Four Writing Techniques That Are Helpful for Life

Writing regularly is a good way to get your thoughts down on paper and be clearer about what you think, how you feel, and what is happening in your life. It can help you to understand yourself better, might lead to a change in perspective, and can have benefits for your mental health, and maybe even your physical health.

This kind of writing is just for you – it doesn’t need to be shared – and it’s important to keep that in mind as you begin. Writer Susan Cain points out that many people today, especially younger people, expect their writing to be seen, which can make it feel performative and less honest. But sometimes we need to write without worrying about what others might think. As Cain puts it, that helps us to get closer to telling the truth of what it’s like to be alive. The techniques below are best done with that in mind.

Journal Writing
A simple practice is to keep a journal – maybe write for five, ten or fifteen minutes each morning. You could write about anything that you’re thinking or feeling or about anything that is happening in your life. Journaling can help you to get to know yourself better and improve your mood, says therapist Emma McAdam. It can also help you to understand problems that might be big and confusing, and perhaps be clearer about what to do, she says. Some people add lists to their journals, for example, things they’re grateful for or things they want to do or feel that day.

Write a Letter You Will Never Send
Another technique from McAdam is writing a letter you’ll never send. Choose someone you want to write to, write whatever you want to say, and then delete it or save it. She explains that it can help you to express your feelings, especially when it’s difficult to say what you want to say, or when you’re not ready for the other person to know what you think or feel. You could send the letter, but it’s not necessary, she says, as it’s the expression of your thoughts and feelings that leads to feeling better.

Write About a Difficult Experience for Four Days
A technique that has been shown to have benefits for both physical and mental health is writing about a difficult experience from your life. Originally created by psychologist James Pennebaker, it involves writing about the same experience for 15-30 minutes every day for four days. Write about what happened, how you felt, and how the experience connects to your life now. It might be upsetting at the time, but it seems to have benefits later.

One of the findings of the original studies was that the people who participated visited the doctor less afterwards. Since then, there have been over 200 studies of the technique, says neuroscientist Andrew Huberman, and these have shown that it has positive, long-lasting benefits. It can help improve mood, reduce anxiety, reduce chronic pain and help with immune functioning, among other things.

It seems to reduce some of the emotional pain connected to the experience, and the reason it works might be connected to making sense of what happened. Trauma expert Bessel Van Der Kolk describes how participants said that it helped them think about what they felt during the experience and realise how it had affected them. As Huberman explains, it can give us a clearer understanding of the event, and this can lead to changes in our brains and have a positive impact in other areas of our lives.

Writing About Happier Things
If you don’t want to focus on painful feelings, it’s worth knowing that writing about happier things can also be useful. Psychologist Lisa Feldman Barrett explains that keeping track of positive experiences will make them more salient in your mental model of the world, which can then lead to having more positive experiences. Writing about them can be especially helpful for this.

The Psych Central website has some interesting prompts for things you might write about. Some of the more positive ones include writing about other people, for example, ‘Who do you trust most?’, or writing about work, e.g., ‘What part of your workday do you enjoy most?’. There are also some creative ideas on there, such as, ‘Write a love letter to a place that makes you happy’, and ‘Write three things you would like to share with your teenage self’.

Writing can be a useful way to understand yourself better, can help with your health and well-being, and might lead to changes in the story you’re telling yourself. You could even try it in English to help with your writing skills.