Improve your health by writing
“Improve your health by writing”
“Yes, you read right!”
You can absolutely improve your overall health by writing. Today, I will share the benefits of journaling, and most importantly, how you can integrate it into your daily routine so you can also take advantage of this underestimated healing and empowering habit.
“Writing is not just for writers. Writing is a way to get in touch with your emotions, record your feelings, organize your thoughts, bring excitement to your life with new projects, and bring ideas to life. It’s also a way to deal with your own wounds.
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Free writing will not only help you improve your health, it will help you boost your creativity, find more joy, and improve your life across the board.
Like many other “self-care trends”, you can find this same advice everywhere, and I personally have tried, without consistency, many times in the past. But two years ago, I was listening to a lecture: Julia Cameron, author of The Artist’s Way, was explaining how writing gets you in touch with your own intuition and creativity. And then, she gave an example that sparked my curiosity and made me, not only start my journaling (aka “morning pages”) the day after, but also keep the habit since.
Cameron shared that in one of her book’s signing events one of her fans approached her and thanked her because her book changed her life. The fan told her that her mom gave her the book, one day she started reading it and decided to follow the exercises provided. So, she started free writing as soon as she woke up. Her morning pages started with something like this: “…and you are drunk … the day after, you are drunk, again, and the day after “you feel like shit.. too much drinking last night”.
While difficult to digest, it was her reality at the time, and she knew she needed to create a radical change but didn’t know how. Drinking to forget her troubles was only making things worse in her life. By allowing to free write and say whatever was in her mind, with anger, frustration, or whatever her feeling was, she was able to discover her wounds from the root cause and started to listen. The morning pages helped with self-reflection, to listen to her own intuition, and start taking actions to her current state. She was healing while writing her emotions. She stopped drinking, healed her relationship with herself, with others, was back again doing what she loved and was great at - directing films. She brought creativity back into her life, which is the lifeblood of improvement and joy.
““Working with the morning pages, we begin to sort through the differences between our real feelings, which are often secret, and our official feelings, those on the record for public display” - Julia Cameron
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As creativity is added back into your life, your well-being and your brain will improve too. “Creativity is a critical part of brain health” Say. Dr Raul Jandial MP PHD, a neurosurgeon and cancer scientist at City Hope in California Neurofitness explains about Creativity:
“It engages the frontal lobes, which are the bulkiest part of your brain. They play a role in problem solving, memory, judgment, and your ability to communicate your emotions”. If you never think creatively that part of your brain will start to degrade like your biceps if they are never flexed”. Dr. Jandial also explains why scientifically the 5 to 10 minutes when you wake up of before you fall sleep are the time your brain is most creative. He explains they’re known as hypnogogic and hypnopompic states. This is when your brain waves (which increase focus) and theta brain (which calm you down) are both active at the same time, you are basically in a dream like state asleep enough to think outside the box, without the self-censorship caused by the more rational parts of the brain, but alert enough to remember your thoughts and ideas, so you can use them later.
I find it fascinating to how a small daily activity can have such a big impact in your health by helping you innovate. Based on my experience with journaling, I can confidently say that making it a habit will make you feel stronger and happier.
Journaling is also used as part of a medical research Protocol for Autoimmune disease – specifically MS (Multiple Sclerosis). In her book, The Wahls Protocol, Dr Terry Wahls, recommends daily journaling. She calls it Wahls Dairy as a part of her system. Wahls believes it is an important part of the process since it works on your attitude and motivation. It is required in her clinical trials for people with MS).
““I can’t overemphasize the importance of keeping a Wahls Diary. I can’t make you do it. Even if you’ve never kept a diary before or don’t like to write things down, this is a habit worth adopting” - Dr. Terry Wahls
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You can add to your journaling some tracking, such as what you eat, stress levels, supplements, pain, energy levels, and how you are handling each day and the challenges of life.
Monitoring symptoms, medication, diet, and exercise are vital for your health care team and progress. It also helps you monitor how you feel, what you do, what your relationships are like.
It will be an essential part of your healing. Studies have demonstrated that people who journal have improved stress hormone levels, reduced disease activity, and high life satisfaction scores.
Here are some tips to help get you started with journaling.
How do I start?
· Wake 15 minutes earlier than usual in the morning
· Get a pen and paper
· Write whatever comes to mind without making sense or putting together sentences
· There is no wrong way to write, just write freely
· Don’t edit your words, don’t worry about grammar
· The goal is to write at least 3 pages
What do I write about? If you still think you don’t have anything to write, use the following writing prompts to get your mind going:
· Start with your dreams (whatever you can remember)
· Things you are grateful for
· Prioritize your to do list of the day
· Your passions
· What bothers you
· What makes you cry
· Find your motivation and write about that
· Ask yourself
o How am I feeling?
o What would I love to do?
o What challenges come to mind first? What can I truly do about it?
o Think about your past and what you have accomplished and what tools you used to make it happen?
o Your passions, what bothers you, what makes you cry. Find your motivation and write about that
The above are simple, yet so empowering writing guide and prompts will empower you. Studies have demonstrated that people who journal have improved stress hormone levels, reduced disease activity, and high life satisfaction scores. Today, I invite you to give Morning Pages a try for a week. Let me know how you feel!
Diana Lozada I Integrative Nutrition Health Coach I Vibras Wellness
www.vibraswellness.com I diana@vibraswellness.com I T: 281-380-4662
