How Writing Can Help You Cope With Grief

Last Updated on February 5, 2024 by Avia

The loss of a loved one can have a deeply devastating effect on one’s personality and well-being. Going through grief can often take months and even years. And, needless to say, this experience can be extremely stressful and draining. But, luckily, there are tools that can help cope with grief.

Writing has long been recognized as a helpful tool for coping with a variety of emotional challenges. According to the studies by Harvard Medical School, writing can boost one’s immune system and, at the same time, improve one’s mental and emotional health. Thus, it is widely used as a therapeutic tool for getting through grief.

To many people, especially students, writing seems to be a boring and tedious task. Students often prefer to pay for essay cheap instead of writing their papers on their own. It makes pretty good sense, given the challenging nature of academic writing. But, in reality, writing also has many benefits and huge healing power. In fact, writing therapy for grief is an effective way to learn, grow and ultimately experience a sense of renewal in the face of losing a loved one.

How Writing Can Help You Heal
Other Benefits of Writing
Coping With Grief: 4 Best Types of Writing to Heal
The Bottom Line About Writing and Grief

How Writing Can Help You Heal

How can writing help you cope with grief? First and foremost, writing creates a safe space for you to express your thoughts, emotions, and feelings without being afraid of judgment. When it is just you and a piece of paper, you are free to write about anything that feels right or important to you.

Secondly, writing is also recognized as a powerful tool for exploring and discovering your inner self. It can turn into an opportunity to know yourself and your own feelings better. And, as a result, reflecting on your emotions and thoughts can eventually help you build up your inner strength again, which is extremely important for overcoming grief.

Finally, writing about something so personal that you can’t tell anyone will help you take the burden off your heart. It will bring you the feeling of relief and help you heal faster.

Other Benefits of Writing

There are also some other therapeutic effects of writing. Namely, experts claim that it can help people:

Understand yourself
Deal with conflicting emotions
Make room in your mind for other, positive emotions and thoughts
Share deep feelings about the departed
Help process feelings in order to begin again
Loosens you up for more creativity and self-expression

Coping With Grief: 4 Best Types of Writing to Heal

Now that you know that writing does help to deal with such deep and strong emotions as grief, it is natural if you wonder how to do it right.

In the list below, we have gathered the four most therapeutic types of writing that will help you cope with emotions and start a new chapter of your life.

1. Journals

Journaling has always been known for its therapeutic effects on the human mind and soul. Running a personal journal is used as a tool for understanding one’s true self and emotions better. And you can utilize this tool to combat grief too.

Use your journal to write down how you feel after losing your loved one. Be honest and write from your heart. This exercise will help you understand your feelings, analyze them, and, most importantly, live through them in order to start healing.

2. Letters

Another type of writing that works well for coping with grief is letters. When you lose someone you love and start missing them, sometimes you just wish that you had one more chance to talk to them, apologize for something, express your feelings, or say something else. And that’s when writing a letter can be very helpful.

Try this type of writing to speak out from the heart about whatever you want to express to the one you’ve lost. The chances are that this exercise will evoke lots of deep emotions. It can make you cry, smile, and remember many special moments with the departed. At this stage, don’t hold these emotions to yourself. Instead, let yourself live through each of them as you continue writing, and then when you finish, it will give you a deep sense of relief.

3. Fiction

Writing a journal or letter requires a person to be extremely open and honest about their worries and feelings. Needless to say, not all people can cope with grief in that way. Sometimes escaping into a different world can be cathartic too. Thus, making up fictional stories can be a much better option for anyone who finds it hard to write honestly about deep feelings.

What to write about? It can be literally anything. Use your imagination to create a whole new world where you can express your inner worries through different fictional characters. While creating a fantasy realm where you can be free to dream, wish and make your world more manageable by your own design. In other words, diving into your imagination can be quite healing and liberating.

Nonetheless, try not to go overboard on fictional writing escapades. It’s important to note that avoiding grief and escaping pain can be counterintuitive to your healing. Facing the reality of the void in your life is a more productive way to heal and come to grips with the loss of a loved one.

4. Memoirs

Finally, one last type of writing that can help you get through grief is a memoir. As you may already know, memoirs are typically written for the public. However, you can use it primarily for therapeutic, healing purposes and keep it private.

Use a memoir to write down your favorite memories about the person you’ve lost. Use it as a chance to recall all the good times you had together and replace grief with positive emotions. Memoirs are a way to recount and relive memories you and your loved one shared together.

This type of writing can lead to a watershed moment that can help you cope with grief. Furthermore, writing memoirs has a unique way of bringing your loved one closer to you which can be incredibly comforting.

The Bottom Line About Writing and Grief

We hope these tips on writing therapy for grief will provide you with helpful resources to cope through this heartwrenching time in your life. Ultimately, it’s important to remember to take care of yourself through the grieving process. Give yourself time to process your emotions and move to the final phase of grief, which is acceptance.