Writing As a Form of Healing

By Arum

Healing, what is it? It’s hard to describe it as for every self it is different.
There’s no true meaning behind this word, however, I can describe it from my
own perspective. Healing, is a form of self-care that pointed to heal oneself from
things that hurts us—how we cope towards them. How we process it to something
that is more beneficial for us. That is what I think of the word healing—to remind,
by the word healing, I meant the healing of a wounded soul.
Now the process is entirely subjective, some make music, some make
poems, some pour their feelings out nakedly on a piece of a blank paper. It is
different to every people. (Some doesn’t even partake in the form of writing; some
take sports for example. And there has been a load of research to it that backs it
up.) And definitely, writing as a form of healing has been proven to be effective.1
It can process our wounds to a direct path to keep moving forward. The relaxing
form of writing can lower our blood pressure, increase our immune system and
increase our general wellbeing.
There has been surely loads of benefits that comes into what writing can
do for our mental health. Ernest Hemmingway once said; “Write hard and clear
about what hurts.” And the self-awareness that comes into writing honestly about
what we are going through helps us to become our better selves. This self-
awareness can bring our attention to ourselves; making us aware of what this self
is needed in our beliefs, feelings, value, and motivation.2

With all that benefits, how do we approach this form of healing? There
are few approaches on which style would one want to write. Reflective,
expressive, and creative. On reflective, this way of writing can be done as a form
of reflection towards oneself on how do we act and feel. While expressive, we
can pour out our own feelings and thoughts purely as it is—this way, for me, is
very recommended when one is going through an emotional turmoil. The good
thing about writing on a piece of paper is no one is going to judge you—at all.
And I would like to emphasise that—no matter what is your writing style, I could
guarantee that nothing of a piece of a paper will ever judge you by how you write,
by how you express yourself—nothing. The paper acts as a space for you to be
whatever you want to be—and I think that’s the beauty of writing. On the other
hand, creative writing also benefited from the things I have mentioned before.
Creative writing allows you to express your own thoughts and feelings however
you might like. This can be in the form of a story, poems, you name it.

1
h#ps://hbr.org/2021/07/wri3ng-can-help-us-heal-from-trauma
2
h#ps://theconversa3on.com/wri3ng-can-improve-mental-health-heres-how-162205
 So, with all the information I have mentioned; how do I do it? How do I
put writing as a healing process? The first step is to prepare—with what you
would like to write on? Your phone, a notebook or a diary, or even a piece of
blank paper. And the second, it gets a bit hard; how do you be honest with
yourself? How can one achieve total honesty when writing? I know, it’s hard
sometimes, but act as if the medium of your choosing as a close friend. As a friend
that would listen to everything you’d like to say, with no judgement. If you can’t
still trust yourself, wait. And try a step-by-step method. Let me give you a list of
questions that you can answer one by one;
1. What is your surrounding at the moment? Are you in a room? Or a
café? Write it down!
2. How are you feeling right now?
3. What makes you feel that way?
4. What are you going to do about this particular feeling?
5. What are your visions for the next time you felt this way?

That was just few of the things I can come up at the moment, imagine if
you give me a week to think—the list will go on and on (lol).

It’s entirely okay to feel a bit cringe at the point when you read what you
had answered; it’s only natural. But the more time you give yourself acceptance
and openness, you will discover the beauty of writing your feelings out. I know
that the hard thing is to start and commit to it. So in regards to this, I will give
you an advice; give yourself a 15-minute writing session whenever the time of
the day—whether that might be after praying, or just right after chores done,
whenever you’d like!

PERSONAL OPINION

For me, personally, writing is not an entirely a healing process. But rather,
a process to keep me in the path of healing. Or maybe—to keep me sane. I wrote
all my feelings and thoughts down so that I can keep track of my ups and downs.
I write all sorts of things; from creative to expressive writing. I keep my style
flexible and I wrote whenever I’d like. Whenever I have the time to write down
all of those. And it’s entirely okay and a good thing. With writing things down I
could understand the situation better and tried to learn something out of what I
write. And that is all I need to say.

HAPPY WRITING!

Best regards, Arum J