How Writing Begins the Healing Process: Expressive Writing Technique by James Pennebaker, Ph.D.

Dr. Pennebaker, author of the book Writing to Heal, has done research on the effect of writing on painful emotional and traumatic experiences. His findings suggest that by writing for four (4)  consecutive days  for no less than 20 minutes, there are some long-term effects such as lowered anxiety, less rumination and fewer depressive symptoms.

If there is a memory, or emotional upheaval that is bothering you and you find it difficult to move beyond it, you could select this topic to write about using the Expressive Writing Technique. Here are the rules:

1) write for a minimum of 20 minutes a day.
2) write for four consecutive days.
3) write about the same event or write about different events.
4) write continuously without worrying about grammar, spelling, or editing.
5) write only for yourself. Be completely open with yourself to get the full benefit of expressive             writing. You can plan on destroying what you have written to reassure you it will be for your eyes       only.

At the end of each day's session, spend some time digging deeper into the ways this trauma is affecting your life, how it has shaped your view of yourself and others, and how you think about your past.  At this point you are trying to make a coherent story about the experience and put it in some place of meaning in your life.

Dr. Pennebaker adds two points to consider about this exercise. You may feel sad or weepy immediately after writing about the traumatic topic, especially on the first day. This is usually a short-term effect and it may be part of the processing necessary to attain the long-term benefits. Secondly, if there is a topic that is too recent (less than a month) or so traumatic that you are not able to write about it without losing total control of your emotions, then don't write about that or stop writing.

Before you finish the last session you  must have done your best to answer these two questions;

Why did this happen?  What good might I derive from it?

To answer those two question you must be willing to acknowledge your deepest emotions openly,  construct a coherent story and find your voice.

Buddhism: Rebellion Against Natural Selection

Buddhism is a rebellion against natural selection in two main ways.  First, Buddhism wants us to see the world accurately, as it is, all the time. Second, Buddhism believes that if we are able to do that we can actually be at peace, can end our suffering. Natural selection, however,  developed over millennia through evolution, does NOT want us to see the world accurately all the time or with complete clarity and wants us to suffer sometimes. This is a fundamental difference between Buddhism and what evolutionary psychology tells us natural selection has chosen for us.

Natural selection allows for us to lie to ourselves, to see ourselves more positively than we really are. We hold certain delusions about who we are that make us feel good about ourselves, even though they're not accurate, and allow us to go forth and struggle in the world. Without that delusion of our innate "goodness" evolutionary psychology predicts that we would not fight as hard or as long for the things that matter to us. Nor would we feel as self-righteous in our judgment of others if we truly saw the flaws in ourselves. Natural selection does want us to experience some suffering. It is counter intuitive to imagine that our evolutionary past has deemed that some amount of suffering is necessary for the survival of the species, but on reflection of what it takes to survive and to pass on one's genes (which is the ultimate goal of evolution) suffering makes us act in the world to change something that is harming us, bothering us, impeding us, or preventing us from doing something. Without the necessity of suffering, humans would be more complacent, less likely to seek change in their environment, or in their social group, or even in themselves.

Willingness as a Life Attitude

Are you willing to experience all that life offers? Or, do you stubbornly insist in only experiencing the pleasant stuff, the comfort of the known, the ease of the familiar, the certainty of what you already know about?


Pain is a part of the experience of all sentient organisms. Human beings add the extra element of suffering when we refuse to accept that life entails pain as well as pleasure. When we feel the normal pain of existence, we get upset: This should not be happening. Someone must be to blame! Now, we have added suffering to the pain.


At the same time that we add suffering to normal life pain, we often romanticize the life of animals in the wild. The reality is that all living organisms have to fight for survival. Survival must be fought for every single day--it does not come easily and without effort. The pain of not being able to catch food, or not being successful at protecting one's mate or offspring from other animals, not finding water to drink, having to fight to ward of predators or competitors, needing protection from intense weather conditions--all of these daily events create pain for animals.


Willingness is the life attitude that accepts that to survive entails effort and struggle, and yes... inevitable pain. In western culture,if something goes "wrong", we look for a culprit. Who can we blame for this outcome? But there is no culprit. Merely the unfolding of life as is.


Willingness as a life attitude is a radical acceptance of life as it is. Not as we would like life to be, but as it is. If we want to live fully we have to be willing to experience fear, anger, self-doubt, inadequacy, all the negative emotions we usually fight to get rid of. If some humans had not been willing to experience fear, we would not have built or flown in the first airplanes, if someone had not been willing to experience one of the most primitive terrors (being confined without natural air) we would not be diving the depth of the ocean with scuba gear. We had to accept that fear was part of the process of innovation and invention. Quite often we deny that these people felt afraid when they pushed into areas of the unknown--but they were, they were afraid and they acted on what they believed in.


Willingness is a life attitude that says "yes!" to ALL the delightful and awful emotions that arise in the living of life in order to live a life well lived. Are you willing?