Another bit from instagram and goodneuroscience.

Brain imaging studies found that writing about your emotions calms the amygdala-your brain's threat detector.

When you write about something painful, you're externalizing it- getting it out of your head and onto paper.  This process helps create mental distance from the experience and reduces the cognitive load of holding onto it.

Writing activates multiple brain regions at once-areas involved in memory retrieval, decision making, and language processing.  This complex cognitive task helps convert short term memories into long term ones, making it possible to reframe difficult experiences.

Labeling your emotions, even with expletives, has measurable effects.  It reduces activity in the amygdala while increasing activity in the prefrontal cortex, the part of your brain involved in planning and problem solving.

This shift in brain activity moves you from automatic emotional reactions toward more deliberate responses.  Instead of being overwhelmed by feelings, you create space to observe them and decide how to act.

Even making a simple to do list activates brain regions involved in reasoning and decision making.  Getting thoughts out of your head and onto paper helps you regain focus and feel less scattered.

The research points to specific practices that make writing more effective for emotional regulation and mental clarity.  These aren't complicated, but the way you write does matter.

Writing by hand requires greater cognitive coordination than typing does.  This naturally slows your thinking process and allows more time for information processing and meaning making.

You don't need to write pages to see benefits.  Brief daily notes about what happened, what you're feeling, or what you're planning can help reduce rumination, the mental loop that keeps you stuck on the same thoughts.

One research backed practice is writing before you react.  When strong feelings hit, putting them on paper first supports reflective thinking and helps you respond with more clarity and intention.

Another effective approach is writing letters you never send. Addressing your feelings directly to a person or situation provides a safe outlet for processing emotions without the pressure of some else's reaction.

Writing works best when you treat it as a process.  Drafting something and revisiting it later helps you practice perspective taking, which research shows strengthens self awareness and builds confidence over time.

Your journal entries, the emails you draft, the lists you make, these aren't just words on paper.  They're evidence of your brain adapting and regulating.  They're proof of resilience in action.

I read this on instagram the other day and saved it.  It's me.  It's why I need to write, to get shit out of my head because there is a lot of shit in my head. 

I'm having a bit of a hard time right now, feeling like an utter failure because I am me and apparently "me" is unacceptable to some.