The Road to Healing Begins with a Single Sentence

I will write myself into well-being.

Nancy Mairs, Author

Expressive Writing: Restorative and Promotive

Expressive journalling is the act of writing about your emotional experiences. The term, coined by social psychologist James Pennabaker, has been a form of therapy that has been shown to have a positive effect on our well-being [1]. Writing therapy reduces anxiety, depression, and stress [2], promotes positive changes to how we think about our circumstances while also elevating positive emotions [3]. In structured writing sessions based on Pennebaker’s ideas and research, participants are invited to write about their “deepest thoughts and feelings” regarding a significant personal issue for about 15-20 minutes over consecutive days [4]. Studies on these writing interventions show that this has a ‘delayed but durable’ effect on our well-being. Practiced consistently, writing promotes forgiveness, gratitude, and enhances overall well-being [5].

Consider a difficult situation you have experienced lately. This could be a conflict you have experienced with a spouse, feelings of being underappreciated at work, or even a major upheaval in your life requiring changes to your finances. Set aside some time to write about these experiences – really let go and explore your deepest emotions and thoughts. You can also link your experiences to your past, present, or your future – to who you have been, who you would like to be, and who you are now. Use the prompts in the sections below to guide your journalling experience and see how it might have a restorative effect on your well-being.

Write to Rethink Your Emotions and to Recover from Setbacks

One of the most consistent positive outcomes of expressive writing is how it helps us reappraise our emotions. Reappraisal is the process of changing one’s interpretation of the event. When we change how we see a situation, our emotions change as a result [6]. Writing about how a colleague lashed out at you may lead to the realization that their anger was due to the work pressures they were themselves confronting in the midst of a demanding work period. The cause of their frustration is due to factors not related to something you necessarily did, but because of the situation. Writing can help you reinterpret unpleasant experiences, allowing you to see the situation from differing angles and ultimately lower anxiety and depression [7]. Writing about a situation from a third-party perspective – presenting your experiences as if they were a story and you, as the impartial storyteller – can lead to what psychologists call ‘distanced third-person perspective.’ You view your feelings and experiences at a safe, more objective psychological distance. This helps reduce the intensity of one’s emotions, which allows new realizations to form from writing [8]. Use the following prompts to guide a gentle reinterpretation of your experiences:

• What emotions did you feel during that experience?

• Looking back, were there other reasons why the situation occurred?

• In light of new understandings, how do you now feel?

Expressive writing also helps enhance our resilience – the ability to move forward in a healthy, positive manner following lessons learned from a negative experience [9]. Studies show that writing can help you see meaning from challenges and struggles, reconcile conflicts with others, and enhance relationships [10]. Some studies even show that writing interventions benefited participants experiencing trauma, effectively helping them reduce their depressive symptoms and tendency to replay unpleasant thoughts [11]. Here are some prompts to help you write to promote resilience:

• What did this setback tell you about yourself? About others?

• Following the incident, what did you do?

• What did you learn that made you more resilient?

Write to Recall Positive Moments and to Remember the Significant

Expressive writing can include journaling about the positives in one’s life. These forms of writing are sometimes part of the staple gratitude journaling intervention in positive psychology. In this intervention, you would write about things that went well in your day, people whom you are thankful to, and what benefits you recently received. Your spouse may have helped you pick up the kids amidst your hectic schedule; a friend may have driven over to your place to give you a care package when you were not feeling well. Feeling grateful results from acknowledging that one has received a valued, beneficial outcome from another. Writing about these grateful moments has been shown to enhance our well-being [12]. One study showed how students who journaled about positive learning experiences were more likely to perform better academically, suggesting that recalling what we are grateful for can spur motivations to persist on challenging tasks or during difficult experiences [13]. Consider the following prompts to help you recall and appreciate what you are grateful for:

• What positive experience led you to feel grateful?

• How did feeling grateful change your thoughts and actions?

• How might you respond to, or reciprocate the blessing you have received?

Practiced consistently and over time, journaling can also help you remember significant events, leading one to see one’s life experiences are noteworthy [14]. Research indicates that writing about distressing events leads to fewer intrusive thoughts and helps enhance meaning-making. The experience of losing one’s job can, in time, through positive coping and meaning-making, be seen as a positive turning point in one’s career journey. Some researchers have explored writing’s value in helping us engage in ‘life-crafting’ – interventions that help people find meaning in life by focusing on attaining an ideal future through goal-setting and setting plans to overcome obstacles to those goals [15]. Struggles and setbacks are, of course, difficult experiences, but in time, they can often be what makes life more, not less, meaningful [16]. Even in the face of trauma and major setbacks, writing can help one recover and reinvent oneself – a ‘rise-from-the-ashes’ experience that psychologists term ‘post-traumatic growth.’ Here are some prompts that might help you derive meaning from significant life experiences:

• What are the main themes from your life experiences?

