THE HEALING POWER OF WRITING

         By Dr. David B. Axelrod

Imagine that the Eastern and Western philosophies could be united to benefit both your creative urges and even your health. The healing power of writing comes from stimulating an essential energy we all have within ourselves and shaping it, increasing it, through the process of writing. This is neither a leap of faith—not mystical or magical, or even necessarily spiritual—nor is it a purely rational or "secular'' process.

Rather, the healing power of writing begins with the simple recognition that we feel, therefore we write.  Unless we write for the kind of pay that ends in a check or school credit, the results of most writers' efforts is the channeling of energy toward feeling better. 

A well-written piece is a joy of it's own. It feels good to get the feelings out. The more you use the energy, the more easily it can be summoned and the greater its intensity.

In chi gong (a Chinese healing method), students—sometimes skeptics—are asked to put their hands out in front of themselves and give a good strong, quick clap. Do it and feel the sting, the heat that lingers in your palms. How long can you continue to feel the sensation? If you focus on the feeling, it seems to linger ever longer. Indeed, it may be that you don't stop feeling that energy as long as you continue to think about it.

Now understand that a trained chi gong practitioner can find and increase that sensation between the hands without needing to jump-start it with a physical smack. A person trained to use this essential energy—the body's own electricity—can move it to any spot that hurts, even transfer some of that energy to another person. Call it a healing touch. The point, however, is not to make you into a student of an oriental healing arts. Rather, it is to make the parallel to how a writer writes.

            What moves the hand when a writer writes? Certainly there is, literally, an energy that moves from the mind to the hand, to the fingers, to the pen, pencil, keyboard. Engaged in the act of writing, the writer lets that energy build, flow, release to the world. It follows that the techniques that train us to feel our own body, our breath, our very own energy, can help us write more fluently, more powerfully.

            There's a real benefit that comes with tapping into and training your creative energy—you can feel more well. A writer who is blocked is often upset about it.  Emotions left unexpressed, bottled up, aren't thought of as healthy emotions. The healing power of writing comes releasing feelings, but it also allows you to find creative impulses you may not have known you have.

            Writers may find a powerful story in past traumas. Giving voice to a past hurt is almost certainly a powerful place to find a poem, a story, even a good personal advice piece journalistically.  But recording one's best moments, high points, joys, also gives rise to powerful writing. You don't need to wait for a headache to write. Learn how powerful it is to write from and for the pleasure.

            The healing power of writing derives from your ability to locate, cultivate and harvest an essential, creative energy we all have. As surely as we have all lived our own specific lives, you have stored within yourself all the details and drama that you need to create wonderfully original and powerful writing. You can find that energy. You can make it grow. You can learn to shape it into writing that makes you glow with satisfaction and even helps others feel glad.

            Of course this essay only raises possibilities; lessons engage them; actual personal practice on your part makes the possibilities real. Here is an exercise to help you experience the healing power of writing. If it works for you, learn more in classes on the healing power of writing.

CLICK HERE FOR AN EXERCISE TO FOCUS YOUR CREATIVE ENERGY