Follow Up on the Pennebaker Inspired Exercise

I said I would return on Monday with an update about my experience with James W. Pennebaker’s writing exercise and here I am, as promised. For me the experience was encouraging. I found it comfortable to write as prescribed. I thought that I might find it inhibiting or that I would find myself thinking more than I ended up doing. When I skimmed over the results I realized that a big reason I found it so easy is that this is how I have learned to write over time. I won’t deny that there are times in my life when I fall into writing about events only, not attaching any particular feeling or emotion to them. There are also times when all I write is an emotion without contextualizing the feelings within a particular moment. But for the most part, I write about things, events, situations and then write about how I feel as a result or within or sometimes in spite of these.

I haven’t actually read what I wrote. I promised, however, that I would write about how I felt after doing this exercise. I feel good about having learned what works, not only for myself, but for others as evidenced by Pennebaker’s research. I feel validated and comforted. Now I feel ready to continue. Continue reading the research and information I have gathered. Experiment with the information I am gathering. Trust myself to be on the right path because, obviously, I am already well on my way.

I would love to read about your experience with this exercise so feel free to leave a comment.