3 more days to enter the Inspirational Quote Contest!
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When something bad happens, how do you cope?
- Talk with your partner or a friend?
- Go for a walk or jog?
- Head for the kitchen for chocolate?
- Stew about it for days?
As we all know, there are helpful and harmful ways of coping with difficult or stressful events. Writing in a journal, also called expressive writing, is a positive response, and one that can help you feel better both physically and emotionally.
Psychologist James Pennebaker conducted a study of workers fired on short notice from a computer company. He remarked, “I have never worked with such a bitter and hostile group of research subjects.” He divided the workers into 3 groups, and had everyone write in a diary for 20 minutes each day, for a week. The 3 groups were instructed to write about different topics:
- Group 1: how they spent their time each day
- Group 2: their deepest feelings about the loss of their job
- Group 3: whatever they wanted
The results: Those who wrote about their anger and disappointment found new employment much more quickly. What’s interesting about this result is that the workers didn’t just feel better, but had a specific better outcome - a “real world” positive effect.
The benefits of writing have been shown in diverse groups – students, criminals, and sick patients. More recent studies show that expressive writing helps your immune system and blood pressure.
This Friday, I’ll look at what’s the most helpful way to write or journal. Thanks to dsevilla for the photo from Flickr.
3 responses so far ↓
emily // Oct 4, 2007 at 3:40 pm
am interested to read more about journaling. i’m not a writer my any means, and appreciate guidance. some of the times i feel like it’d be best to journal (when the pain is the worst), i feel like i need to distract myself instead of focusing on the pain.
Debs // Oct 8, 2007 at 1:40 pm
For approximately 24 years, I have been writing in journals. That’s a lot of paper! Your idea about journaling the negatives in your life just seemed to have happened naturally with me. If something is going RIGHT, there seems to be no reason to work through it. But if I had a lot of pain, or emotional pain from something happening with family or friends, I would write it out rather than keeping it inside of me, stewing, and letting it poison me.
Ironically, about a year ago, I looked through some of my journals, and said to myself that if anyone who didn’t know me read these, they would think that I was the most dismal, down, depressed, negative person in the world. Actually, I’m pretty positive and up. But I keep that way by writing the bad stuff, sometimes analysing it…it just happens as you write. Or, just doing a mind dump about it…use strong language you wouldn’t ordinarily use–#@*!, and make yourself feel better. Even when I didn’t have RSD, it helped me be a more positive person and better parent and wife. Now, I feel it helps me cope with my pain, aging parents and all that other stuff that happens as we go through life.
I try to purchase journals that appeal to me, esthetically…look interesting or pretty on the outside. Recently, I got a lavender suede journal that I decided I would only write about the good stuff in…I had an older laminated gift that wasn’t good looking for the negative. Guess what? Without trying, the lavender journal got polluted and is now also a dumping ground. It just happens…like life.
How to Cope with Pain // Oct 8, 2007 at 3:55 pm
Emily and Debs, thanks for your comments. You both write about some of the benefits – distraction, venting, analyzing, etc. You might like to read Friday’s post also, about what we’ve learned about what ways to write help most, The Best Way To Write In Your Journal.
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