Expressive writing helps to explore our personal history and heal

Donna Jackson Nakazawa and Mark Matousek on recovering emotional health

"Your brain has an incredible ability to rewire old thoughts and emotions, and you can guide that powerful healing process through journaling."

Science journalist Donna Jackson Nakazawa adds:

"Writing about our childhood experiences helps us recognize our triggers and sets us on a path toward healing."

More from her article:

"Begin to Uncover the Impact of Childhood Trauma with Writing-to-Heal Strategies

Have you ever wondered if experiences from your past might still be shaping how you feel and respond to life today?

Unresolved childhood trauma can quietly linger, impacting both your mental and physical well-being.

There are signs that may reveal how these past experiences still echo in your day-to-day life—ruminating thoughts, critical self-talk, and judging others harshly are just a few of the indicators that unresolved trauma may be rooted in your nervous system.

While we can’t change the past, we can take steps to understand and gently reshape how it affects us now, creating space for healing and resilience."

One of the strategies she suggests:

"When I teach science-backed writing-to-heal strategies, one of the first exercises I introduce is drawing the floor plan of your childhood home.

By simply sketching the layout of your childhood home, you can start to uncover memories and emotions that may have influenced who you are today.

This exercise, paired with reflective writing prompts, opens a doorway to fresh insights, providing a unique bridge between past experiences and present well-being."

(From her article (source of image at top): Diving Gently into Your Own Story, October 30, 2024 on donnajacksonnakazawa.com.)

One of her site pages notes Donna Jackson Nakazawa is "an award-winning science journalist and an internationally-recognized speaker whose work explores the intersection of neurobiology and human emotion.

"Her newest book, The Adverse Childhood Experiences Guided Journal offers targeted writing techniques to help readers recognize the effects of childhood adversity and reset their brain’s internal stories for neurobiological resilience, and is based on Donna’s popular narrative writing-to-heal program, Your Healing Narrative."

Learn about multiple programs by Donna Jackson Nakazawa, including Your Healing Narrative.

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Writing to heal is one of the main themes in the teachings and programs of Mark Matousek.

From one of his articles:

"What is it about expressive writing that heals us so dramatically?

Why have our ancestors down through the ages turned to diaries, journals, and letter writing as sources of solace and self-understanding?

Scientific studies have begun to unravel this mystery, and the results are nothing short of dramatic.

Writing for as little as 15 minutes a day can improve physical and mental health in grade-school children, nursing-home residents, arthritis sufferers, medical school students, maximum-security prisoners, new mothers, and rape victims.

Writing about our thoughts and feelings strengthens the immune system, lowers stress levels, and decreases time spent in the hospital.

According to one New Zealand study, physical wounds heal more quickly when we do expressive writing.

Seriously ill individuals are able to dramatically improve their quality of life by examining their experience in writing and thinking about their disease from a different perspective."

From his article Can Writing Save Your Life?, Saturday Evening Post February 6, 2017.

Learn about programs for personal growth and emotional health on the Mark Matousek site.

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