How Writing Benefits My Emotional Health (And Why It Can Benefit You, Too!)
Starting a writing practice and setting up my blog has been the best thing I’ve ever done for my emotional health.
Before writing, I had no outlet to express myself, and my life suffered as a result. Rather than face my emotions and feel them through, I was constantly running from them.
If I wasn’t finding the next red-flag-ridden person to run after, I was partying, and finding other ways to numb myself. If I couldn’t numb my emotions or run away from them, they’d overwhelm me and I’d self-combust in a fit of hopelessness.
It all changed when I started to write.
Here’s how writing has helped me manage and improve my emotional health — and why it might just help you, too.
1. My Writing Practice Forces Me To Face My Emotions (And Feel Safe Doing So).
Having written over 500 posts, you’d think it would be easy for me to motivate myself to write — but it’s not.
Growing up, I learned to avoid my emotions at all costs. They disturbed me and threatened my well-being. As a result, I built walls that kept others out and disconnected me from the parts of myself I didn’t want to see, or feel.
When I write I lower those walls. Writing is a skill, as is our ability to face, regulate, and move through our emotions. With writing, the two go hand in hand.
If we’ve been conditioned to avoid our emotions, how we do this will be automatic to us by adulthood.
We need practices that counteract this and remind us that we have the power to face ourselves.
When my writing practice is consistent, I’m reminded that it’s OK for me to be in touch with my emotions and my walls come down.
When I don’t write, I fall back into old habits of emotional unavailability. I don’t even notice I’m relapsing until I’m bottling stuff up, avoiding difficult emotions, or numbing myself.
Writing is the outlet to sift through and dump my thoughts; without it, my mind fills up and I start to feel claustrophobic.
Writing is a reminder that I should not be afraid of my emotions. It also reminds me that it feels good to face them:
2. Writing Makes Me Feel Human
Sometimes I feel like I’m moving through life as a half, cut off from parts of myself that make me who I am.
When I write, I give light to these parts and the emotions that come with them.
I recognise myself as a complex, multi-faceted person, and not the person who has to shut out their emotions to function — as I need to do for 10 hours in work, or in my relationships when fear curbs my ability to self-express — .
Emotions are part of the human condition, and to avoid them, even the uncomfortable ones, is to shut out a part of yourself from reality.
This will inherently feel restrictive, even if we aren’t aware of it.
We then wonder why we don’t feel whole and then wonder why we’re depressed and don’t feel “alive” — How can we, when we’re not giving our emotions any attention?
If we feel in some way we can’t show up to life as ourselves, or if we feel we can’t express certain emotions, we need practices that remind us we have a soul and that we are human.
A writing practice can do just that.
3. Writing Reminds Me Why It’s Important to Invest In Your Passions
Whilst I write for the emotional relief, I also write because I enjoy it.
I wrote a lot as a child, but the practice died when I began to worry about what others thought of me.
Starting to write again came as an intuitive call. Maybe a part of me knew I needed to start facing my traumas but I also knew I’d enjoy it, as I had done before.
Answering that intuitive call was one of the first times I’d listened to an authentic desire of mine after years of conditioning myself to shut that voice out.
The success I’ve had and the joy I’ve found in igniting my lost passion is a constant reminder to me to listen to and honor my intuition.
I was so afraid to express myself, but faced that fear and it paid off.
A mantra of mine is to never be the one to stop me from doing something I feel authentically called to do. Even if I try and don’t succeed, I’d rather try than restrict myself.
Writing has reminded me of the importance of having agency over your choices. No one likes being restricted, so why are you restricting yourself?
Be free!