I am sitting on a lovely patio trying to write this article, and I’m feeling overwhelmed. Although I just left an amazing Barre class, the instructor and attendees were awesome. This is odd, I thought to myself, as I had left class with a positive mood and high spirit, but as I sit on the café patio and surrounded by beautiful green lush trees, I can still feel the frustration within.

I took a moment and reviewed how I tried to ground myself throughout the day. I ate a healthy breakfast and drank soursop tea – check for providing nourishment to my body and connecting with my cultural roots. I biked to Barre class – check for trying to calm my nervous system. I arrived at class on time – check for not feeling rushed. I enjoyed the class and chatted with others – check for social engagement and physical exercise. I walked to the café – check for continuing with movement to help calm both my body and mind.

But as I’m sitting there outside on the patio, the frustration continues to brew. And to my surprise, I am experiencing a bit of forest bathing as I am sitting under an old maple leaf tree, which I’m sure this tree has more stories to tell than its countless green leaves that gently sway with the wind.

As I am sheltered from the sun, I still experience this underlying frustration growing. My frustration is rooted in a common theme that I’ve seen countless times in my work as a therapist, and I know many have experienced. It is the frustration when an adult quite simply refuses to take accountability for their negative actions, which then negatively impacts another individual and, in this case, me! I quietly reviewed to myself how I had directly dealt with the situation and the individual, yet the frustration was continuing to brew. The storm of frustration was overflowing throughout my body, and I quickly decided I needed a shift to channel this energy elsewhere.

And with that thought, I pulled out my pen, notebook, and wrote. As the pen glided across the paper, and I vented my thoughts and emotions, the shift came. The tension within my stomach slowly released. The tension in my shoulders was being soothed by the words as I wrote about my range of emotions. This grounding practice provided comfort to both my body and mind. Yet, to my delight, the words I wrote were not only words of disappointment or frustration, but words of joy, excitement, and happiness. I recalled how I enjoyed biking, the barre class, and connecting with others. As I wrote, my body responded, and the tension released, and my mind wasn’t overwhelmed with cloudiness or waves of frustrations, but I experienced calmness, and all this magic happened in approximately 10 minutes.

This is the beauty and benefits of writing. Writing provides an outlet for us to connect to our many emotions, experiences, and allows us to begin to process them. As human beings, it is important that we have and create opportunities to process our emotions and experiences, and writing provides this outlet. There are a variety of ways that you can express yourself through writing. Here are a few:

Timed journalling

With timed journaling, you would simply set an alarm and write for 10 – 20 minutes. This practice is helpful at the start of the day. And truly, at the start of the day, before you even get out of bed! What this practice allows you to do is dump or purge your thoughts somewhere, which provides a catharsis practice before you even start your day. A research study in 2020 by Kosir et al.1 showed that participants who journaled for 20 minutes, five times (sessions) over a two-week period, experienced a decrease in symptoms of both anxiety and depression.

Therapeutic writing

This type of writing is when you sit back and write. There are so many ways to practice therapeutic writing; this can be done with a regular notebook and pen, on your computer, iPad, phone, etc. Simply get comfy and write, and ideally have minimal distractions. You can openly write about your day, future hopes, dreams, and past disappointments. You can write about anything and everything. And the most important thing is to write. Often, when we create the space to write, we can find solutions to our problems or meaning to our challenges.

The unsent letter

Upset with a friend, family member, or colleague? The unsent letter may be a practice that is helpful to you in processing these emotions and thoughts. This is a wonderful practice where you write a letter to the individual you are experiencing difficulty with, but you would not send the letter to them. It gives you the opportunity to say all the things you would like to say about your experience – vent your frustrations, share your disappointments, let it all out. Another benefit to this practice is that it allows the brain not to ruminate. Rather, writing provides an outlet and through this outlet it can provide resolution, meaning, or even closure. One of the key benefits of the unsent letter is that you get to write and express yourself — which is a powerful tool for your well-being.

References

1 The impact of expressive writing on psychological outcomes in patients during the COVID-19 pandemic: A randomized controlled trial on Frontiers in Psychology.