New study finds we need studies to validate ourselves

I read an article a couple days ago that said it is scientifically proven that writing is good for you. I really don't know why we needed a study to confirm that fact. Of course writing is good for you. It's not like writing is a bad habit or something like smoking or eating too many doughnuts. (Which of course begs the question - how many is too many?)

It's kind of a no brainer that writing is good for you. It's a skill they teach first graders. It's something you will always have to use throughout your life. Whether you are jotting a little note in a birthday card, writing the next great American novel or throwing words out into the interweb hoping someone might read them and therefore validate yourself as a person, we all have reasons to write.

The article went on to say that people who write frequently and more specifically people who write about themselves and their feelings frequently (i.e. through journaling or a self satisfying blog, cough, cough) are able to work through their problems more quickly because they force themselves to "take a step back and evaluate their lives." (Or, in my case, try to put the most humorous spin on it.)

It makes me think of a line from one of my favorite rom-coms "French Kiss" (before Meg Ryan's face began looking cartoon-ish.) She and Kevin Klein are walking through a city in France and she is saying that he needs to talk about his feelings. She says "a healthy person is someone who expresses what they are feeling inside. Express, not repress." To which Kevin Klein's character Luc replies "In that case, you must be one of the healthiest people in the world."

Not only does writing help you mentally, it can help your physical health, too. The study stated that writing can help patients heal more quickly because it helps them make sense of events and reduce distress. It even said that blogging may trigger dopamine releases similar to the effect of running. Cool, huh? So I don't know what did more for my health today - writing this blog or going on my jog this morning. (I'd say run, but at my pace it was really more of a jog.)

Now when I don't feeling like working up a sweat (or getting out of my pajamas), I'll just waddle over the the computer and blog away. Then I'll have gotten my exercise in for the day. Or at least improved my mental and physical being a bit. And trainers everywhere give a giant eye roll. Like we needed another excuse to not exercise!

So there, I have now successfully worked my mind and body, just by sitting here on my tukus typing away, And my fingers didn't even cramp!

Now if only a study would get released that said reading someones blog was the equivalent to 100 sit-ups then I could say you got just as much out of this blog post as I did ...

Maybe it'll be only 10 sit-ups, but still, it's better than nothing!

You could increase my dopamine even more my click on the Top Mommy blog logo at the top to vote for me! Thank you so much! You look thinner already!