running after a long break. Running inflicts a degree of stress on your body. Soon after you hit the track, your brain will send a signal to the endocrine system which will release cortisol and adrenaline. These hormones will provide your body with energy needed for your run. Your heart rate and breathing will increase and your blood vessels will dilate to let blood flow quickly to your muscles.
Cortisol — also called anti-stress hormone — helps you combat stress and reduces inflammation in your body. Without cortisol you can die from injury and trauma. This hormone a great helper indeed. But only for short-term stress.
After running you can relax and your stress level will return to normal. But when it comes to emotional stress, people have more trouble handling it. When you are suffering from emotional stress your cortisol level is high. And excess cortisol in your blood suppresses your immune system.
Chronic stress is often a result of an emotional situation that you haven’t resolved. People who suffer from chronic stress may experience anxiety, depression, and sleep problems. They have an increased risk of high blood pressure, heart disease, and cancer.
Expressive writing is an effective method to reduce stress. Disclosing your deepest feelings in writing lowers your blood pressure and heart rate. A regular writing practice enhances emotional regulation and strengthens your immune system.
Writing about emotional events makes people feel better
When a traumatic event happens, people start seeking the answer to why it happened. They go over and over it replaying negative memories in their mind. Overthinking — or ruminating — leads to depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and other mental health problems. Depression can lead to alcohol abuse and binge eating.
Expressive writing helps you break free of the endless distressing ruminative cycles. It decreases depressive symptoms, worries, and anxiety. When you open up privately you ease the feelings of emotional trauma.
Writing about emotional upheavals impacts your mood in a good way. Although you can feel upset and even weepy after you wrote your deepest feelings, it’s only a short-term effect. Feeling sad is okay. You can reflect on these feelings for a moment. A couple of hours later you will notice how the act of expressing your emotions in written form has made you feel better.
Writing about traumatic experiences boosts performance
Expressive writing doesn’t only improve physical and mental health. It also improves your performance.
Rumination and brooding take over your thoughts when you’re trying to concentrate on work or studies. When you feel worried you have less working memory or the ability to focus on complex tasks.
Emotional writing boosts your working memory by freeing up your resources. It lets you reframe your thinking and break free of the thinking traps. When you put traumatic experiences into words you become less concerned with the emotional events of the past. You can focus on the present.
Expressing feelings in writing improves our social lives
Another benefit of expressive writing is enhanced quality of social life.
One of Pennebaker’s studies showed that people who wrote about traumatic experiences became more sociable afterwards. They talked more with other people, laughed more often, and used more words that associate with positive emotions.
In another study he found that expressive writing helps people pass job interviews. He asked one group of people who had been laid off to write about their feelings about losing their jobs. The other group of laid-off employees were asked to write about how they used their time. Both groups went on the same number of interviews. As a result, 52% of employees who wrote about traumatic events were reemployed compared with only 21% of participants who wrote about non-traumatic topics.
Writing about things that bother you makes you less negative. It makes you a better listener and talker. Writing helps to reduce anger and depression resulting in emotionally healthy social relationships.
When expressive writing is most helpful
If you’re going through tough times like moving to a new country, changing a job, or coping after divorce, expressive writing will be particularly useful.
If there was a traumatic event in your life that happened some time ago but you haven’t quite gotten over it yet, you should write about it too.
You can also do expressive writing every day — express how you feel about anything that happens in your life.
Expressive writing is a self-reflective tool. By exploring emotional upheavals in our lives we force ourselves to look inwards and examine who we are. This examination can serve as a life course correction.
How to write expressively
- Openly acknowledge emotions both negative and positive. Naming your emotions is an important first step in dealing with them effectively.
- Construct a meaningful story of what happened and how it is affecting you. Your narrative should have the beginning, the middle part and the end.
- Write in the third person trying to switch the perspective and look at what happened through others eyes.
- Express yourself openly and honestly. Don’t worry about spelling, grammar or sentence structure. Find your own voice.
Use Morning Pages for expressive writing
You probably heard about a writing practice called Morning Pages. This technique was introduced in the book "The Artist's Way."
Julia Cameron — the author of this book — suggests that three pages of longhand, stream of consciousness writing clears your mind and makes you more creative.
But writing longhand isn't the only right way of writing. In fact, studies that examined the ways of writing haven’t found any significant differences between typing and writing longhand.
We're developing Morning Pages app for iPhone and iPad. This is a journaling application that lets people write their thoughts and feelings using their smartphones. You can use it as a tool for expressive writing.
