6 ways creative writing can help your anxiety
Creative writing is a brilliant way to ease your anxiety. Here are six different creative writing methods to support your mental health.
Living in a digital, fast paced world, it’s easy to get sucked in and feel disconnected from ourselves. Writing can offer you a moment to pause and process your thoughts and emotions. It can also give you a different perspective on things, allow you to make sense of challenging situations and it can be a great outlet when you struggle to articulate yourself.
The act of jotting things down can create a barrier between you and your thoughts, giving you an immediate sense of relief. Writing can be so powerful and I’m not surprised to see that journaling has become so popular - I use it all the time both personally and professionally within my business.
There are more than 200 studies that show how writing can improve your mental health. But it’s not just journaling that can help. Another great technique that is often overlooked is creative writing. According to Christina Thatcher, a creative writing lecturer at Cardiff Metropolitan University: “Creative writing encourages people to choose their words, metaphors and images in a way that really captures what they’re trying to convey. This creative decision-making can lead to increased self-awareness and self-esteem as well as improved mental health.”
Writing creatively involves your imagination, instead of just using your memory like when you journal. This means that you can escape your reality for a little bit and create different worlds and characters to inhabit them and use imaginary and metaphors to express your feelings. Creative writing can also make you empathise with the character in your story more than with yourself which can be very eye opening.
Within this practice you can allow your mind to relax and unwind as you find a style that works for you. Studies have shown that creative writing can help reduce stress and anxiety and increase happiness. When writing is used as a tool to creatively express and process events in your life, it can help you to move forward, in a much more positive direction.
If you’re curious to see if creative writing can help with your anxiety, here are 6 things you can try.
1. Freewriting
Freewriting is such a great way to let go of the inner perfectionist in you because you don’t have to worry about grammar or making perfect sense (or any sense at all!). The whole point is to simply write whatever comes to your mind – there’s no censorship or judgment involved. Whether you write complete sentences or just words, it’s all fine. If you’ve never tried freewriting before, it can be useful to set a timer for 3 to 5 minutes and write until the alarm goes off. Believe me, you’ll be surprised at how much you can write in such a limited amount of time! My top tip is to make freewriting part of your morning ritual: light up a candle, sip your coffee and start writing.
2. Metaphors and unusual perspectives to bring your feelings to life
When you write a poem, a short story or a novel you don’t have to write in first person or be the main character. For example, if you’re talking about a difficult subject, you can portray that by using an animal or an object and gain a different perspective - and some detachment too - that you don’t always get when you journal. If anxiety is keeping you up at night, you can tell your story from an owl’s point of view: how does it feel to be an owl and observe the world at night? Is the owl flying over a beautiful forest or sitting on a tree branch? Be as creative as you like!
3. Writing creatively about what you know
You might not realise, but so much fiction is actually incredibly autobiographical. And by approaching writing with the initial ‘this is fiction’ hat on, it can be a great way to remove some of those barriers and dig in deeper. Many writers start by writing what they know or events that really happened in their lives. And you can do that too, knowing that you can twist your story in any shape or form you want. You can change the setting, the name of the characters and choose a particular point of view or switch up tenses. There are so many tricks that you can use to help you elevate your story and ensure the reader connects to it. One that I really like is taken by Qoya teachings. In this practice, the teacher pulls some Oracle cards and students use them as inspiration to write short fictional stories. When the student reads the story back to the group, they are asked to turn the third person into the first, so that it becomes their story. This is such an eye-opening dig into your desires and thoughts without even realising you’re doing it.
(Not sure where to start with Oracle cards? I adore the Starseed Oracle deck - I pull a card every morning and use it for my journaling, as well as for this fiction practice).
4. Tapping into your senses
Using all your senses is extremely helpful when writing creatively because they help the reader to feel part of the story. The five senses are how we perceive the world and without them a story just wouldn’t be complete. Sense-based writing is similar to the body scan, one of the first meditations you’ll learn in mindfulness, because it allows you to be curious and experiment with all the senses (as writers we have the tendency to rely mainly on our sense of sight to describe a scene). Writing, like the body scan, gives you a chance to reconnect with those parts of your body that you neglect or take for granted. Using all your senses is a good way to remove distractions and focus in, which can help when we are facing anxiety.
5. Write a letter (and don’t send it)
This is such a liberating technique used a lot by therapists (it’s been used on me before!). You can write a letter to an actual person, or a past, present or future version of yourself. Letter writing can be extremely helpful if you’re having some issues with a person (whether it’s a romantic or non-romantic relationship) because it gives you a safe space to express how you’re really feeling towards that person, especially if you don’t feel comfortable saying these things face-to-face. Once you’ve written it all down, you’ll see how cathartic this can be even if you don’t send it out. In fact, it doesn’t matter what you do with the letter: you can seal it and hide it away in your drawer or even tear it to 1000 pieces – you’ll still feel the positive impact regardless.
6. Share your words
When you write a story, sharing it with the world is nerve-wracking, especially if you’re new to writing. The idea that somebody out there can judge you, give non-constructive criticism and even misinterpret your words is terrifying – I’ve been there! But trust me when I say that the payoff is actually wonderful. By stepping out of your comfort zone, you’ll feel incredibly proud of yourself and how far you’ve come. Letting people in means connecting with the writing community out there. And once you find your tribe, you’ll realise how many fellow writers are actually happy to cheer you on and give you the feedback you need to grow as a writer.
“And by the way, everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise. The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.” Sylvia Plath
All these creative writing prompts are meant to be undemanding and a no-pressure way to give yourself the time and space to pause, reconnect with your mind and body and let whatever is troubling you come to the surface.
Remember that you don’t have to suffer in silence, if you’re struggling to manage your anxiety here are a few organisations that can help: Mind, Anxiety Care UK, Anxiety UK and Samaritans.
And if you're looking for a way to express yourself through creative writing, why not joinThe Winter Writing Camp? This season we’re drawing inspiration from the quiet reflection of winter. We’ll meet up online for four weeks and explore different forms of writing, all built around the open space and slower pace that winter provides. This is one of my favourite parts of the business and I can’t wait to see you there!
