The Positive Effects of Self-Expressive Writing
Pausing to jot down your thoughts and feelings using a technique called “expressive writing” can eliminate brain clutter, ease anxiety and helps the mind function more efficiently, according to a recent study led by psychology researcher Hans Schroder. These findings were published online September 8, 2017 in the journal Psychophysiology.
As Schroder explained in a statement, “Worrying takes up cognitive resources; it’s kind of like people who struggle with worry are constantly multitasking — they are doing one task and trying to monitor and suppress their worries at the same time. Our findings show that if you get these worries out of your head through expressive writing, those cognitive resources are freed up to work toward the task you’re completing and you become more efficient.”
Expressive writing has been called a cornerstone of wellness, as it is personal and emotional writing without regard to form or other writing protocols, like spelling, punctuation, capitalization, and grammar. It comes from our core, and pays no heed to unimaginative formalities. It is simply a personal expression of what is in your soul and on your mind, with no intent, or need, for that expression to be shared.
And it works. The connection between expressive writing and wellness was discovered by Dr. James Pennebaker, Centennial Liberal Arts Professor of Psychology at the University of Texas at Austin and a member of the Academy of Distinguished Teachers. In his watershed research project, often referred to as the Pennebaker Paradigm, Pennebaker developed an expressive writing prompt to uncover the potential health benefits of writing about emotional chaos.
Pennebaker’s assignment that he has been giving people for more than 20 years is rather simple; he tells them to write down their deepest, most personal feelings about an upsetting experience in their lives:
Over the next four days, write about your deepest emotions and thoughts about the emotional upheaval that has been influencing your life the most. In your writing, really let go and explore the event and how it has affected you. You might tie this experience to your childhood, your relationship with your parents, people you have loved or love now, or even your career. Write continuously for 20 minutes.
“Emotional upheavals touch every part of our lives,” Pennebaker said. “You don’t just lose a job, you don’t just get divorced. These things affect all aspects of who we are — our financial situation, our relationships with others, our views of ourselves, our issues of life and death. Writing helps us focus and organize the experience.”
Pennebaker is a pioneer in the field of writing therapy, and his work has exposed a large audience of people to the health and wellness benefits of journaling. His book is certainly worth checking out: Opening Up: The Healing Power of Expressing Emotions.
Other studies show the positive effects of self-expressive writing and journaling are numerous:
A significant healing effect in individuals who have experienced a traumatic or extremely stressful event. Participants in a study who wrote about their most traumatic experiences for 15 minutes, four days in a row, experienced better health outcomes up to four months later (Baikie & Wilhelm, 2005).
Over 100 asthma and rheumatoid arthritis patients showed similar results as above. Participants who wrote about the most stressful event of their lives experienced better health evaluations related to their illness (Smyth, Stone, Hurewitz, & Kaell, 1999).
A 2002 study suggested that expressive writing may even improve immune system functioning, although it may need to be sustained for the health benefits to continue (Murray).
In a study by Burton and King (2004), mood measures were taken before and after participants wrote about a peak experience — an intensely positive experience (IPE) or a neutral topic for 20 minutes each day for three consecutive days. The results showed that writing about IPEs was associated with an enhanced positive mood along with significantly fewer health center visits for illness, compared to controls. In addition to these more concrete benefits, regular therapeutic writing can help the writer:
Find meaning in their experiences, view things from a new perspective, and see the silver linings in their most stressful or negative experiences (Murray, 2002).
Experience important insights about themselves and their environment that may be difficult to determine without focused writing (Tartakovsky, 2015).
Writing therapy has proven effective for many different conditions or mental illnesses, including:
Post-traumatic stress
Anxiety
Depression
Obsessive-compulsive disorder
Grief and loss
Chronic illness issues
Substance abuse
Eating disorders
Interpersonal relationship issues
Communication skill issues
Low self-esteem (Farooqui, 2016)
Increased feelings of well-being
Reduced physician visits
Reduced absenteeism from work
Improved academic grades, and
Enhanced immune system functions (Lepore & Smyth, 2002; Pennebaker, 1997, 2004).
The benefits of self-expressive writing and journaling are certainly not insignificant, and the potential positive outcomes reach much further and deeper than simply committing thoughts to a diary.