The healing powers of blogging

Blogging serves many purposes. You may have a lot to say and want to share it. Or perhaps you like to lighten others’ lives with your sense of humor or educate them with your knowledge. Maybe your main aim is to make money with your blog.

Whatever your reason for starting your blog, there’s another great reason to blog as well. Blogging your thoughts, feelings, and ideas can promote healing for you and those who read your blog.

In many ways, blogging can facilitate discovering solutions for emotional challenges and working through whatever life brings:

1. Journaling. Blogging provides you with an opportunity to journal about how you feel. If you don’t typically journal or keep a diary, writing about your life provides you with the “space” to record life’s events. This, in turn, can help you heal.

2. Mental processing. Blogging encourages you to process your emotions and thoughts. As you write, you take the time to think about your experiences.

3. Seeking solutions. Writing a blog often involves reviewing a situation and discussing possible options. Whether you blog about an event before it occurs or afterward, you’ll likely take a closer look at the situation than you normally would.

4. Helping others. In addition to healing yourself with blogging, you can also contribute to the lives of others. When we read a blog, we learn about what another person experienced.

• Whether the blog is about trying something new for the first time, going through a difficult life situation, or having an epiphany, we take in all the information a blogger offers to us.
• Also, blogging promotes healing as others read about your struggles and your eventual rise above those challenges. Your readers may find your experiences inspiring. Plus, much to your readers’ delight, they might also find that your ideas help them solve their own dilemmas.

5. Regular blogging builds confidence. Let’s face it: the more you blog, the better writer you become. Likewise, the more you evaluate your life and how to address challenging situations, the better you get at doing so.

6. Blogging keeps you connected to something bigger than yourself. Have you ever felt lost or “free-floating,” like you weren’t attached to anyone or anything? Writing a blog can help you reconnect.

• If you’re looking for an audience, new internet friends, or just the possibility of getting feedback on your own writing, blogging can provide these healing events.
• When you blog, you become a member of another community: the internet. This can be healing if you feel alone or are seeking camaraderie.

7. Blogging frees you. Being honest and telling the truth about how you feel is liberating. Throughout life, many of us have learned (or were taught) to keep our feelings and emotions under wraps. However, releasing feelings in nondestructive ways can contribute to a healthy, contented life.

As you can see, blogging will bring greater peace and contentment to you as you process your experiences. And when you blog, you also stand to touch the lives of others through your online writing. Perhaps the best part of all, though, is that you can start today!

This guest post was written by Paul Taubman, who taught a WordPress course with Pat Iyer. Learn from our Blogging Minicourse Watch the digital download. Join us to become a better blogger.