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How do you heal yourself emotionally through writing?
Journaling: Write about your thoughts without censoring them, even if they’re unpleasant. Sometimes just putting those thoughts down can help you work through them. This is a form of expressive writing, where you’re focusing on emotions and experiences, not punctuation and grammar. Journal writing, or journaling, involves writing down your thoughts and emotions on paper. Journaling exercises bring amazing benefits for your mental health and well-being. It’s a great way to deal with anxious thoughts because it brings awareness to the present. By writing, you put some structure and organization to those anxious feelings, he explains. It helps you to get past them. Other research by Pennebaker indicates that suppressing negative, trauma-related thoughts compromises immune functioning, and that those who write visit the doctor less often. Keeping a journal helps you create order when your world feels like it’s in chaos. You get to know yourself by revealing your most private fears, thoughts, and feelings. Look at your writing time as personal relaxation time. It’s a time when you can de-stress and wind down. Writing therapy posits that writing one’s feelings gradually eases feelings of emotional trauma. Writing therapeutically can take place individually or in a group and it can be administered in person with a therapist or remotely through mailing or the Internet. Journaling helps keep your brain in tip-top shape. Not only does it boost memory and comprehension, it also increases working memory capacity, which may reflect improved cognitive processing.
Does writing heal trauma?
Research suggests writing about trauma can be beneficial because it helps people re-evaluate their experiences by looking at them from different perspectives. Studies suggest writing about traumatic events can help ease the emotional pressure of negative experiences. Therapists also recommend writing trauma stories in the present tense. The view allows the events to occur in the present moment of your mind rather than keeping them in the past, where many people store negative thoughts to avoid dealing with them. Present tense provides vivid and emotional descriptions. Expressive writing can result in a reduction in stress, anxiety, and depression; improve our sleep and performance; and bring us greater focus and clarity. These effects of writing as a tool for healing are well documented. Improve writing and communication skills Writing, like anything, improves with practice. When you journal every day, you’re practicing the art of writing. And if you use a journal to express your thoughts and ideas, it can help improve your communication skills.