Writing as therapy

"I am the type of person who does not quite understand things until they put them in writing." Haruki Murakami, Tokyo Blues.

I think the following image visually describes quite well what friend Murakami meant:

The people of the 21st century live with attention focused almost exclusively on the external: TV, advertising, Facebook, WhatsApp ... It is the era in which we receive more external stimuli, as a result of the rise of new technologies. Therefore, we are not used, nor educated, to pay attention to the internal, to our inner world: sensations, thoughts and emotions. But…

That does not mean that our inner world does not require our attention.. 

Although from psychology we know that excessive introspection is associated with depression (diving too deep within oneself can make you “drown”), the reality is that the current trend is not that: we flee from our inner world, out of fear to meet unpleasant inhabitants, who we do not like: uncomfortable emotions, negative thoughts, pain... It is the logical consequence derived from "diving" in other swamps, those of the hedonism. We are part of a society that reveres pleasure and rejects pain. However, pain is part of life.

And no matter how much we run away from him, there are times when he knocks on the door. And when we cover our ears not to hear him, he screams. And when we let time pass, the conflict that generated that pain joins new conflicts that end getting stuck in our inner world and causing a psychological mess like the man in the cartoon.

There are different ways to unravel, through contact with our inner world. One is internal dialogue, another is meditation or mindfulness focused on emotions, and another is on which I want to expand now: Writing-Therapy.

What is Writing-Therapy?

Precisely in write about your feelings, emotions and thoughts. Not only that: also contextualize (describe the situation), how these internal events have influenced your attitude or behavior, what response have you given, what have been the consequences.

You can also write an alternative, a kind of happy-end, for example: "Now I understand that continually mulling over the problem only makes me sad and overwhelmed, so I'm going to start doing something that entertains me to get out of this state." And already put, for the most knowledgeable in the art of writing, you can put yourself with the Writing-Creative Therapy: write a story, a poem or a post can be a great tool to release emotions.

Writing-Therapy Facilities

Do not limit yourself by thinking that you have to do it very well, the purpose of this tool is not to publish a book, so do not block yourself by not finding the most correct grammatical expression to express your ideas, just write them down.

Accept that sometimes it can be an uncomfortable task, because we are going to write about feelings, thoughts and emotions that we do not like, but in the end it is a healing exercise; it's like when you go for a run or go to the gym: you get tired, it hurts, but when you get in the shower, Ah, what relax! And at the beginning, like all habits, it will cost more, you will find greater resistance to making use of Writing-Therapy, but this is how it happens when we propose to start any new activity: It's hard to start, but then everything goes smoothly. 

Utilities of Writing-Therapy

Facilitates emotional expression and understanding; It helps us to organize ideas and discover internal conflicts; provides us with an analysis of the relationship between what we think and feel and our own behavior and its functionality; enhances our self-awareness and self-knowledge; it serves to vent; we manage to observe our inner state from an external and neutral perspective, etc..

The great advantage of Writing-Therapy

With Mindfulness we try to observe the internal experience as mere spectators through Meditation. With Writing-Therapy this purpose can be achieved in a simpler way, because the sensations, thoughts and emotions are captured in words, on paper.. The relevance and sense of fatality that these internal events acquire when they move within our ego and we do not face them is now reduced to a "mere text that I am observing, that I have in front of me, and that cannot do anything to me".

And those feelings, thoughts and emotions no longer dominate us. Now that I have them in front of me, I can face them. And then, then I am finally free.