How Expressive Writing is Good For Your Mental Heath

Explicitly sharing how you feel and think has powerful effects

Fiza Ameen
Science For Life
3 min readMay 25, 2021

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Personal writing in which you don’t have to bother what others will think and your writing mistakes/caliber is expressive and can work wonders for you. Researchers have shown how this kind of writing improves our mental health. People have different ways of putting down their feelings. A commonplace book, morning journal, or night diary whatever it’s called, if you write your feelings explicitly, that notebook can be your best friend.

Do not think about the vulnerability of this kind of writing. For a small interval of time after writing everything we feel and think, our heartbeat becomes irregular and sometimes tears come of their own accord. Life is neither easy nor fair. You lose some, you gain some. Following the right track is the only thing that matters.

But the long-term benefits of this writing are too many. Writing is a kind of therapy to your mind. Dr. Mark Rowe, a specialist in lifestyle medicines, tells that keeping a journal is one of the habits of successful people.

The image on Unsplash by Sydney Rae
  • It is a way to do away with anxiety and stress. When we get rid of the feelings and thoughts which are a burden on our hearts, we feel better.
  • It improves the clarity of the matter at hand and we are more focused.
  • It’s a way to get control over your emotions, for now, and for what is to come.
  • You can write anything which comes to your mind without thinking about its consequences. Hence it’s a better way to talk than to have a conversation with your friend.
  • Feelings change with the passage of time and our memory fades. Ink is a stronger candidate than weaker memory. So it can save your perceptions for future usage.
  • It can stimulate you to mend your ways and be better next time.

“I can shake off everything as I write; my sorrows disappear, my courage is reborn.”

~Anne Frank

  • We come to know why this and that thing happened. So, these reasons tell you what has gone wrong.
  • It can help you to prioritize your problems and solve them one at a time.
  • It can be a way to get rid of your fear as fear is the only thing that frightens you.
  • Lastly, a piece of paper is never judgemental. Deep down your greatest wish may be to speak about some stuff. Expressive writing can be a help in that case.

“When I write down my thoughts, they do not escape me. This action makes me remember my strength which I first at all times. I educate myself proportionately to my captured thought. I am only to distinguish the contradiction between my mind and nothingness.”

~Isidore Ducasse Lautreamont

A vivid piece of writing by your heart can do loads of things for you. So why not take help from it? Happy writing!

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Fiza Ameen
Science For Life

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