Writing: Self-awareness vs rumination

I love the World Economic Forum these days; who knew? Recently, they published an article about how writing begets mental health. But here’s the secret: The author of the article, Christina Thatcher, a creative writing professor, admits it’s not actually the writing, but instead:

… an increase in self-awareness, rather than simply disclosing emotions, could be the key to these improvements in mental health. By turning our attention inward, we can become more aware of our traits, behaviour, feelings, beliefs, values and motivations.

And that’s the key. Writing can spiral us down into our emotions. (Believe me, after keeping a journal from the age of 10, I know this.) Rumination, manifestos, depressing poetry — writing can sap our souls, or put us into dark places.

But writing can also spiral us up. As Thatcher says, writing can be practiced daily, and it can be reread to give us deeper insights. From the article, self-awareness can improve:

• Confidence

• Acceptance

• Job satisfaction

• Leadership skills

• Self-control

• Decision-making

I like all of those things. Like, every one of them. A lot.

And that’s exactly what I love about writing’s connection to self-awareness. Let your eyes scroll up and glance at the, um, URL box thingie (tech vernacular is not my strong suit) for a moment.

The Third Layer.

I literally named my company after the self-awareness writing gives us. Or, better yet: the self-awareness that writing, marinating on our writing, and then reading and rereading (and rereading) our writing in an introspective, insight-seeking way gives us. It’s never about the writing, or the poetry, or the improv. I mean, it is and it isn’t. The first layer or two is about those things, but ultimately, it’s about that third-layer self-awareness from creativity we’re after.