Mindful writing can take you on a journey of self-discovery. It can be a meeting point for your experience and your mindfulness practice, a location to confront the ups and downs of your emotional life, and a bit of stable ground to stand on.
For most of my life, following a difficult conversation, I’d pull out paper and pen and jot down my thoughts. My right hand would ache from all that poured out of me as my thoughts swirled and emotions spilled onto the page. Writing allows me to not only “blow off steam” when I’m upset, disappointed, or furious, but also to pause and get a clearer picture of my experience with some distance.
Why is Mindful Writing so Healing?
Mindful writing, also known as expressive writing, is a healing type of writing in which you express your most inner thoughts and feelings. It’s an opportunity to put pen to paper or fingers to keyboard, let go of your inner critic and editor, and focus on the story of your experience and how you interpret it.
Many of us have a natural tendency to create our own tales about how we think and feel, which impacts how we perceive our lives and the world. However, the thoughts and emotions we associate with an experience—for example, a struggle, an interaction, a loss, or a memory—can shift with time. And sometimes the way we communicate our story isn’t quite correct. Mindful writing puts just enough distance between you and a “story,” which may allow you to view it more clearly.
A mindful writing practice can improve your awareness and help you make sense of your ideas, feelings, and viewpoints.
A mindful writing practice can improve your level of awareness by providing space and a sense of curiosity, allowing you to make sense of your thoughts, feelings, and viewpoints. It’s an opportunity to slow down, breathe, start over, and be open to what you’re thinking and feeling. Finally, it is a method toward making sense of an experience and then seeing and comprehending how you react to it.
Much of the study on expressive writing advises considering it as a life-course corrective. His research suggests that by writing and then reflecting on our own tales, we may transform our beliefs of ourselves and discover hurdles to emotional wellness.
Writing not only helps us make sense of terrible experiences, but it can also help us relieve a load. According to research, writing not just facts but sentiments, and not just what happened but how you felt about it, assists you in putting together a coherent tale that helps you better understand yourself. There may be a sense of relief after feelings and thoughts are included in the written narrative—it’s as if you’ve released them from your heart and mind onto the page. You don’t have to share your work with anyone unless you want to, but you also don’t have to keep your experience to yourself.
One way to understand how these benefits occur is that the act of writing concretizes information that is frequently only dimly experienced, such as fast judgments, anxieties, and worries, by placing it in written form on paper. It necessitates their formation in language, and once viewed ‘on the page,’ they may be experienced with less emotional power than when solely in the head. The goals are the same, whether writing about joyful or unpleasant experiences or journaling. Make what is ephemeral more vivid, and instill a sense of curiosity in what is disclosed.
It’s typical to feel melancholy after writing about a terrible or painful experience, but studies show that these feelings are fleeting. Writing about a traumatic incident, even if only once, can help reduce the inclination to ruminate.
Broaden Your Viewpoint
From daily obstacles to upsetting situations, mindful writing provides an emotional outlet as well as an opportunity to gain insight into the stories we hold. According to studies undertaken in recent decades, writing can provide a variety of emotional and psychological advantages, including higher mood, less anxiety, lower blood pressure, and overall greater well-being. It can also improve your sleep, boost your self-esteem, and strengthen your immune system.
Without the constraints of spelling, grammar, and punctuation, a mindful writing practice invites you to describe experiences, understand thoughts, work through emotions, broaden your perspective, discover meaning, and possibly notice what approaches are or are not working. Writing about even the most stressful and bad experiences can often reveal a new way to relate to them that we hadn’t considered before.
Even our love relationships can benefit from mindful writing. A 2006 study of dating couples discovered that those who were assigned to write about their emotions for three consecutive days were more likely to convey good feelings in subsequent interactions with their partner.
A writing practice, especially when it comes to negative events, can give birth to self-compassion by giving you the space to show up for your emotions—joy, worry, rage, exhilaration, even boredom—and just be with them for a little time without pushing them away. Writing in this manner allows you to let go of judging yourself and openly explore what you perceive and feel.
How to Get Started with Mindful Writing
The majority of studies on expressive writing had participants write about their ideas and feelings about a certain topic for 20 minutes, three or four days in a succession. Here’s an updated version of his writing guidelines:
Time yourself for 15 to 20 minutes.
