Our Monthly Tip: Write a Journal that Will Benefit Your Well-being

Our Tip of the Month

Writing about how you feel physically and emotionally has immediate and long term benefits. You can focus on your health, grief, confusion about an issue —  any conflict or stressor that’s on your mind. Letting off a little steam as you write helps process feelings that are jumbled in your head and can lead to revelations, new points of view, and even solutions. Getting into the habit of regularly writing by hand improves memory too. But if you don’t consider yourself a writer, where do you start?

Photo: pixabay

How-to Suggestion

Dr. James Pennebaker,whose landmark research uncovered the link between writing and wellness, offers these suggestions.

1. Find a time and place where you won’t be disturbed. Ideally, pick a time at the end of your workday or before you go to bed.
2.  Commit to writing for a minimum of 15 minutes a day for at least 3 or 4 consecutive days.
3.  Once you begin, write continuously. Don’t worry about spelling or grammar. If you run out of things to write about, just repeat what you have already written. Just rewriting the last word you wrote over and over will get your brain back on track.
4. You can write about the same thing on all 3–4 days, or you can write about something different each day. It is entirely up to you. Here are some possibilities:
   1. Something that you are thinking or worrying about too much.
   2. Something that you are dreaming about.
   3. Something that you feel is affecting your life in an unhealthy way.
   4. Something that you have been avoiding for days, weeks, or years.
5. Try to really let go and explore your feelings and thoughts about it. In your writing, you might tie this experience to your childhood, your relationship with your parents, people you have loved or love now, or even your career. How is this experience related to who you would like to become, who you have been in the past, or who you are now?

6. If you find that you are getting extremely upset about a topic, simply stop writing or change topics.

The writing is for you and for you only. Whether you write in a bound journal or on single sheets of paper, whether you keep what you have written or decide to share it, edit it, or throw it out, studies indicate the simple act of writing will benefit your well-being.

If you are interested in the science behind the helpful effects of regular writing, go to Writing Heals the Mind and Body.