Write away your worries
When we’re feeling stressed out or anxious, we’re often encouraged to write down our feelings and a new study has confirmed that putting pen to paper can really work wonders for our well-being...
Although we may have grown out
Write away your worries
When we’re feeling stressed out or anxious, we’re often encouraged to write down our feelings and a new study has confirmed that putting pen to paper can really work wonders for our well-being...
Although we may have grown out of writing those rage-filled diaries when we were teenagers, US researchers believe that pouring our feelings out onto paper really helps us to deal with stress.
"People are in this stressful situation and they worry about it and the consequences," said study leader Professor Sian Beilock, from the University of Chicago. "These worries are taking up resources that should be dedicated to the task. Putting pen to paper appears to offload these worries."
During the study, published in the journal Science, 20 college students were asked to take two short maths tests. Half the students were allowed ten minutes before the test to write of their feelings about the task, and were able to produce "significantly better" results than the other students.
This is because the simple act of writing about our emotions is a way to calm down the bran and re-establish mental balance.
Dr Beilock added: "Writing about your worries for ten minutes before an upcoming exam levelled the playing field such that those students who usually get most anxious during exams were able to overcome their fears and perform up to their potential. We think this type of writing will help people perform their best in a variety of pressure-filled situations – whether it is a big presentation to a client, a speech to an audience or even a job interview."
Picture kindly from here