Journaling: Grab a Paper and Pen and Scream!
By Teresa Ambord
If you’re going to live healthy, you have to learn to deal with stress. People handle it in different ways, some of which are destructive, like overeating or getting drunk. Some are expensive and inconvenient, like getting into therapy. But here’s one way that is none of the above.
Reach For Your Pen!
Next time stress grabs control of your mind and body, fight back. Reach for a pen and paper, and start screaming — on paper. Sit down and write furiously about whatever is troubling you. Don’t worry about spelling or syntax or how it sounds. It takes no talent whatsoever, because this is for your eyes only. It's like a silent scream, only more effective.
Counselors will tell you that your feelings are neither good nor bad, they just are what they are. When you let them spill onto paper, it’s like expelling your negative feelings from your body and your mind, almost like physically putting the feelings outside of yourself. When you do that, you expel unnecessary worry as well.
One Warning!
If you want to ensure that no one else will ever read what you’ve written, put it through a shredder. Or, here’s an easier way--just write one line on top of another, over and over. You can write a whole page on a few lines. That way you still get to expel your feelings and the finished product is totally unreadable.
If you think this sounds kooky, you should know, this kind of writing (journaling) is a bona fide method of treatment.
The Evidence
A study published in the April 2000 the Journal of American Medical Associations showed that there is a connection between writing out your worries, and improving your health.
The research involved chronically ill patients in a four-month long study. All were asked to write daily. Half were told to write about trivial matters, while the other half were told to write about things that troubled or stressed them. At the end of the study, both groups showed improvement in their symptoms, though the group that wrote about stress improved twice as much. The doctors who did the research said that by getting their feelings out on paper, these patients developed stronger physical immunity and therefore strengthen their health.
The doctors explained it this way. Writing is a way to confront trauma, sift through strong emotions, complete thoughts, and break harsh realities into pieces that we can deal with.
Often when things go wrong, we have no safe, effective way to expel the frustrations of our lives. But anyone can grab a notepad and a pen and start writing, anytime, anywhere. It's free, it's right now, it’s private, and best of all, it works.
Niceness Doesn't Count!
You can write what you cannot say, because nobody is going to read it. You may not be able or willing to admit that you hate your boss or your mother-in-law. But you can write it.
So What Are You Waiting For?
Writing can help to free your mind of stressful worries, allowing you to get on with your life. Grab a pen and paper and go for it!
