Change Your Life With These Writing Exercises
Regular journaling has been shown to improve your mental health and productivity . However, if you are not journaling, even simple writing exercises can help you rethink your life and find your purpose.
Fast Company offers several specific writing exercises to “edit” your story, from writing a difficult problem for 15 minutes for four days in a row to presenting the very best you can. This exercise of “distancing from negative experiences” seems especially useful:
Research has also shown that being at some distance from a complex event allows us to take a step back and understand it better. There is a written exercise [social psychologist Timothy] Wilson calls the “take a step back and ask why” approach that allows us to create that distance and understanding in order to rethink negative experiences.
To do this exercise, close your eyes and return to the specific moment or event that upset you. Then mentally try to step back a few steps from yourself in the moment to see the story unfold, as if it were happening to a distant version of yourself. Write about what this distant version of yourself thinks and feels. One way to do this effectively, Wilson suggests, is to write in third person rather than first, which automatically creates some separation between you and the moment you’re writing about.
Instead of talking about an event, the exercise forces you to step back and explain it.
Writing is an incredibly powerful act.
Writing Exercises Scientifically Proven To Redirect Your Life | Fast Company