Journaling and creative writing can be powerful tools to help us to let go of stress and soothe anxiety.
Many people find that the act of writing their worries down on paper can help them to feel more manageable.
I’ve been working with writing in health and wellbeing for over 25 years and a question that people often ask me is: How can I write down the things that make me feel anxious without ending up stuck in cycles of further worry and rumination?
This is an excellent question.
We still don’t know exactly how and by which mechanisms writing can be helpful in supporting mental health. There simply hasn’t been enough good research – qualitative or quantitative – on the many different forms of writing and journaling to find out which techniques and approaches are most helpful and for whom.
One of the most researched and commonly used methods of writing in health is psychologist James Pennebaker’s expressive writing paradigm. This consists of writing for twenty minutes, without pausing or editing, about the things that are troubling us.
This kind of free writing can be helpful for some people. Pennebaker believes that the benefits of expressive writing are partly due to a ‘disinhibition effect.' By getting our feelings out onto the page, we are relieved of the cognitive effort of carrying them around.
However, some people find that, after writing about their worries and problems, they begin to feel worse. This may be temporary and they may begin to feel better as they integrate some of the insights from the writing. But sometimes these difficult feelings are much more long-lasting.
If you’re someone who tends to get stuck in cycles of rumination, if you tend to replay conversations in your head or go over difficult memories, the expressive writing approach may not be the right one for you.
Instead, it might be much more helpful to play with other journal prompts and techniques.
For example, you might find that a gratitude or thankfulness practice is helpful. You may enjoy writing what you can see in this moment – creating a sort of ‘still life’ of a scene and focusing on writing about it in specific detail. This kind of writing can take your focus away from the things that are troubling you and help you to immerse yourself in what psychologist Mihaly Czikszentmihaly calls ‘flow’ – a state of relaxed focus where your mind becomes calm and distractions fade away.
Try these journal prompts for anxiety:
Choose a poem or piece of text and use it as a starting point for your journaling. What does it make you feel? Are there particular words or lines that resonate for you? Write about it.
Write about a time when you overcame your anxious thoughts and feelings and did something that you feel really proud of.
Write about a person – either someone you know or someone you admire from afar for their qualities – who helps you to feel motivated and inspired. Imagine that this person is writing a letter to you. What do they say? What wisdom do they have to impart?
Experiment with drawing an oracle or tarot card and spend time reflecting on its symbolism and colour before using that as a starting point for your journaling.
You’ll find a link to my Writing to Soothe Anxiety free guide and workshop on this page. I hope you’ll find it useful and I’d love to hear how you get on.
If you're looking for a supportive online writing group where you;ll dfind further resources, short courses and a supportive community of like-minded people wwhere you can develop your journaling practice, I'd love to welcome you to WRITE! Club.
