 |
| Felix Emile-Jean Vallotton |
Tara Parker-Pope, health
writer for the New York Times, posted a piece this week on the scientific evidence
that writing—journaling—is good for your health, and that writing can help with
pain, recovery and wellness.
We have known this
anecdotally, and we’ve seen other research from medical schools in the United
States—studies of patients with everything from asthma to appendicitis, and through
cancer and chemo—those that write—regularly—report less pain, less
illness-related stress and faster recovery times.
In our recovery programs—for
our addictions—we are encouraged to write. Our twelve steps include writing inventory,
writing lists and writing amends. In current practice we talk even more about daily
gratitude lists and writing out topic specific inventories: food, cars,
relationships, men, work…we write about our “issues” and we write to explore
and express feelings. And it works.
But do we write when
things are going well? When recovery has a calm period? When life is more happy
than sad?
We should. The article by
Parker-Pope—the link is below—shows that writing can shift us into happiness
and keep happy times alive. It works for men and women, individuals and for
couples. One of the striking pieces of research that is reported here is that
re-writing one’s own story can lead to a big change in our outlook, and that by
writing -with pen to paper-we can re-write (internally) our story and our
perspective.
I’m trying this tonight. I
have (yet another) nagging issue and I’m putting pen to paper to re-write how I
am and how this could be different. Why don’t you try that too—and let’s
compare notes. Deal?
Here’s the article by Tara
Parker-Pope:
No comments:
Post a Comment