How To Banish Stress With A Pen

Summary

The web content discusses the therapeutic benefits of writing, including free-flow writing, brain dumps, and gratitude journaling, to reduce stress and improve mental health.

Abstract

The article "How To Banish Stress With A Pen" emphasizes the importance of writing as a tool for managing stress and enhancing mental well-being. It suggests various writing exercises such as free-flow writing, where one writes continuously without editing for a set period, and brain dumps, which involve writing down all one's worries and thoughts to externalize and minimize them. Additionally, the article promotes the practice of gratitude journaling, where individuals note things they are thankful for each day to foster positivity. The author highlights the benefits of using pen and paper for these exercises, as it creates a stronger brain-body connection and minimizes distractions compared to digital methods. The article encourages making writing a daily habit for mental health, suggesting that even purposeless writing can be beneficial for productivity and personal growth.

Opinions

The author believes that purposeless writing is valuable, not for the content produced, but for the act of writing itself.
Writing is considered therapeutic and can help banish stress from the body.
The act of writing down worries and anxieties can help maintain good mental health by making automatic thoughts visible and allowing for their examination and release.
Gratitude journaling is highly recommended as a daily practice to fill one's head with positivity before sleep, which can lead to a more restful night.
The use of pen and paper is preferred over digital writing, as it activates a stronger brain-body connection and reduces the likelihood of distractions that come with using computers and the internet.
The author suggests that writing, whether for a living, fun, or therapy, is a valuable skill that benefits mental well-being and should be practiced daily.

Wave Your Worries Goodbye And Be Grateful For Your Life

Productivity is hugely important when it comes to writing. Of course, nobody wants to waste time when there’s a deadline in place, and the sense of achievement that comes from hitting a target cannot be underestimated. However, on other occasions, purposeless writing is the way to go. Yes, you read that correctly. Purposeless writing. When I say purposeless, There’s an important distinction to make here. I don’t mean pointless. The point is, the activity (the act of writing) is important in this case, not the content.

We all feel stressed at times. Modern life whizzes by at 100mph. We need to find ways to slow down. The good news is, as a writer you are onto a winner. Writing can be therapeutic. The act of writing can help to banish stress from your body. I’ll show you how.

Free-flow writing

Grab a pen and some paper, set a timer for 10–15 minutes, and just write. Maybe you will already have a subject in mind. If not, pick an object in front of you and start by describing that. What can you see from your window? What’s the weather like? Don’t edit as you go, just scribble. When the timer goes off, look back at what you’ve written. A lot of it may be a dirge, but you will no doubt find some golden nuggets in there.

To use a lengthier example, some authors use free-flow, or stream-of-consciousness writing, as a device to portray their lead character’s thoughts and feelings in a novel. One of the most famous examples is Jack Kerouac’s novel On The Road. Kerouac used stream of consciousness to narrate the story via the semi-autobiographical character Sal Paradise. In fact, the whole novel was originally written on one long roll of typewriter paper.

A quote from the book:

“The brown hills led off towards Nevada; to the South was my legendary Hollywood; to the North, the mysterious Shasta country. Down below was everything: the barracks where we stole our tiny box of condiments, where Dostioffski’s tiny face had glared at us”.

Take a brain dump

Similarly, another way of writing for therapy is the brain dump. If you’re feeling particularly stressed, anxious, or depressed, empty your brain onto the page. The act of doing this is hugely helpful in maintaining good mental health. It’s a way of letting all your worries out and when you can see them in black and white, it minimises them. You can see how pathetic some of the thoughts look in writing. Go a step further and try repeating them out loud in a whiny voice. It makes those thoughts sound even more ridiculous. Would you want anyone else to hear these things? Imagine the stunned look on their faces as they struggle to comprehend what you just said. You’d want a sinkhole to open underfoot and suck you into oblivion. Releasing those pesky thoughts onto the page is a great way of showing yourself how harmful they are, and how some of the automatic thoughts are unhelpful and have no basis in truth. Keep it, delete it, or burn it — but write it.

A brain dump is a defecation of the mind.

Gratitude journaling

On the positive end of the personal practice scale sits gratitude journaling. Every night before you go to sleep, open your gratitude journal and write down at least three things you are grateful for that day. Your mind will no doubt search for more than three things. The more you can be grateful for, the better you will feel. If you are really struggling to think of anything, read over previous entries for inspiration. Making this a daily practice means you are filling your head with positivity prior to hitting the hay. Of course, if you’re able to practise gratitude throughout the day, it makes bedtime writing easier as you won’t have to wrack your brains for examples, and they will just flow onto the page. If you can manage it, do a brain dump then follow on with gratitude practice. You will go to bed with less swirling around your brain and you are more likely to have a restful night’s sleep.

Here’s what Oprah Winfrey had to say about gratitude journalling:

You radiate and generate more goodness for yourself when you’re aware of all you have and not focusing on your have-nots.

You may have noticed that the examples given advocate the use of pen and paper to physically pour your thoughts onto the page. Whilst using a computer is great, our brains just don’t make the same connection with our thoughts and feelings while we type or tap. Holding a writing utensil and writing on good old-fashioned paper activates the brain-body connection. Every part of you is involved in the writing process. While you are fully engaged, there is less chance you will give in to distractions. For example, what do computers have? Internet. What is the pitfall of the internet? Distractions. Lots and lots of distractions. Writing keeps you focused on the job at hand.

Scrap paper is probably best for brain dumps — especially if you don’t want others to get their hands on your deepest, darkest thoughts — and it can be shredded or recycled responsibly. However, if you are writing a diary or keeping a gratitude journal, treat yourself to a fancy pen and nice new notebook.

Whether you are writing for a living, writing for fun, or writing for therapy, there is no doubt that the creativity involved in the act of writing can have huge benefits for your mental well-being. Make it a daily practice. What do you have to lose? No words are ever wasted. Every word, every sentence, every punctuation mark is good practice. Even if you toss the scraps in the bin, or hit the delete key, you’ve liberated those words from your mind. A little writing a day keeps the blues at bay. Writing is good for your mind and it’s not hard to do. It’s a valuable skill that most of us are fortunate to have learned early in life along with its close partner — reading. However, that’s a story for another day. Grab your favourite pen, pencil, chalk, or jumbo crayon and write!