Journal Writing and Other Ways to Break the Cycles of Stress

Highlighting the Intersection Between Science and Art

Amy Locklin

According to the book Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle, we feel burnt out when we are tired emotionally and physically, when our empathy, compassion and caring are depleted, and life feels unconquerable.

Stress is the source of these exhausted reactions and comes to us as internal and external threats. Our pulses beat faster, and because our systems are overloaded, we can only focus on the threat in the here and now. Our digestion slows and our tissue repairs and regrows more slowly.

Logically, living in a persistent state of stress has long-term health consequences and can negatively influence relationships at work, at home and elsewhere. Fight, flight and freeze are evolutionary responses to stress.

The authors of Burnout Emily and Amelia Nagoski highlight our need to flush our bodies of stress chemicals, adrenaline and cortisol, to end stress cycles.

Weeping, shuddering, and, I think, primal screaming at no one in particular and running until we are out of breath are healthy ways to break the cycle. 

But according to the research so is journal writing.

I had an idea about writing this article and it wouldn’t let me go. It was in the back of my mind as I made dinner and did the dishes and tried to work on my novel. The only way I was able to dispel its hold was to write down this idea in my journal.

I personally experience brainstorms regularly and writing down my ideas moves my mind from the stress of planning to the completion of recording; so I can store my ideas on paper and let my brain rest and be open to other experiences.

Various purposes of journal writing which I believe are helpful to consider include, to:

• End the stress cycle by describing your sources of stress

• Write first letters to people you are in conflict with that you will never send

• Practice writing nonfiction

• Collect ideas, including for creative projects of any kind

• Remember dreams (the more you try to remember them, the more you will remember them) and

• Keep a record of your life

Some authors publish their journals, such as David Sedaris. If you gather together entries from a particular period of your life, this is a type of memoir, which is a subcategory of autobiography. What begins as a kind of DIY therapy can develop into a form of language art.

Writing certain journal entries can function like running. If we run, our bodies think we are safe, and the stress cycle is released.

Be warned, escaping and avoiding stress is not enough to dispel it and end its cycle. Only watching videos or drinking alcohol doesn’t work, even though it feels like they should. 

Targeting the stress directly through writing its content and meaning really can help. An obsessively returned to injury can be written down and released. This is not unlike the way trained therapists help victims of PTSD consciously move trauma into a closed box in their minds. The process detaches the stressors’ emotional control of people.

Burnout suggests other ways to break the cycle of stress too. These are,

•  Deep and slow breathing

• Positive social interaction

• Laughter

• Affection 

• A big cry, and

• Creative expression (emphasis added)

How does it feel to break a stress cycle? The Nagoskis inform us, “It’s a gear shift—a slip of the chain to a smaller gear, and all of a sudden the wheels are spinning more freely.” Our muscles relax and our breath deepens as we let the stress go.