Using Writing to Reduce Stress
“You worry too muchâ€
If I had a nickel for every time I heard that, I would be rich. Despite this, I realize it is a major character flaw for me. I do worry too much and I stress about things that I should not stress about. However, the worrying and stressing are all part of who I am and how I choose to handle the psychological side effects of my character flaws is up to me.
I have found that writing is therapuetic. It doesn’t matter what I am writing about, as long as I am writing about something. I could write in a journal, a seperate blog I am keeping or work on one of the three stories that I am currently in the process of creating. I could even start a few more story lines I have been happily entertaining in my head but have not written down on paper, yet.
Sometimes the results of stress lead me to a storyline. For example when my sister in-law was in critical condition following a horrible car accident, I had a re-occuring dream that the Grim Reaper/Death was stalking me. He would appear at odd times, give me a non-verbal warning and then disappear almost as quickly as he had come. I was also in my first semester of college and attending college full time and working 25-30 hours a week as a cashier for a large retailer. My stress level was unbelievably high and I was too busy to come up with a constructive outlet for my stress.
That particular dream continued through out her hospital stay and when she was transferred to a rehabilitation hospital the dreams suddenly stopped. However, because of this dream, I developed a story line that I am toying with as part of another story that I am currently writing. That other story is also from a dream I had several years ago.
When I am stressed, I find that my creative juices are usually flowing and I can actually work on a story for hours and come away feeling completely relaxed. My brain is working overtime anyway, so why not take advantage of that fact and put it to good use? Usually when my brain is on overtime, I find that I do my best work on my stories.
Stress and the situations that provoke stressful feelings in us can be used as inspirations in our writing and can also lead us to write fairly good stories or develop some good story lines for use in the future. That is where a writing journal comes in handy. If you cannot find the time to write for hours because your schedule simply does not allow it, you can write yourself a quick note in your writing journal. When you have a chance days, weeks or months in the future, you can bring out the journal and work out the ideas you wrote down previously.
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