Got troubles? Tension? Stress? Are childhood trauma issues weighing you down?
Take the miracle cure. Write about what is bothering you. Not only will you start to feel better emotionally, but physically, too.
According to University of Texas psychologist James W. Pennebaker, in his landmark work, The Secret Life of Pronouns, hundreds of writing studies conducted around the world over the last twenty-five years have conclusively proved that writing is powerful healing medicine.
Have you ever kept a journal or a diary? Then you may already know the power of writing to, yes, heal, but at the same time to help you find practical solutions to problems whether they are interpersonal, financial or work-related in nature.
The number of creative nonfiction writing courses being offered today is at an all-time high. Why is that? People are drawn to writing about their real-life traumatic events because doing so often empowers them. They find this kind of writing can even help them break free of the lingering negative undertow of traumas. This, too, is the power of writing to heal.
Early in his career, Pennebaker learned that ''people who reported having a terrible traumatic experience and who kept the experience a secret had far more health problems than people who openly talked about their traumas.''
The author writes: ''We [then] began running experiments where people were asked to write about traumatic experiences for fifteen or twenty minutes a day for three or four consecutive days. Compared to people who were told to write about non-emotional topics, those who wrote about trauma evidenced improved physical health. Later studies found that emotional writing boosted immune function, brought drops in blood pressure, and reduced feelings of depression and elevated daily moods.''
The question of why writing works is another matter. Pennebaker again: ''I am now convinced that when people write about traumatic events, several healthy changes occur simultaneously, including changes in people's thinking patterns, emotional responses, brain activity; sleep and health behaviors, and so forth.''
The Writer's Garret puts into real-world practice the same powerful, healing process Pennebaker found in his writing experiments. Each year it provides creative writing programs to about 2,500 school-age children and at-risk youth as well as to families and educators through its Writers in Neighborhoods & Schools (WINS) program.
In WINS classes, students learn that they can use words to sort out their emotions and build a sense of identity and accomplishment. They learn that writing can ease the frustrations of daily life and bring much-needed healing. The Writer's Garret has also had great success helping women with newly diagnosed breast cancer, using creative nonfiction writing to cope and begin to find ways to spiritually heal.
It would mean a great deal to me if you were to donate now to The Writer's Garret ongoing DonorLanding campaign. (I'm a Writer's Garret trustee.)
- A $26 donation will fund an hour of one-on-one reading and writing instruction for a child or classroom instruction for up to six children in an after-school enrichment program
- A $260 donation will provide a class of homeless pre-teens and teens with about a week of creative writing instruction.
But the matching period ends at midnight on June 25, 2014.
Please make your contribution to The Writer's Garret here today. The children and young adults that The Writer's Garret helps need your help now.
