If you have ever had sores, you know that they have to be open. And if you do not make it in time, an abscess may burst and the pus will poison the body. The same thing happens with mental sores that appear as a result of severe trauma and stress.
Spilling their experiences on paper, you get rid of the poisonous influence, improve mood and physical health. For this purpose, and there is a practice of expressive letters - a description of the negative emotions and feelings associated with the traumatic events of the past.
But before I explain the principles of expressive writing, we will tell where this practice is and how it helps people to become healthier and happier.
How did the technique of expressive letters
In 60-ies of XX century, it was consideredExpressive Writing, Emotional Upheavals, and HealthThat the impact of trauma on health is determined by how much she had violated a person's life.
However, the injury rating, hazardous, always cited events like of death spouse or job loss - then feel free to speak openly about. Cases related to sex or causing the death of another person, were not taken into account.
In the middle of the 80s, researchers began to notice that the psychological trauma, which made silent, stronger impact on health than those being talked about openly.
Noting this feature, a researcher and psychologist James Pennebaker (James W. Pennebaker) suggested that if the silence of injury is bad for the health, a story about them can improve.
In 1988, he conducted the first experimentDisclosure of traumas and immune function: Health implications for psychotherapy.Dedicated to the disclosure of feelings and emotions associated with the traumatic experience.
The study involved 50 healthy students, divided into two groups. During the four days one had to write about traumatic events of the past, the other - on the superficial topics.
To do this, the students came to the laboratory and for 15 minutes without stopping and not stopping, poured out on paper the most bitter and painful memories. After the session, the participants of the first group of bad mood, but none of the students did not stop the experiment.
Six weeks after the study, students who have written about their psychological trauma, were in a better mood and less sick than those who simply wrote about the events of the day. They have improved immunity, doctor visits became less frequent. Disclosure of experience traumatic events not only provided them with psychological comfort, but also improved physical health.
What can I use the technique
Technique expressive letters operates on the same principle: it helps to throw out the traumatic experience, reveal the psychological abscess. It can be used for all areas of life in which you experiencing stress.
Health
After the first experiment with the students Pennebaker spent anotherDisclosure of traumas and health among Holocaust survivors., This time with the survivors of the Holocaust. Based on data from 60 recorded interviews, the researcher found that the open-minded people, a lot of talk about their experiences, have a better health.
Description of stressful life events improvesEffects of writing about stressful experiences on symptom reduction in patients with asthma or rheumatoid arthritis: a randomized trial. work light in patients with asthma, reduce the severity of rheumatoid arthritis. In a study by American scientists in 47% of patients who wrote about stressful events noted clinically significant improvement in health.
Career
Release of negative reports on paper helps in the professional sphere. In a studyExpressive Writing and Coping with Job Loss firm Drake Beam Morin attended by 63 people, who had just retired from work.
Some participants shared their thoughts and deep feelings related to the dismissal, and how it affected their personal and professional lives. Others wrote of his plans for the day, how they try to find a new job.
After five days of 30-minute writing sessions, researchers for eight weeks followed the affairs of the participants. According to the results in the group, wrote about losing their jobs, more people have found a new one.
Learning
A study in 2003 showedStress management through written emotional disclosure improves academic performance among college students with physical symptoms.That disclosure of the psychological effect on the progress in their studies.
On four days over one group of students wrote about stressful events, the other - on how to spend time. Students celebrated their mood before and after each session, and the scientists recorded points for the present and the next semester.
Compared with the control group, students describe the stress, get the best score in the next semester. Among them was also noted a gradual improvement in mood from the first to the last session of writing. In the control group there was no such dependence.
How to use the technique of expressive letters
- Find a quiet place, so that nothing distracts you.
- Take a pen and paper and sit down at the computer.
- Check the time - this is important. Highlight at least 15 minutes and write without interruption throughout, without being distracted by other things and thoughts.
- Select one traumatic event in their life, especially that which you did not tell anyone.
- Write about how they felt at the time and what feelings you now possess. How this event changed your life influenced your identity on self-esteem, Related to the family and friends.
- If you do not have new ideas, the old repeat until you see something else in mind.
- Do not follow the style, spelling and punctuation, do not correct mistakes, and do not think about how the text will look like when you're done.
- You can cry, reliving traumatic events, you can greatly spoil the mood - it's normal. In the experiment Pennebaker students poured its revelation on paper, suffered during the sessions, but felt fine after some time afterwards.
- Spend at least four sessions of writing. You can describe any injuries past and stressful situations that you care about.
Now you have in the arsenal there is an excellent tool to combat stress and inner pain.
see also
- How to cope with unpleasant emotions and change themselves →
- One simple way to deal with the pain and negative emotions →
- 7 ways to cheat your brain and deal with negative thoughts →