I used to write every day. I was that little girl with her pink diary in her bedroom writing down all of her crushes, all the friend drama, EVERYTHING. If you read my journal you could learn all my deep dark secrets and probably get me VERY mad at you (but that’s a different story).
But a few years ago, I lost this love in the mess of school, work, friends, extracurricular activities, and everything else that a teenage girl does. Along with this loss of writing was the loss of the calmness it gave me.
So I decided to relive this childhood and see what happens. Mostly, I was curious if I got stressed because I stopped writing or because life just got more stressful. Here’s what happened.
I went out to a book store to buy myself a new journal, purple this time, because everything I own is in one colour. I sat down on my bed and I got my pen out. The first thing I noticed was I had no clue what to say. I wasn’t crushing on Daniel (my grade 5 crush) and my friends weren’t fighting. I sat there pen in hand for about ten minutes just staring at the pages not knowing what to write until finally the first words came out. “What can I write about? I don’t know.” After that, the words just flowed out of me.
I decided to write for twenty to thirty minutes a day for two weeks. My journal came toted around everywhere with me. I’d write in between my classes, while I was studying, during dinner, before bed, at 2 in the morning.
This is what I found.
I felt so much more at peace with myself. I tend to be the type of person who hates telling people what I’m thinking or feeling. If you don’t REALLY try to see what’s wrong with me you won’t find out. But writing this gave me a chance to vent my feelings without anyone judging me or having to be asked. It also gave me time that was designated to be just for me to think and write.
Overall writing down everything I was feeling lowered my stress level significantly. It made me more comfortable with where I am and where I am going. I feel so much more connected and at peace with myself. Writing even helped me with my anxiety.
Writing can lead to better thinking and communicating skills. The more you work on expressing your thoughts the better at it you’ll get. Overall, people who write are healthier and happier because it serves as an outlet for feelings, stress, and so much more. Basically, by writing things down you are not keeping them bottled up and going through what might be hard for a lot of people. There are so many other great benefits as well, but these are just the ones I connected with.
I highly suggest everyone do this. Even if writing doesn’t help, maybe playing your guitar or dancing in the living room is your version of this. No matter what, don’t let stress and school get in the way of what you love.
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SourceGregory Ciotti