When I was in elementary school, a babysitter gifted me a purple diary bedecked in tiny white hearts. The journal came with a purple pen and a purple box—complete with a lock and key. I already loved creative writing at that point, but a diary felt different. I asked my dad what I should be jotting in it. He said, “Whatever you want. You can write about your day-to-day life.”

I listened to his advice and began routinely filling the lines with my smudgy left-handed scrawl. Purple ink nearly always decorated the side of my hand. I didn’t know it then, but the diary was serving as a kind of therapy for me, helping me to navigate squabbles with my older sister and the equal parts joy and angst of starting middle school.

I’ve filled many journals over the years, knowing that the scribbling somehow always makes me feel better. As a science and medical journalist, I eventually couldn’t resist researching the evidence-based benefits. So I’m not surprised that therapists are frequently recommending creative writing classes to aid with one’s mental health.

Rose Crouch, LPC-MHSP, NCC, of Olive Branch Therapy in Nashville, has suggested to several clients to try creative writing classes at The Porch. “It's usually as a way to help them explore different parts of themselves that they feel that they maybe have a hard time speaking about verbally or trusting other people with,” she says. “It’s just an added way to promote curiosity about their inner world and inner experience.”

Even when someone has a solid, safe relationship with a therapist, writing can be helpful. “Sometimes there are things that we just don’t really have the language for or feel comfortable talking about from person to person,” Crouch explains. “Being able to put our thoughts and emotions down onto a page is a such a powerful way to learn from it.”

Research shows that creative writing can help in two ways. One: It is an act of emotional reaction and release, serving as a sort of “relieving valve.” Two: It is a key to our self-understanding and personal growth. Creative writing helps us to truthfully convey ourselves to others, show ourselves mercy or a sense of grace, have faith in ourselves, have hope for the future, and assess or reorganize our values when needed. As a result, creative writing may also help mitigate symptoms of depression.

“Just the process of having the blank page and the time to let whatever is going to come out, come out,” Crouch says, “is so powerful.” For example, someone might realize a want or a need that they aren’t getting in specific relationship. “By learning about themselves through words,” she adds, “they may then more easily convey what they need when communicating with others. It gives them the confidence and the courage to ask for it because they’ve had time to sit with it—just with themselves and their pen and paper.”

The type of writing class someone chooses to take—whether personal essay, memoir, poetry, fiction, etc.—doesn’t ultimately matter. “Pick something that speaks to you,” Crouch says. “If we feel a kind of pull or energy towards something, that’s where we need to follow up first.”

Another aspect of a taking a creative writing class that may be of benefit is the sense of community that comes with anything related to The Porch. “One of the things that I think is so powerful about therapy for our mental health,” Crouch explains, "is that it is a safe place for our story to be held and heard by somebody—for someone to say, ‘I see you and I hear you, and I affirm and validate what happened.’” Writing classes can also present an opportunity to be heard and validated.

Classes at The Porch are not a substitute for therapy and are not generally taught by licensed therapists (with a few occasional exceptions). However, most course offerings do hold a nonjudgmental space for students to share their writing if desired. “Being able to share the things that we’ve written about and have other people engage with it in that way is healing,” Crouch says.

I’ve given you the nutshell details of why creative writing can be beneficial to our mental health, but now let’s dive into the nitty-gritty science of it. Our brains have what’s called the default mode network. The DMN is a network of brain regions that work together to make up our sense of self, autobiographical memories, discrete emotions (e.g., fear, anger, anxiety, sadness, and joy), and ability to empathize. The DMN is also involved in our inner narrative (how we talk to ourselves) and our ability to store and access the meaning of words and how they change over time. This amazing brain network also helps us make sense of what’s happened to us in the past and the near present, and it helps us plan for the future. So how do we activate it?

New research shows that during a creative process, writing for example, the DMN lights up with activity and synchronizes with our brain regions that are more involved in problem-solving and decision-making. Activating the DMN may also be helpful for reframing adversity into personal growth, which helps us to better cope with stress and become more resilient.

The DMN is less active when we’re highly focused on a task, like filing our taxes, crafting work emails, or focusing on the external world by scrolling through our phones, etc. But it is highly active when we’re letting our minds wander, such as when we’re folding laundry (or doing another mindless task), taking a walk, and—you guessed it—during creative writing or other creative pursuits.

New research shows that during a creative process, writing for example, the DMN lights up with activity and synchronizes with our brain regions that are more involved in problem-solving and decision-making. Activating the DMN may also be helpful for reframing adversity into personal growth, which helps us to better cope with stress and become more resilient.

By the way, the DMN is also responsible for why we seem to have our best ideas about an issue when we’re doing nothing related to that issue. Have you ever had a light-bulb moment or solved a problem you were having regarding work, a relationship, or life in general while you were in the shower or out on a run? Yep, that’s your DMN doing its magical work.

I’m a big fan of taking time to activate my DMN each day. I had no trouble doing this as a kid and teen before the internet was such a giant part of our daily experience. But DMN activation can be a challenge in our modern, always-on lives, where the temptation to scroll is ever present when we’ve got a free moment.

Creative writing—especially when you’re doing it as a way to think about life, whether through essay or poetry or even fiction—is a great tool to get that DMN going. Crouch is a fan of practicing Morning Pages, made famous by author Julia Cameron in The Artist’s Way. But The Porch, a literary home for writers of all ages and stages, has plenty of offerings to provide you prompts and structure or a template for your creative writing practice.

The pages you create over time can also be of benefit to your mental health. I’ve been known to dig out that heart-covered diary (and the others) from time to time to help remind the woman I am now of the girl I was, what I’ve gone through in my life, why I might have certain fears and anxieties now, and how I can give myself grace—just as that young girl with purple ink on her hand would have. She’s an excellent teacher and companion to this forty-something.

‍