Barbara: I was just directed
to this really interesting study done by Ohio State University professor,
Richard Petty. Maybe you saw a blurb about it too?
Basically, he and his team of
researchers discovered that when people write down their thoughts—in this case
intrusive, negative ones—and then threw the paper away, it made a HUGE
difference to their attitude. But it only worked if the participants actually
did the physical work of recording the thought and throwing it away.
We read so much stuff about
“visualizing” that it was interesting to discover that people who just imagined writing down their problem and
throwing it away had no change in attitude. But those who performed the action were actually able to wipe the slate clean (maybe
not forever, but certainly for the time-being).
On the positive side: writing
your constructive thoughts down and tucking them away someplace (a pocket/a
drawer) did help to “safeguard” them. These thoughts were more likely to manifest
in a positive outcome (either you feel better about a thing, or you feel
empowered to do something)—I guess much like if you write down a resolution and
keep that paper somewhere, it will stick more than if you make the resolution
and think about sticking to it.
Petty is quoted
as saying this: “At some level, it can sound silly. But we found that it
really works -- by physically throwing away or protecting your thoughts, you
influence how you end up using those thoughts. Merely imagining engaging in
these actions has no effect.”
Please read the article for
more info and to make your own assessments, but what I find fascinating is how
much this resonates vis à vis our current trend here on the blog to write down
our Five Crazy Things, or to decide in writing in the comments section or on
the blog itself how we feel about a variety of things, what bothers us, what we
love, what we hope for, what things we want to change. We do commit it to paper
in a way (and yes, interestingly, the researchers found that “writing it down”
did count on computers—and trashing something, or safeguarding it, did work if
you threw your comments into the virtual trash, or filed them away in a special
file)
So thanks, Richard Petty, for
the unwitting pat on the back for all of us writers-down-of-problems. Let’s
encourage each other to keep writing them down—but also to throw away the crap and
protect the loveliness.
Deb: I love this, Barbara, and am going to employ it more and more.
I started a few years ago when I felt hard done by, betrayed, or hurt to type a
full-out exploding spewing diatribe that I could save ... read ... save ... and
delete. That has worked so well for me. Although they do say that the written
word resonates so much more with the soul than the typed word. But it sure
worked for me. Less and less I need it though. That’s a good thing.
