The act of writing leads to strong physical and mental health benefits, like long-term improvements in mood, stress levels and depressive symptoms. Researchers found that just 15 to 20 minutes of writing three to five times over the course of the four-month study was enough to make a difference. By writing about traumatic, stressful or emotional events, participants were significantly more likely to have fewer illnesses and be less affected by trauma. Participants spent less time in the hospital, had lower blood pressure and better liver function. Writing can make physical wounds heal faster as well. Even blogging or journaling is enough to see results. One study found that blogging might trigger dopamine release, similar to the effect from running or listening to music.  Full article at http://mic.com/articles/98348/science-shows-writers-have-a-serious-advantage-over-the-rest-of-us

Do you know what I learned from writing?  The more personal you are willing to be and the more intimate you are willing to be about the details of your own life, the more universal you are.  When you recognize that pain — and response to pain — is a universal thing, it helps explain so many things about others, just as it explains so much about yourself. It teaches you forbearance. It teaches you a moderation in your responses to other people’s behavior. It teaches you a sort of understanding. If someone truly feels that you understand them, an awful lot of neurotic behavior just disappears — disappears on your part, disappears on their part. So if you’re talking about what motivates this world to continue existing as a community, you’ve got to talk about love… It comes out of your biology because on some level we understand all of this.  Full article at –> http://www.brainpickings.org/2015/01/02/sherwin-nuland-what-everybody-needs/