Benefits of writing as therapy

Discover why writing can help you regain your emotional balance.

Have you ever felt down and out? Do you feel like stress is wearing down your well-being and routine seems like a dead end? Of course, we all go through difficult situations that have an impact on our mood.

Writing can be a very powerful resource to regain stability in times of crisis.It will help you face your problems and help you see possible solutions in a different light.

Art as a therapeutic weapon

Art can be healing. In general, any activity that is pleasurable, while keeping our mind off our worries, will have a positive impact on our mental health.

For people with a talent for art, dancing, drawing, playing an instrument or painting are fantastic ways to channel emotional development and promote psychological well-being. You may not consider yourself gifted in artistic creation, but you don't need to possess specific skills to enjoy these benefits. There are ways to be more creative and express your emotions that do not require any kind of virtuosity.

A good resource can be therapeutic writing.. There is no requirement to be a prolific author or poet, all you need is a piece of paper, a pen and the motivation to write.

What is therapeutic writing?

Also known as Emotional Journaling, it's exactly what it sounds like: keeping a journal, where you'll record how you've been feeling throughout the day, for therapeutic purposes.

Writing as therapy is affordable, simple and can be a good complement to other treatments. It can be practiced individually, just us and a pencil, or be supervised by a mental health professional. It is also possible to share it with others, in group therapies focused on writing.

Whichever way we choose, writing will contribute to our personal growth, to express and communicate our emotions better.It will help us to express and communicate our emotions better and will foster a sense of being in control of our lives and thoughts.

It is not difficult to see the potential that therapeutic writing can have, just look at the poets and storytellers of all times who define the contact of pen and paper as a cathartic experience. As Henry Miller states in his book "Sexus": "A man writes to expel all the poison he has accumulated because of his false way of living".

Basic differences between the conventional and the emotional diary

Although writing as therapy may seem as simple as journaling, it is much more than that. We can distinguish three major differences between a conventional diary and the emotional diary:

• Those who decide to write a diary do it freely, without following any rules and writing down what comes to mind, while therapeutic writing is more regulated and almost always based on specific guidelines and exercises.
• When writing a diary we focus on capturing the experiences as they occur, while in an emotional diary we must reflect on them, interact with each situation and analyze what we think and feel at each moment before writing it down.
• Writing a diary is an absolutely personal and private experience. In contrast, an emotional journal almost always involves the advice and guidance of a mental health professional.

There is also another major difference between these two writing practices: the increase in our emotional well-being.

Benefits of writing as a therapeutic tool

Keeping a simple journal can certainly be useful, as it improves our memory, helps us to remember small day-to-day events or simply helps us to relax at the end of the day. Although these benefits are not minor, with therapeutic writing we can go further.

For people who have experienced a traumatic or very stressful event, expressing themselves through writing can have a great healing effect. In fact, writing about our traumatic experiences for 15 minutes for four days in a row, brings an improvement in our mood, which is maintained over time (Baikie & Wilhelm, 2005).

Other studies conclude that patients affected by Asthma and arthritis, who wrote about the most traumatic experiences of their lives, experienced a marked improvement in the evaluation of their disease (Smyth, Stone, Hurewitz, & Kaell, 1999).

A recent study suggests that this type of writing may even improve the immune system, although, in this case, the practice should be maintained on a more consistent basis (Murray, 2002).

In addition to all these concrete results on a physical and emotional level, regularly practicing therapeutic writing can help us make more sense of our experiences, see things from a different perspective, and bring out the positive side of unpleasant events. It can also lead us to a degree of deeper understanding of ourselves and our environment that is difficult to achieve without emotionally focused writing (Tartakovsky, 2015).

Overall, therapeutic writing has been shown to be effective in the treatment of many mental conditions and illnessesincluding:

• Drug addiction
• Eating disorders
• Low self-esteem
• Post-traumatic stress
• Depression
• Anxiety
• Obsessive-compulsive disorder
• Grief or loss processes
• Interpersonal relationships

How to write an emotional journal

There are several ways to begin writing for therapeutic purposes. If you are in therapy with a psychology professional, he or she can tell you the best way to get started.

If you are thinking of starting this type of writing on your own before consulting with a therapist, here are some tips to help you.

First of all, you should choose the form that best suits you to get the best result.:

• Use the format you feel most comfortable with, whether it's a classic diary, a simple notebook, a computer program or a blog.
• If it makes you feel more motivated, you can personalize your notebook by decorating it to your liking.
• Make a resolution to write every day and decide how, when and where you are going to write each day; this will create a habit.
• Write down why you have decided to start writing in the first place. This could be the first entry in your journal.

Next, follow these five steps:

• Think about what you want to write about. Write it down.
• Reflect on it: take a breath, close your eyes and concentrate.
• Explore your thoughts and how you feel. Start writing and don't stop.
• Keep track of time. Write for 5 to 15 minutes at a time.
• Reread and review what you have written and summarize it in one or two sentences.

Finally, as you write you should keep in mind that:

• It doesn't matter if you write a few lines or several pages; write at your own pace.
• Don't worry too much about the subject you are writing about, just concentrate on taking your time to write and keeping your full attention on it.
• It's not about writing well in a formal sense, the important thing is to write down what makes sense to you and what flows naturally.
• Write as if you are the only one who is going to read it, that way you will be more authentic and not looking for recognition.

You may find it difficult at first, as we all know that the first step is always the hardest. Keeping the interest and not giving up the commitment will be your next challenge.

Ideas and tips for writing your emotional diary

If you feel stuck and don't know how to continue your writing, here are some ideas that can help you:

• Write letters; they can be addressed to yourself or to others.
• Automatic writing. Write down anything that comes to mind.
• Make an outline. You can write down your problem in the center and draw branches from it showing different aspects.
• Use a photograph from your personal album and ask yourself: "How do I feel when I look at these pictures? What feelings do the people, places or things that appear in them arouse in me?
• Finish these sentences: "What worries me most is...", "I have trouble sleeping when...", "My happiest memory is...".
• Make lists. For example, things that make me sad, reasons to get up in the morning, things that I like, things that make me smile, etc.
• If there is something you are particularly concerned about write it down in the third person; it will help you gain perspective.
• Thought dump. Think about a specific topic, such as an event from your childhood, without paying attention to grammar or spelling, and just write non-stop for 5 minutes.

These tips can serve as an introduction to writing as a therapy to improve your personal balance and maintain control over your mind, while you consider the possibility of seeking psychological help. At the same time, they will help you to improve your self-esteem and, above all, to know yourself.

Bibliographical references:

• Burns, George (2001). 101 Healing Stories: Using Metaphors in Therapy, Wiley.
• García Pintos, Claudio (2001). "La Logoterapia en Cuentos"; Ed. San Pablo, Buenos Aires.
• Saint Girons, Cecilia (2005). "La Lectura y su Efecto Terapéutico" (Reading and its Therapeutic Effect).