Economic Times 1/12/25

HOW WRITING BUILDS YOUR RESILIENCE
“Putting words on a paper can rewire the brain and help calm the body”
    Ordinary and universal, the act of writing allows you to name your pain create distance from it. Writing can shift your mental state from overwhelmed despair to grounded clarity — a shift that reflects resilience.
    Resilience, as defined by the American Psychological Association, is an ongoing process of personal growth through life’s challenges. Psychology, the media and the wellness industry shape public perceptions of resilience: Social scientists study it and wellness brands sell it.
    Many people turn to the written word to work through emotions and find a sense of belonging. Their habits suggest that writing fosters resilience and insights from psychology and neuroscience can explain how.
    WRITING CURE
    In the 1980s, American social-psychologist James Pennebaker developed a therapeutic technique called expressive writing to help patients process trauma and psychological challenges. With this technique, continuously journaling about something painful helps create mental distance from the experience and eases its cognitive load.
    Translating emotions and thoughts into words on paper is a complex mental task. It involves retrieving memories and planning what to do with them, engaging the brain areas associated with memory and decision making.
    TAKING ACTION
    The emotions elicited by writing are not just abstract; they reflect complex activity in the nervous system.
    Brain imaging studies show that putting feelings into words helps regulate emotions. Labelling emotions — whether through expletives, emojis or carefully chosen worlds– has multiple benefits. It calms the amygdala, a cluster of neurons that triggers the fear responses: Fight, flight, freeze or fawn. It also engages the prefrontal cortex, a part of the brain that supports goal-setting and problem-solving.
    Even mundane writing tasks, like making a to-do list, stimulate parts of the brain involved in reasoning and decision making.
    MAKING MEANING
    Choosing to write is also choosing to create meaning. Studies suggest that having a sense of agency is both a prerequisite for, and an outcome of, writing.
    Researchers have long documented how writing is a cognitive activity — one that people use to communicate, yes, but also to understand the human experience. As many in the field of writing studies recognise, writing is a form of thinking — a practice that people never stop learning.
WAYS TO START
These research-backed tips can help you develop a writing practice:
1. Write by hand whenever possible. It slows your thinking, allowing you to process information, form connections and find meaning.
2. Write daily. Start small and make it regular. Even jotting brief notes about your day can help you ease rumination.
3. Write a letter you never send. Address them to the person or situation that’s troubling you. Even writing a letter to yourself can provide a safe space. –AP