Parker-Pope (2015) mentions 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. Parker-Pope quotes a study performed on 40
Duke University freshmen which demonstrated that those who engage in expressive
writing achieved better results and are less likely to quit college. Also,
expressive writing allows people to identify problems and tackle them. The
author cites a story of Siri, a client at the Johnson & Johnson Human
Performance Institute, whom discovered the actual cause of her failure in
achieving her fitness goal.
The author’s claim that writing down thoughts enable
to identify problems and tackle them is justified because writing down will
allow people to eliminate their emotional distress which can guide them to
concentrate on the appropriate solutions to their problems and change their
perceptions of problems that can enable them to be more objective and
optimistic.
Expressive writing allows people to convey their
thoughts and feelings that are disturbed by the problems they face in their
daily lives. Often, when people are burdened with problems, they tend to hide it
which may lead to emotional instabilities (“In brief”, 2013). People’s minds
can be devoid of the problems they face when they pen down their thoughts and emotions.
Park et.al (cited in Power 2014), demonstrated how “Writing can also alleviate
students' anxiety about mathematics”. Students who often perform badly in
Mathematics due to the high anxiety they have on Mathematics had to write down
their feelings before the following Mathematics test. The experiment testified that
students who expressed their anxiety on the paper performed as well as their
peers who were not anxious before the test and some even outdid their peers. Writing
down could have made the anxious students’ minds vacant of the anxiousness they
had earlier on, allowing them to completely focus on solving the Mathematical
problems in front of them. The unnecessary stress will slow down people’s minds
which will deter them from concentrating on finding the solutions to their
problems (Bressert, 2006). They will be calmer after writing down and will be physically
and emotionally ready to face their problems.
Writing down problems
and thoughts can positively change people's perceptions of the problems they
face. Problems are commonly connoted as negative. Negative feelings will be relieved
as people write their problems down. 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.” People will steer away from their original perceptions and
view problems more positively. For instance, problems will
be seen as a challenge to help them improve themselves instead
of looking at problems as a burden. Also, a study (Lyubomirsky et.al,
2005) have shown that those who often reflect on their lives were more positive
and motivated in their lives. Optimism gives people the strength to tackle
their problems and obstacles easily (Sasson, n.d.). The tendency
to avoid problems will lessen as people see their problems from a wider
perspective. In this case, expressive writing
manifest the role of exploring people’s point of view to help them overcome
their problems with an optimistic attitude.
In conclusion, expressive writing helps to eliminate the stress that can affect people’s concentration while trying to
solve their problems. People’s minds will be free of unnecessary worries and
their calm state will enable them to come up with useful solutions to their
problems. On top of that, expressive writing may change people’s perceptions of
the problems they face making them more objective in looking at their problems
as well as more optimistic when encountering problems.
[641 words]
References
Bressert, S. (2006). The impact of stress. Psych Central. [Web log post] Retrieved
on February 17, 2015, from http://psychcentral.com/lib/the-impact-of-stress/000104
In brief. (2013). Emotional dysregulation. Psychological Care & Healing Treatment
Centre. [Web log post] Retrieved from
http://www.pchtreatment.com/emotional-dysregulation/
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®ion=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
Sasson, R. (n.d.). The power of positive
attitude can change your life. Success
Consciousness. [Web log post] Retrieved from http://www.successconsciousness.com/positive_attitude.htm
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