Writing for Wellbeing: the benefits of writing for yourself

So far my CPD course Writing for Wellbeing, run by Cardiff University, has been hugely beneficial. It’s giving me so much to write and think about!

Each week we listen to a lecture or work through a pile of resources and are guided to complete short experiential exercises and then reflect on them, in the light of the theory. It’s challenging fitting this into a working week, but I think this is reality: if you want to write to enhance your wellbeing, you find pockets of time however you can.

One thing that’s really stood out for me is some of the research around how writing contributes to physical wellbeing. I had long been convinced of the emotional benefits and the behavioural changes that can come with writing for yourself, but I was intially a bit sceptical about it helping with pain management, blood pressure and kidney enzymes! However, the research checks out and it’s not difficult to understand: the less stressed you are, the less pressure on your body physically as well as emotionally. So it makes sense that if writing about what’s bothering you helps alleviate some stress, then there will be physical rewards as well as emotional ones.

I’ve been experimenting on myself because I know this is the best way to understand. I also like to try things out, if possible, before pointing anyone else in the same direction. So I’ve been writing complete nonsense, for 10 minutes twice a day, and then immediately shredding it. Sometimes something logical comes out - I work through a thread of something I knew was on my mind - and other times it genuinely is just a random stream of words, or it seems to relate to nothing much. I’m going with it. I’ve never shredded my work before and it’s rather liberating. It certainly frees me up to not care about what makes it onto the page.

If you’re interested in how to write for pain management, the original research is here, but the BBC have helpfully written a very accessible article summarising it here. If you need more details about the how/when/why of it, then this piece is a helpful guide.

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