[Draft 1] Reader Response

Parker-Pope (2015) mentioned in her article “Writing Your Way to Happiness” that writing down thoughts and problems improves physical and mental health. It can change people's perception of life positively which makes them happier. A study done on 40 Duke University freshmen demonstrated that those who engage in expressive writing achieve better results and are less likely to quit college. Also, expressive writing allows people to identify life obstacles and tackle them.

The author’s claim on how writing down thoughts can help people identify their problems and obstacles and tackle them, is highly reasonable as identifying problems and obstacles is necessary in order to solve them. Writing thoughts and feelings down can help to clear one's mind of the problems and obstacles he is facing. By writing problems down, it can also help people change the perception they have of their problems and obstacles, from negative to positive.

Expressive writing allows people to pour out their thoughts and feelings that are disturbed by the problems and obstacles they face in their daily lives. It is often that when we are burdened with our problems we tend to hide them which can lead to emotional instabilities. Expressing thoughts and feelings by writing them down can clear people's minds from the problems and obstacles they face . To strengthen the point on the ability of expressive writing to clear people's minds and to make way for solutions, Park, Ramirez & Beilock (2014) as cited by Power (2014) in his article, demonstrated how “Writing can also alleviate students' anxiety about mathematics”. Students with high anxiety on mathematical problems and often perform badly in mathematics were made to pen down all their thoughts and feelings before the following test. The results proved that students who expressed their anxiety on the paper did as well as their peers who were not anxious before the test and in some cases, outdid their peers. From the study above, researchers suggested that students were now focused to working complex math problems. As a result, the students’ working memory will be free to allow “more of the transitory information students need to apply” to solve the math problems.

Writing down problems and thoughts can positively change people's perceptions of the problems and obstacles they face. Problems are commonly looked at as negative. As problems are being written down, negative feelings will be relieved which makes way for the positive ones. Klowsowski (2014) mentioned a quote by a “Mr Wilson” which goes, “Some researchers have developed a method where they say, if something is nagging at us, write about it in the third person so we can look at it as objectively as we can as opposed to immersing ourselves in a negative experience.” This will distance people from their original perception which help them look at their problems in a new and a more positive way. For example, problems will be seen as a challenge by people to improve themselves instead of  looking at them as a burden. Also, a study (Lyubomirsky, Kennon & Schkade, 2005) have shown that those who often reflect on their lives were more positive and motivated in their lives. The positive spirit may give people the strength to tackle their problems and obstacles in a light hearted manner.

 

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Reference:

Klosowski, T (2014, June 20). Recalibrate Your Reality. [Web log post] Retrieved from
http://lifehacker.com/5891564/recalibrate-your-reality
 
 Lyubomirsky, S., Sheldon,KM., Schkade, D. (June, 2005). Pursuing happiness: The architecture of sustainable change. Review of General Psychology, Vol 9(2), 111-131.
 Park, D., Ramirez, G. & Beilock, S. (2014). The role of expressive writing in math anxiety. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 20(2), 103-111.

 

Parker-Pope, T. (2015, January 19). Writing Your Way to Happiness. [Web log post] Retrieved from http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/01/19/writing-your-way-to-happiness/?hpw&rref=health&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well&_r=0

Powers, S.K. (2014, August 7). What Writing Does. [Web log post] Retrieved from http://www.scottkpowers.com/2014/08/what-writing-does.html