Today is World Poetry Day, set up by UNESCO to “recognise the unique ability of poetry to capture the creative spirit of the human mind”. You don’t have to be a poet to write a poem. You can just sit down and let fragments of thought and feeling tumble onto the page. Writing a poem is a unique way of connecting to feeling, and can boost your wellbeing. Research has shown that the act of writing about emotional experiences has physiological and psychological benefits. Here’s how writing a poem can help you feel better:
- Giving emotions to the page can release you from them. The page can hold the feeling so you don’t have to.
- The structure and discipline of poetry can offer containment for overwhelming emotions.
- Putting your feelings onto paper or screen is like having your own personal therapist whenever you need to be heard and understood.
- Writing about your experience can help make meaning from chaos.
- Writing can help you understand and reconstruct the part of you that’s been hurt, shamed, stressed or depressed.
- A metaphor can work with difficult feelings without re-traumatising.
- If you feel stuck, write about your stuckness to release the energy.
- Writing things down helps you dis-identify from your emotions: you can HAVE emotions but don’t need to BE them.
- Having a piece of writing to look back on reminds you of the distance you’ve travelled between now and when the pain was experienced.
Happy World Poetry Day!