6 Benefits of Writing Every Day for Health
When was the last time you wrote something? Write anything down on paper, and not write emails or reports on the computer or smartphone, will provide certain benefits for health, especially your mental health. If you haven’t done this in a long time, you may need to practice writing first, either by writing expressive (a.k.a. vent) writing as you would in a diary, or by keeping a gratitude journal. By adopting the habit of writing every day, you can feel a certain satisfaction and maybe even help you to bring about a big change in your life. These are the benefits of writing every day for health.
Benefits of writing for health
1. Helps restore emotions
Expressing emotions in words can promote healing. Writing down your thoughts and feelings after a traumatic event can actually make physical wounds heal faster, according to a study by researchers in New Zealand. In this study, participants who had undergone a skin biopsy were assigned to write a note about their deepest thoughts about anything other than their feelings or beliefs. Then, after two weeks, the researchers watched the progress of the scars on their bodies. And the result was, those who wrote expressive writing experienced faster recovery than those who were forbidden to write about their feelings.
2. Change the way cancer patients think about their disease
A 2008 study in the journal The Oncologist shows that expressive writing can help cancer patients by changing their thinking, while improving their quality of life. In addition, it turns out that in the study’s preliminary findings, a 20-minute writing exercise could have led to a change in the way some patients thought about their illness.
3. Make you more organized
When you know your love and desire to write, you will try to put your writing schedule between your days in a more structured way. The most successful writers will create a writing schedule and literally put it on the calendar. Doing so will help you maintain a daily schedule, not only in writing activities, but you will also be organized and efficient in other areas of your life.
4. Helps to fall asleep
Spending 15 minutes at night just writing down what you’re grateful for can work wonders for your sleep, according to a study “Applied Psychology: Health and well-being”. Researchers found that study participants who wrote down things they were grateful for before bed had better and longer sleep quality, reports Psychology Today.
5. Make you speak more fluently
Much of this is due to the constant increase in vocabulary and language sharpening, incl editing, which makes you better understand the basics of correct grammar. What’s more, your efforts to find alternative sentences to simple ideas will not die when you turn from your writing to the real world. In the end, you will be more confident when you speak, and you will color your words with subtle and positive word choices, which can influence the conversation.
6. Make your mind and body better
According to a 2005 article in the journal Advance in Psychiatric Treatment, the benefits of expressive writing are not only experienced in the short term, but also in the long term. Expressive writing has been linked to improved mood, well-being, levels of stress and depressive symptoms, as well as physical benefits such as lowering blood pressure, as well as improved lung and liver function. Several studies have shown that expressive writing can help people with post-traumatic stress disorder.
How do you start a writing habit?
If you haven’t written much, or if you haven’t written lately, then the words sometimes don’t flow onto the page or into your mind when you read them again. However, when you have gotten into the daily habit of writing and force yourself to get the words out, no matter how awkward the words are at first, then the difficulty will quickly disappear. Finally, without taking long, your ideas will flow throughout the day and make it easier for you to write.
Hello Health Group does not provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.