Knead a troubled mind to peace by writing

After a day of heavy lifting that leaves muscles aching, a good back rub often ensures you feel better again.

And when your mind starts racing, getting stuck in repetitive, negative thoughts that just won’t go away, so writing can serve as a good mental massage that soothes your stressed head.

Just ask any diarist or journal writer.

How does writing help a vexed mind? To ease troubling thoughts, often we must make them tangible, something that can be metaphorically held, that can be kneaded and pressed in our hands. As a writer, you do this by working your thoughts into the material world of ink on paper or words on a screen.

By being able to identify and visualize our vexing thoughts and emotions, we can press out the knots and relieve the unpleasant pressure they create. Through honest writing, we explore solutions to those matters by structuring our ideas or having a protagonist experience them vicariously for us.

Refusing to address troubling thoughts by putting them “out of mind” or denying them assuredly leads to ever-increasing strain and stress. Though counterintuitive to some, when enough time is spent massaging troubling thoughts, the pain and tension they generate actually will be lessened and even alleviated. In the end, we are like the protagonist who’s overcome his central problem and has restored peace and order in his story’s universe.

Just as a hand works out the knots and soreness from your shoulders or back muscles, so writing is the Rx for troubling thoughts that convolutes the mind and keeps you awake at night. Welcome the power of creativity and imagination to inspire you and to bring a sense of peace and joy.

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My name is Rob Bignell. I’m an affordable, professional editor who runs Inventing Reality Editing Service, which meets the manuscript needs of writers both new and published. I also offer a variety of self-publishing services. During the past decade, I’ve helped more than 300 novelists and nonfiction authors obtain their publishing dreams at reasonable prices. I’m also the author of the 7 Minutes a Day… writing guidebooks, four nonfiction hiking guidebook series, and the literary novel Windmill. Several of my short stories in the literary and science fiction genres also have been published.