• What setbacks did you face in the past that, in hindsight, led to recovery and growth?

• How would you tell the story of your life to others?

Practical Tips:

Use the writing prompts above to guide your writing. Writing can help you in at least four ways: (i) reappraise your emotions, (ii) recover from setbacks, (iii) recall the positives, and (iv) remember the significant.

You don’t have to write every day, but a consistent habit of doing so is more likely to lead to greater well-being in the long run.

Portions of this article were presented at the ‘Power of Positive Journalling’ workshop organized by HELP University’s Peer Support Group (PSG) on November 5th, 2025. Eugene thanks the organizing committee for hosting this workshop.

References

[1] Pennebaker, J. W. (1997). Writing about emotional experiences as a therapeutic process. Psychological Science, 8(3), 162-166. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.1997.tb00403.x

[2] Guo, L. (2023). The delayed, durable effect of expressive writing on depression, anxiety and stress: A meta‐analytic review of studies with long‐term follow‐ups. British Journal of Clinical Psychology, 62(1), 272-297. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjc.12408

[3] Lai, J., Song, H., Wang, Y., Ren, Y., Li, S., Xiao, F., ... & Zhuang, W. (2023). Efficacy of expressive writing versus positive writing in different populations: Systematic review and meta‐analysis. Nursing Open, 10(9), 5961-5974.

[4] Pennebaker, J. W. (2004). Theories, therapies, and taxpayers: On the complexities of the expressive writing paradigm. Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice, 11(2), 138-142. https://doi.org/10.1093/clipsy.bph063

[5] Ruini, C., & Mortara, C. C. (2022). Writing technique across psychotherapies—from traditional expressive writing to new positive psychology interventions: A narrative review. Journal of Contemporary Psychotherapy, 52(1), 23-34. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10879-021-09520-9

[6] Uusberg, A., Taxer, J. L., Yih, J., Uusberg, H., & Gross, J. J. (2019). Reappraising reappraisal. Emotion Review, 11(4), 267-282. https://doi.org/10.1177/1754073919862617

[7] Alparone, F. R., Pagliaro, S., & Rizzo, I. (2015). The words to tell their own pain: Linguistic markers of cognitive reappraisal in mediating benefits of expressive writing. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 34(6), 495-507. https://doi.org/10.1521/jscp.2015.34.6.495

[8] Wallace-Hadrill, S. M., & Kamboj, S. K. (2016). The impact of perspective change as a cognitive reappraisal strategy on affect: A systematic review. Frontiers in Psychology, 7, 1715. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01715

[9] Southwick, S. M., Bonanno, G. A., Masten, A. S., Panter-Brick, C., & Yehuda, R. (2014). Resilience definitions, theory, and challenges: interdisciplinary perspectives. European Journal of Psychotraumatology, 5(1), 25338. https://www.doi.org/10.3402/ejpt.v5.25338

[10] Saldanha, M. F., & Barclay, L. J. (2021). Finding meaning in unfair experiences: Using expressive writing to foster resilience and positive outcomes. Applied Psychology: Health and Well‐Being, 13(4), 887-905. https://doi.org/10.1111/aphw.12277

[11] Glass, O., Dreusicke, M., Evans, J., Bechard, E., & Wolever, R. Q. (2019). Expressive writing to improve resilience to trauma: A clinical feasibility trial. Complementary therapies in clinical practice, 34, 240-246. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ctcp.2018.12.005

[12] Wong, Y. J., Owen, J., Gabana, N. T., Brown, J. W., McInnis, S., Toth, P., & Gilman, L. (2018). Does gratitude writing improve the mental health of psychotherapy clients? Evidence from a randomized controlled trial. Psychotherapy Research, 28(2), 192-202. https://doi.org/10.1080/10503307.2016.1169332

[13] Jones, B. K., & Destin, M. (2021). Effects of positive versus negative expressive writing exercises on adolescent academic achievement. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 51(6), 549-559. https://doi.org/10.1111/jasp.12756

[14] Steger, M. F., Frazier, P., Oishi, S., & Kaler, M. (2006). The meaning in life questionnaire: assessing the presence of and search for meaning in life. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 53(1), 80-93. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-0167.53.1.80

[15] De Jong, E. M., Ziegler, N., & Schippers, M. C. (2020). From shattered goals to meaning in life: Life crafting in times of the COVID-19 pandemic. Frontiers in Psychology, 11, 577708. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.577708

[16] Boals, A. (2012). The use of meaning making in expressive writing: When meaning is beneficial. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 31(4), 393-409. https://doi.org/10.1521/jscp.2012.31.4.393

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