As a life-long journal keeper, I’ve experienced the healing power of writing first-hand. After losing my husband to suicide in 2010, journaling was a powerful way to process the complex feelings I was experiencing. I continue to turn to my journal to sort through all kinds of emotions and challenges, and I’m not alone in benefiting from the incredible healing powers of writing.
In The Myth of Normal, a riveting book about trauma and addition, Dr. Gabor Maté says, “Storytelling is an obvious healing modality when you understand how you can’t separate people’s lives and biology from their histories.” In other words, sharing our stories, traumas, and tragedies is one of our greatest tools for self-healing.
Expressive writing, an activity that involves exploring one’s emotions and feelings, has been studied extensively and shown to improve emotional and physiological outcomes. Social Psychologist James W. Pennebaker famously conducted a research study where participants were encouraged to explore their traumatic experiences through expressive writing for 15 minutes, three days per week. Participants reported a better immune system, improved mood, and fewer health center visits in the six months following the program, which became known as the Pennebaker Paradigm.
Pennebaker’s research led to dozens of other studies that reached similar conclusions. According to an article by the National Center for Biotechnical Information (NCBI), a study analyzed more than 1,400 articles about expressive writing from the Web of Science database. The results confirmed that expressive writing can reduce anxiety and depression and relieve symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
According to an article in the Journal of American Medicine (JAMA), a randomized trial of patients with either asthma or Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) showed significant improvement in disease symptoms after writing about the most stressful events in their lives for twenty minutes, three times per week. Asthma patients improved their baseline lung function by over 12%, while RA patients experienced a 28% reduction in disease severity. At the same time, another group of patients wrote about trivial topics and showed no statistically significant improvement in disease outcomes.
The Department of Veteran’s Affairs details a list of health benefits that come from practicing expressive writing for three to four days per week, based on a variety of studies. These benefits include:
- Lung functioning in asthma
- Disease severity in rheumatoid arthritis
- Pain and physical health in cancer
- Immune response in HIV infection
- Hospitalizations for cystic fibrosis
- Pain intensity in women with chronic pelvic pain
- Sleep-onset latency in poor sleepers
- Post-operative course
In addition, expressive writing can be helpful for processing life circumstances, including breaking up with a life partner, death of a loved one, job loss, natural disaster, and other stressful events.
Memoir Writing to Heal, Inspire, and Create a Legacy
While expressive writing can help us heal ourselves, sharing our stories with others can help them heal, too. We all experience traumas in life, both large and small, and it can feel lonely to navigate through new emotional territory. But when we read or hear the stories of others who have walked in similar shoes before us, it tempers some of that loneliness and gives us hope for better days ahead.
I have always turned to reading memoirs as a coping strategy. After my husband died, I read dozens of memoirs about widowhood and loss. Each writer’s story put a tiny bandage on my scarred heart. When a family member struggled with addiction, I read memoirs about addicts who overcame their struggles. The lessons found in memoirs don’t always have to be based on trauma. When I started my own business over two decades ago, I sought out memoirs about business owners, and I still enjoy reading entrepreneur stories today.
Dr. Maya Angelou once said, “As soon as healing takes place, go out and heal someone else.” I believe we do this through sharing our stories, whether through writing a memoir or a prescriptive nonfiction book. Every time we share our stories, perhaps we are healed just a little bit more.
If you’ve been wondering if you should write a memoir or book based on your own life experiences, let this be some gentle encouragement to forge ahead. Your story matters. It has the power to provide healing for you and for your readers. It also becomes part of your legacy that can make an impact for many years to come. And if you believe in living your life purpose, this may just be a calling you shouldn’t ignore.
“I think our journey is all about healing ourselves and healing each other in our own special ways.” -Ram Dass
How to Conduct Expressive Writing Sessions for Healing
According to Pennebaker, use the following guidelines to benefit from expressive writing.
- Choose a writing topic that is important or personal to you, based on a past traumatic experience.
- Write for 15 to 20 minutes for four consecutive days, if possible. Writing sessions that are close together tend to be most effective.
- Ignore grammar and spelling as you write and instead focus on getting your feelings out of your head and onto paper.
- Write continuously for the allotted time. If you run out of ideas to write about, repeat the previous topic you wrote about.
- Write for yourself and nobody else. You can hide or destroy the pages you write. (Speaking from experience, burning these types of writings can be cathartic!)
- Avoid writing about events that are too upsetting. If you aren’t ready to face a specific event or experience, you can write about something else.
- Expect that you may feel sad or upset while writing and for a period after writing. This is normal and part of how we process through difficult emotions. When possible, plan some alone time following your writing session so you can reflect on how you’re feeling.
- If you feel overwhelmed by emotions while practicing expressive writing, stop and practice some self-soothing exercises like taking a walk or calling a friend. This exercise is meant to be helpful in processing feelings and emotions and not to re-traumatize you. If the exercise is too difficult, you may want to seek some professional support from a therapist.
Do you need some guidance on writing your book?
Find resources for writing, publishing and promoting books by joining the Nonfiction Authors Association, attending the annual Nonfiction Writers Conference, or enrolling in one of our popular online courses for writers.