Open a notebook (or start a new document on your computer) and write down your thoughts and feelings about a significant emotional event or issue that has touched you.
Let go and explore your deepest feelings and thoughts in your writing. You could connect your topic to your relationships with people, your past, present, or future, or who you have been, who you want to be, or who you are today.
Only write for yourself. Don’t be concerned with spelling, sentence structure, or grammar.
Continue to write until the timer runs out. You’ve started the process of stepping back from your experience in order to gain perspective on it.
The key principles of mindful writing stay the same: write down your ideas and feelings, notice the narrative, and approach your reflection with curiosity and an open mind. Before writing, you can also try a little mindfulness meditation to welcome a sense of peace and centering.
Begin by settling into your body and recognizing any sensations you feel, such as tension, pressure, warmth, or coolness. If it seems more comfortable, close your eyes and take a few calm, deep breaths. Bring your attention to the flow of the breath, following the movement of the air as it enters the nose and travels through the chest and abdomen. Allow your mind and body to relax for as long as you like, allowing yourself to be receptive to whatever feelings and thoughts occur. You can open your eyes and reconnect with your environment when you are ready. You can now begin writing on any topic with a sense of acceptance and deep self-compassion. After you’ve finished writing and reading, consider the following:
- What was my reaction to this event or experience?
- Was it clear and truthful to me, or was it influenced by my emotions?
- What were the particular circumstances, and how did they affect me?
- Do I feel any different now?
- Have my feelings and thinking changed?
- What have I discovered after reading what I wrote?
It’s also fine if you don’t want to read what you’ve written. Simply expressing yourself via writing—allowing your thoughts and feelings to emerge—can help you gain a new perspective on any issue. It sometimes simply helped to calm my mind and heart, and other times it provided clarity. My writing practice has always provided a way forward—one that frequently leads to healing.
Prompts for Mindful Writing to Get You Started
Consider a specific topic that inspires you to go deep, tap into present-moment emotions and thoughts, and express yourself via writing. Set your timer for a comfortable amount of time, come in, and write down how you’re feeling. Then summon that curiosity and consider how it relates to what you’ve written.
1) Susceptibility. It’s typical to experience increased dread and self-doubt while trying something new or making a major change—times when the risk of being rejected or chastised is substantial. We all confront hurdles and problems, but it is what we do outside of our comfort zone that allows us to develop and evolve.
Try this: Write about a time when you were terrified to accomplish something but yet did it. How did you feel both before and after? What did you take away from the experience?
2) Self-Compassion is the belief that you can be kind to yourself and accept your flaws. We all make mistakes, feel frustrated, suffer losses, and are forced to accept our limitations. This is a natural element of being human. But we’re really skilled at putting ourselves down. What if you could treat yourself the same way you would treat a friend who is going through a difficult period, regardless of the circumstances? That is self-compassion at work.
Try this: Consider a period when you struggled in some way—felt inadequate, failed at something, or faced adversity. Write down some specifics about the event and how it affected you. What would you say to a friend in that situation? What would your tone be? What steps would you advise them to take?
If you find yourself drifting while writing, return to your breath and the purpose of being truthful and compassionate to yourself. At the heart of mindful writing is spending time with what arises, what is present for you, and maintaining compassion for it all.
3) Resilience is the ability to navigate adversity, to recover, and even to grow in the face of the terrible events and hardships that life unavoidably throws at us. While it may feel like we have no control over so much of our lives—and there are clearly things beyond our control—we can choose how we respond to the stressors that affect us.
Research has proven that humans can create resilience, as seen by our ability to rise above adversity.
Try it: Write about a particularly difficult or stressful experience in your life. What did you learn, and how did you get through it? How would you handle such a circumstance today?
4) Thankfulness. Giving thanks is regarded as the mother of all virtues, and it has been repeatedly demonstrated to boost our happiness and make us gentler. However, in these turbulent and technologically charged times, we sometimes forget to pause and express our thanks, especially to those we love and care about, which strengthens our connections and social links.
Try this: Consider someone to whom you have a strong attachment. Write about the benefits they offer to your life and how you can and may demonstrate your thanks to them.