Are you stressed about school, work, and the other million things you probably have going on in your life? Well I certainly am, and I’ve found that writing poems is something that really helps me relax, and allows me to get my feelings and emotions out in a healthy way.
Now I know what you may be thinking…I can’t write poetry! I thought the same thing, but turns out I can write it, and so can you. The truth is simply this: anyone can write poetry. Now that doesn’t neccessarily mean it will be good poetry, but who cares? It’s not like we’re planning on publishing our work in a poetry book for all the world to see. It’s only for you (unless of course you want to share it with others, you never know, you may be surprised with your poetry writing skills).
I orginally tried writing things that were happening in my life and how I felt about those things in my journal, but it didn’t help me feel any better, actually sometimes it only made me feel worse. Then one night I was sitting in my bedroom at home, and I had this sudden urge to write a poem. So that’s what I did. I sat down and wrote a poem, and I felt so much better. I could literally feel the weight being lifted off my shoulders. Not only that, but I was actually surprised with how good my poem actually was (poetry, both reading and writing it, used to terrify me). After that night in my room, I started writing poems whenever I needed an outlet. I’ve become so attached to it that I have a specific journal dedicated just for my poetry, and my writing journal sits pretty much untouched now.
You can literally write a poem about anything that’s going on in your life. I’ve wrote them about questions I have about the world, my friends, my parents, and most recently, my cat who just passed away. Did I cry my eyes out while writing about how much I wished those thirteen years with Patches didn’t go by so fast? Of course, but it also really helped me. Being able to put my feelings into words makes me feel better.
So if you’re trying to write in a journal, meditate or whatever else to de-stress or channel all your emotions and it just isn’t working, I highly recommend trying to write some poetry. You never know, maybe you’ll really enjoy it! And if you don’t, at least you tried something new!