EW05: Writing Challenge
Welcome to Expressive Writing: Session EW05 .
Here you can download the session PDF below by clicking on the button.
For easy access to handouts or worksheets referred to in the session, please use the links below.
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Write for 20 minutes a day for 4 consecutive days.
You’re writing to write. To express yourself. To write about the good, the bad and the ugly. To write about life as you experience it. You’re writing to be honest, especially when being honest is painful. And don’t worry. We’ve all made mistakes. We’ve all smashed a plate or two in the kitchen of life. When writing, it’s possible to learn something about yourself and gain insight into the thought process behind your choices and decision making. Hopefully, these insights will motivate you to write more often and enter the upward spiral that is self-expressive writing.
Write from your heart. Tell yourself the truth. Trust the process and enjoy.
What should I write about?
You can write about the same thing all 4 days or you can write about something different each day. It is entirely up to you. We have 15 Self-Reflective writing prompts you can choose from, here are the first four:
#1: Think of the most wonderful experiences in your life, happiest moments, ecstatic moments, moments of rapture, perhaps from being in love, or from listening to music, or suddenly ‘‘being hit’’ by a book or painting or from some great creative moment. Choose one experience or moment. Imagine yourself in that moment. Write about the experience in as much detail as possible trying to include the feelings, thoughts, and emotions that were present at the time. Please try your best to re-experience the emotions involved. (Burton & King, 2004; p. 155).
#2: Lying awake at night. What keeps you lying awake at night. What is disturbing your tranquility?
#3 Avoidance. What don’t I want to talk about? Why? Why don’t I admit to myself? Why?
#4: My life worth living. When will I be satisfied with my life worth living? I will be satisfied when…Why?
Writing tips
Really let go, and write about your deepest emotions and thoughts.
Find a time and place where you won’t be disturbed. Ideally, pick a time at the end of your workday or before you go to bed.
Once you begin writing, write continuously. Don’t worry about spelling or grammar. If you run out of things to write about, just repeat what you have already written.
You can write longhand or you can type on a computer. If you are unable to write, you can also talk into a tape recorder.
sIf you find that you are getting extremely upset while writing, simply stop writing or change topics.
It’s up to you whether you save or throw your writings away. We recommend that you keep your writing and return to them six months or a year later to see how they, and you, have changed.
Writing about emotionally charged situations
Some people use this writing challenge to write about a single traumatic experience, major conflicts or stressors in life. Well supported scientific evidence shows that writing about these situations is helpful in many ways:
It facilitates clarification and problem-solving, and makes one more spontaneous and present in social situations, more in tune with others and available to interact.
People begin to interact differently with others and see themselves in a new light after writing about an emotional subject.
Recounting the history of an experience is associated with an improvement in physical and mental health
Creating a narrative allows one to rework the event.
WARNING: If you decide to write about these kinds of experiences do not pick something that will push you over the edge. Deal only with those events or situations you can handle now. Many people report that after writing about these kinds of experiences they sometimes feel somewhat sad or depressed, especially on the first day or two. Like seeing a sad movie, this typically goes away in a couple of hours. Plan to have some time to yourself after writing to reflect on the issues you have been dealing with.
How did it go?
At the end of every 20 minute writing experience try and make an objective assessment about how the writing ‘felt’ by answering these four questions. On a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being equal to “Not at all”, 5 being equal to “Somewhat” and 10 being equal to “A great deal”.
Date: _______________________________
Writing prompt # or subject matter: _____________________________________________________________________
A. To what degree did you express your deepest thoughts and feelings. ____
B. To what degree do you currently feel happy?____
C. To what degree do you currently feel sad or upset? ____
D. To what degree was today’s writing valuable and meaning full to you? ____
Briefly describe how your writing went.
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(Inspired by and adapted from, Expressive writing: words that heal, James W. Pennebacker and John F. Evans, 2014. Opening up by writing it down, James W. Pennebacker and Joshua M. Smyth, 2016.)