Writing is a form of art. Like art, expressing your feelings and frustrations through them is a great way to improve your mental health. Writing about traumatic, stressful or emotional events has been found to result in improvements in both physical and psychological health, in non-clinical and clinical populations.

Just like art therapy, the objective is to help you release your inner feelings and help you relieve some stress symptoms. Writing down your feelings is not a shameful thing to do, neither is it uncommon. It is widely acknowledged in our culture that putting upsetting experiences into words can be healthy. Talking to someone about your experiences counts as putting them into words, which is why society has always recommended people to talk to a friend or a therapist when it is needed.

There are many forms of writing therapy, so it is possible for you to find something that resonates the most with you.

An important part of the ritual is to keep the letter private and to show it to no one. You are writing this letter to yourself and yourself only. Therefore, you can write down your deepest, darkest feelings that you would otherwise feel obliged to avoid when writing for an audience. You should include everything that you are feeling and/or experiencing.

You must allow yourself time and perhaps permission to write down all that you have bottled up within.

Into the Soul: Burning Letter Ritual, Healing the Past

Although the act of writing the letter may take some time, it is encouraged to keep going at it until you have fit in everything that you can think of in the letter. Write about how the thing and/or person has impacted you, hurt you, or changed you in some way. Write about how these things have affected you and how you feel about it.

By writing this, it should feel as though you are admitting to something and that you are in the process of letting go. Coming to terms with things, or acceptance, is one of the key points of healing.

The act of writing the letter, whether or not it is addressed to an actual person, is actually an act to help you improve yourself. As this letter is not going to be sent, you are writing it for yourself. As the article at Into the Soul states, “You are worth the time and the energy it takes to complete this step of the healing ritual.”

The next step for the ritual is quite simple, you should find a safe area and set the letter on fire. Watch as the letter burns up and be careful not to burn yourself in the process. Once the letter is burnt, extinguish any remaining flames and dispose of the ash.

Well, that is how I would do the burning letter ritual, as I have done for a once only. Or, you can follow the Into the Soul’s instructions for a more unique approach.

The Letter Burning Ritual can be repeated as many time as you like about any person, situation or circumstance that causes you to experience negative feelings that you cannot on your own get clear of.

Into the Soul: Burning Letter Ritual, Healing the Past

Expressive writing has also been proven to be emotional and physical health beneficial by the Cambridge University Press. In the program, participants were asked to write about such events for 15–20 minutes on 3–5 occasions without downplaying their emotions. Those who do so generally have significantly better physical and psychological outcomes compared with those who write about neutral topics.

As such, we can see that just writing for 20 minutes can help you improve your mental health. This resembles and may even be part of something called the “mindfulness approach.” This technique helps us free our minds from the busyness of life and forces us to acknowledge our feelings. The benefit of writing and mindfulness is that they help you concentrate on one thing and completely free your mind from other stuff that bothers you and overcrowds your mind. Practicing them every day will help you understand your actions and behaviors better, but will also relieve your anxiety.

Writing is a creative way to improve mental health.

rtor.org: How Writing Can Improve Your Mental Health

Acknowledging your feelings can help you manage your depression, and writing down what you are feeling is one of the ways to acknowledge them. Anxiety causes you to spiral and make your mind spin in circles. You won’t focus on what is happening in the present, but instead, you are more likely to speculate about the future and worry about what might or might not happen. This might lead to depression, as you find it difficult to feel positive about the future.

Writing can help manage your depression. By writing down what makes you anxious or sad, you can focus on the feeling and help you understand it better, and thus you are able to look at it with a clear head and approach the issue at another angle.

Also, by writing down what makes you anxious or sad, you can help clear your head from those emotions for a moment. All it takes is a moment to take a breather to help you relax, and that can make all the difference.

Having up to 20 quiet minutes every day for mindful writing will help ease your anxiety, calm down your thoughts and emotions, and bring peace to your mind.

rtor.org: How Writing Can Improve Your Mental Health

Personally, I often write about my feelings, whether or not it is neutral or negative. It is good to get some of my feelings out because it is hard to find someone who will listen to me ramble. It is also hard sometimes to speak with other people, so writing things down has always been a better alternative for me.

Should you also feel the same, I encourage you to also write about whatever you are feeling. Whether it is worrying for a future event or unresolved feelings for someone else, it is not embarrassing or shameful for wanting to get those feelings out there.