b'Medicine & ResearchWWrriittiinnggaassHHeeaalliinngga nddSSeellffEExxpprreessssiioonn,,ana nIInnttrroodduuccttiioonnanWriting can help transform mental and emotional patternsWriting can help transform mental and emotional patternsBy John A. Crandall"When we honestly ask ourselves which person in our lives meant the most to us, we oftennd it is those who, instead of giving advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share ourpain and touch our wounds with a warm and tender hand." Henri Nouwen (1932-1996)Writingashealing(alsoreferredtoas asthma and arthritis patients showed awriting to heal or therapeutic writing) is one signicant reduction of symptoms when theyofmanycomplementaryandalternative wrote about stressful experiences. Furthermedical therapies that help with some of the research into growing elds of writing (of anysymptoms of multiple sclerosis. Writing as kind), journaling, and poetry therapy holdshealing can help transform ineective mental much promise in the areas of personaland emotional patterns. development, healing, and growth.Upheavals touch every part of our lives; Self-expressionthroughwritinghasaour health doesn\'t aect just our bodies. We measurable, positive eect on both healthydon\'t just leave a job, and we dont just get peopleandthosewithillness.Expressivedivorced. These life events aect all aspects writing can shape, mold, and recast humanof who we arerelationships with others, experience. By writing and reading aloud toour views of ourselves, our issues of life, and others in safe group settings, not only doesdeath. Writing can help us focus and organize our writing improve, but we also heal whatthese experiences. ails us.It is in our nature to try to make sense of thethings that happen to us. When a traumatic When we can translate an experience intoevent occurs or we undergo a signicant life language, we make the experience graspable.transition, our minds have to work overtime We may see improvements in "workingto process the experience. Thoughts about memory." Essentially our ability to think aboutthese events may keep us awake at night, more than one thing at a time improves. Wedistract us at work, and even make us less may also nd we\'re better able to sleep. Ourconnected with other people. Without some social connections may improve, partlyresolution, the echoes of these events can because we have a greater ability to focus onaect us all our lives. someone other than ourselves. Standing backStudies published in the Journal of the now and then and evaluating where we areAmerican Medical Association revealed that in life is essential.46 msfocusmagazine.org'