A Journal for What Ails You


Health Magazine - January / February 2001







EXCERPT

Women are writers by nature, it seems. We scribble on everything, all the time. E-mails, to-do lists, mini-memos on yellow Post-Its, bills -- let's face it, the world as we know it would fall apart without our keyboards, our No. 2 pencils, our trusty Bics.

Why, then, don't more of us keep journals? Lack of time, perhaps. Fear that our scariest secrets will be found out. The ghost of Anne Frank going nyah-nyah-nyah at our ungainly sentences and trivial plights.

But in truth, a journal can be nothing more complicated than a pocket-sized notebook in which you record what you eat, when you exercise, or all the little things that drive you crazy. It can be a collection of glorified lists: counted blessings or heartfelt goals.

What's more, research shows that journals make you feel better -- not just mentally but physically. Insomniacs, the panic-prone and depressed, cancer patients, people trying to lose weight -- all have been shown to benefit. Students who wrote about painful events for just 20 minutes, four days in a row, boosted their immune function and reduced the number of times they visited a doctor. Asthma and arthritis sufferers who described an intense experience were more likely than other patients to see their symptoms ease. James W. Pennebaker, the University of Texas psychologist who led many of the studies, believes that repressing difficult emotions can create stress. Writing about them defuses their power to harm -- and, suggests, Joshua Smyth, a researcher at North Dakota State University, helps us learn to cope better in the future.

That said, different types of journals can have very different benefits. The following techniques are especially useful, experts say.

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