One of the pleasing things in life is coming upon something that confirms something you’ve always held to. I’ve often said to people that for me, reading and writing were much like meditation.
I’ve also had people ask why I blog, or why I have several of them. For one, where do I find the time? (I don’t know.) More importantly, why? Well, here’s something of an answer:
Interestingly, a large body of work over the last two decades has shown that writing regularly about one’s experiences clearly has beneficial effects on well-being and health. It even makes a measurable difference to immune function. Writing seems to have its healing effects whether the experiences written about are negative or positive ones. Thus the explanation is not as simple as a venting of otherwise pent up negative thoughts. I suspect that writing itself allows us to become more mindful of our thoughts, and at the same time take distance from them, replicating in a way the effects of mindfulness therapy or meditation.
This is from the book I’m currently reading, Happiness: The Science Behind your Smile by Daniel Nettle. For me, it’s quite fascinating. Much of what it argues seems to be intuited from what various studies have revealed (some from quite small samplings, to be honest).
What I like, maybe because it seems contradictory (like us), is that it seems to indicate that to some degree how we feel is determined by personality (you are who you are) yet at the same time we have the knowledge and ability to choose how we feel.
And I love the passage quoted. This is definitely one of the main reasons why I write, why I blog. Maybe the only reason.
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