Writing in a journal is a well-known and highly regarded way of getting in touch with our feelings. But an article in the last issue of Scientific American Mind suggests that journaling has great benefits in dealing with negative emotions, but can actually reduce the enjoyment of positive emotions.
One of the great benefits of journaling is that we can get some distance from our feelings through seeing the words we have written from the position of a third-person observer, rather than a first-person experiencer. This is how Steve Pavlina described it a couple of months ago:
While your brain is technically capable of processing a great deal of input simultaneously, your conscious thoughts play out in a certain sequence. One thought triggers the next, which triggers the next, and so on. Sometimes these sequences have a few branches, but they’re still subject to linear time, and at any given moment, you’re following one of those branches. These thought sequences have a beginning, a middle, and an end, and it’s nearly impossible to see the big picture overhead view of a sequence while you’re stuck in playback mode.
This is where journaling can provide huge advantages. Journaling allows you to break free of sequential thinking and examine your thoughts from a bird’s-eye view. When you record your sequential thoughts in a tangible medium, you can then go back and review those thoughts from a third-person perspective. While you’re recording the thoughts, you’re in first-person mode. But when you’re reading them, you can remain dissociated instead of associated. This dissociative view, when combined with what you’ve already learned from the associative view, will bring you much closer to seeing the truth of your situation.
This works great, as the research shows, for dealing with negative emotions or experiences. From Mind (subscription required):
Whereas all these findings seem to indicate that picking up the pen is a cure-all for our troubles, it is not quite so simple. It is important to to choose the right topics. Researchers agree that positive effects from writing are achieved only when people deal with a negative situation -- specifically, a situation that has been bothering them and that they have not been willing to discuss with anyone. And Pennebaker warns that the moment of writing itself can be painful. "I often saw our subjects crying," he says. But releasing blocked emotions -- Sigmund Freud called this catharsis -- leads, at least in the long term, to healing.
So, there are two clear benefits to journaling about troubling feelings or situations: 1) to gain much-needed detachment and distance from the painful feelings, and 2) to get the feelings out in the first place so that they do not remain repressed, which drains energy and leads to depression.
The more honest one can be in this type of journaling, the more beneficial it is. One need not look for hidden meanings, or deep insights -- simply getting the feelings out is the key.
Here are a few tips to make the process more successful:
* Write about negative experiences, not positive ones
* Spend at least 15 minutes per session
* Focus on your deepest feelings
* Just write -- don't worry about grammar, spelling, or anything else
* Focus on three questions: 1) What happened? 2) How did I feel about it? 3) Why did I feel that way?
However well this works for negative experiences, journaling can have the opposite effect for positive experiences. Writing about positive events diminishes their satisfaction. The same process that makes journaling about our pain -- creating distance from the feelings -- operates when writing about positive events, which creates more dissatisfaction with those good memories.
On the other hand, thinking about positive memories keeps them fresh in the mind. Similarly, making quick notes about good events -- gratitude posts -- does not diminish the good feelings.
In a 2003 study by Robert Emmons of the University of California, Davis, 65 students jotted down five things each week they were thankful for. The participants blossomed during the experiment, experiencing good moods more often and interacting more with their peers in positive ways.
Journaling is a great tool for maintaining our mental health, as long as we use it correctly.
One last note, I'm not aware of any studies off the top of my head that deal with art journaling, but my guess is that the same principles would apply. Some people might prefer to draw or paint to get out hard feelings, which may lead to writing in some instances. Either way, if drawing works better (art therapy), by all means follow that intuition.
No comments:
Post a Comment