How Reading Poems and Writing Can Help Reduce Stress

By Morgan Jacobs

     Many people, including myself, usually look past poems when thinking about English class or looking for something to read in our spare time, but reading poems and writing can help us reduce stress and anxiety. A study done by Dr. James W. Pennebacker, the current chair of the psychology department at the University of Texas, showed the affects of writing down your ideas or troubling thoughts to help better yourself. He gave 46 college students the option to either write about traumatic events in their life or write about trivial topics for fifteen minutes for four days straight. After doing this, it was found that the students who wrote about events in their life visited the campus health center less often and used pain relievers less frequently.
     Other studies have also shown that writing has helped people dealing with sleep apnea, asthma, migraines/headaches, rheumatoid arthritis, HIV, anxiety, depression, and cancer. When you are writing down what you are thinking, over time, it helps to relax yourself and slowly lowers your blood pressure and heart rate. The long term effect of doing this exercise can help to keep you to keep a more positive outlook and you understand and relive memories of other stressful events from your life.
      After reading an article about this study, I decided to try it out for myself. My goal was to write at least four times a week for a month. I was able to do it, but it was a lot to handle and quite hard to stick to, especially when I was very busy with other activities. After trying this out for my own, I have decided to continue to do this, but only once a week or when I just need a minute to just think.
     Now if you don’t care to write very much, there is another way to relieve stress. It’s quite simple and can be overlooked, but reading poems can help relieve stress. I met Lisa, NIACC english teacher, and she tried to use poetry to help calm her classes before they started. She would have someone from the class read aloud a poem just give a start to the class. She has continued to do this ever since she has started it and has seen a positive impact come from her students. Since she has started reading poems to her classes, she has seen her students grades improve and has had students thank her for doing this because it had helped them through the day.
     Starting this as a habit can be hard, but I would recommend either going to poems daily, which is a service where they email you a new poem every day, or getting a book poems and reading one everyday. One recommendation I have for poetry books is No Matter the Wreckage by Sarah Kay. It is something easy to start getting into poetry and is mostly all free form poetry, so it’s not confusing. I also recommend Button Poetry on youtube if you would rather listen to your poems instead of reading them. In the end, I highly encourage you to start reading poetry and/or writing more to help you in your day to day life.

Source :

Harvard Health Publishing. “Writing about Emotions May Ease Stress and Trauma.” Harvard Health, https://www.health.harvard.edu/healthbeat/writing-about-emotions-may-ease-stress-and-trauma.