Download: Writing about Your Negative Experiences
Written by Tim Tedder
Writing or journaling about emotional upheavals in our lives can improve physical and mental health, and specific approaches to writing are helpful. This download offers suggestions on how to utilize private writing to process your negative experiences.
Personal Writing about Negative Experiences:
Some Practical Advice
Writing about emotional upheavals in our lives can improve physical and mental health. Although the scientific research surrounding the value of expressive writing is still in its early phases, specific approaches to writing have been found to be helpful. Keep in mind that there are a thousand ways to write that may be beneficial to you. Think of these as rough guidelines rather than Truth. In your writing, experiment on your own and see what works best for you.
Getting Ready to Write
Find a time and place where you won’t be disturbed. Ideally, pick a time at the end of your workday or before you go to bed.
Promise yourself to write for a minimum of 15 minutes a day for at least 3 or 4 consecutive days.
Once you begin writing, write continuously. Don’t worry about spelling or grammar. If you run out of things to write about, just repeat what you have already written.
You can write in longhand or enter text using an electronic device. If you are unable to write, you can also record your thoughts.
You can write about the same thing on all 3-4 days of writing, or you can write about something different each day. It is entirely up to you.
What to Write About
Something that you are thinking or worrying about too much
Something that you are dreaming about
Something that you feel is affecting your life in an unhealthy way
Something that you have been avoiding for days, weeks, or years
General Instructions for Writing
Over the next four days, write about your deepest emotions and thoughts about the most upsetting experience in your life. Really let go and explore your feelings and thoughts about it. In your writing, you might tie this experience to your childhood, your relationship with your parents, people you have loved or love now, or even your career. How is this experience related to who you would like to become, who you have been in the past, or who you are now?
Many people have not had a single traumatic experience, but all of us have had major conflicts or stressors in our lives, and you can write about them as well. You can write about the same issue every day or a series of different issues. Whatever you choose to write about, however, it is critical that you really let go and explore your very deepest emotions and thoughts.
Warning: Many people report feeling somewhat sad or depressed after writing. Like seeing a sad movie, this typically subsides within a couple of hours. If you find that you are getting extremely upset about a writing topic, simply stop writing or change topics.
What To Do with Your Writings
The writing is for you and for you only. Their purpose is for you to be completely honest with yourself. When writing, secretly plan to discard your work when you are finished. Whether you keep it or save it is really up to you.
Some people keep their samples and edit them. That is, they gradually change their writing from one day to the next. Others keep them and return to them as a measure of how they have changed.
