Appreciative Writing

• Try Appreciative Writing Now
• Alternatives to Writing
• Monitor Your Response
• Planning for Change
• Sources

Appreciation, compassion, caring and joy are powerful emotions that can positively affect our health. In her book Journal to the Self, author Kathleen Adams describes the writing technique called Captured Moments. A Captured Moment is a very specific event or experience, as you remember it. Writing about such moments can help you focus on positive emotions.

Below is a brief guide for how to get started:

• Begin by closing your eyes and slowly breathing in and out, allowing yourself to relax.
• Invite an image from a wonderful time to come into your mind—perhaps a wedding, reuniting with an old friend, holding a newborn baby.
• Bring yourself into that scene—letting yourself see, smell, hear, feel and touch all that is in that memory. Fully immerse yourself in that experience, and relive it.
• Then open your eyes, and begin to write, letting the words flow, bringing the experience to life on your paper.

You may wish to collect your “Captured Moments” writings in a notebook. You may decide to write some for friends or family, and give them as gifts.

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Try It Now

Take a few minutes to try the Appreciative Writing exercise now. Click here if you would like to write using your computer. Please remember, if you want to save what you have typed, you will have to save it to your computer.

Remember that your writing doesn't have to be perfect, and is for your eyes only!

See an example of Appreciative Writing.

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Alternatives to Writing

What if you hate to write, or are unable to write? Is there a substitute? Studies have shown that talking into a tape recorder will give comparable results to the writing techniques described. Follow the same format as for writing, and be sure to protect your privacy as you talk and when you store your results.

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Monitor Your Response

Use the “Response Worksheet” to think about what you currently do in terms of finding ways to process your emotions. Explore how you might be able to use writing to better manage your pain.

DOWNLOAD RESPONSE WORKSHEET-EMOTIONS THROUGH WRITING

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Planning for Change

Use the “Action Plan Worksheet” to identify one thing you would like to change about how you process your emotions and how you will begin to use writing as a tool for that purpose.

DOWNLOAD ACTION PLAN WORKSHEET-EMOTIONS THROUGH WRITING

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Sources

Adams, Kathleen. (1990). Journal to the Self: Twenty-Two Paths to Personal Growth - Open the Door to Self-Understanding by Reading, Writing, and Creating a Journal of Your Life. New York: Warner Books.

Adams, Kathleen. (1998). The Way of the Journal: A Journal Therapy Workbook for Healing, 2nd ed. Maryland: Sidran Press.

The Center for Journal Therapy (Kathleen Adams, LPC, RPT) http://www.journaltherapy.com/index.html

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