The Science Of Journaling: How Writing Reduces Overthinking, Rumination, And Anxiety | Dr. James Pennebaker (Co-Interviewed By Dr. Bianca Harris)
10% Happier with Dan Harris
10% Media, LLC
4.6 • 12.2K Ratings
🗓️ 18 November 2024
⏱️ 73 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Evidence from the guy who pioneered the science.
James Pennebaker is Professor Emeritus of Psychology at the University of Texas at Austin. He is known for his early research on expressive writing and health. More recently, he has pioneered ways to study people’s personalities and behaviors through the analysis of their language use. His text analysis program LIWC is used across disciplines. Author of over 300 scientific articles and 8 books, his research has affected our understanding and treatment of mental and physical health of people dealing with upheavals in their lives.
In this episode we talk about:
- The specific form of journaling, called expressive writing or therapeutic journaling, that he invented and studied.
- Other kinds of journaling such as to-do lists and gratitude lists.
- Why writing things down helps shift our perspective on our stress or trauma.
- How that can lead to a cascade of benefits, from improved sleep to improved working memory
- And why Pennebaker, who’s a very laid-back dude, is so laid-back about how often we need to journal in order to derive its benefits
Dump It Here journal is available now. https://shop.danharris.com/
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to 10% happier early and ad-free right now. |
| 0:04.7 | Join Wondery Plus in the Wondry app or on Apple Podcasts. |
| 0:14.0 | This is the 10% Happier podcast. |
| 0:16.5 | I'm Dan Harris. |
| 0:28.8 | Thank you. I'm Dan Harris. Hello, everybody. How we doing? |
| 0:31.1 | All right, I'm going to admit here from the outset that I've long had a little bit of a bad |
| 0:34.7 | attitude about journaling, which is weird because I spent 30 years of my life working as a journalist. |
| 0:40.8 | I dismissed journaling as some sort of like new agey thing. |
| 0:44.9 | But then I started to see a bunch of science that really changed my mind. |
| 0:50.8 | Side note, this is a bit of a pattern for me. |
| 0:52.6 | I reflexively judge something only to have my mind changed by the evidence. |
| 0:56.6 | This has happened over and over again. |
| 0:58.4 | And in the case of journaling, the evidence is quite abundant. |
| 1:01.1 | According to research, journaling can be an effective way to reduce stress and anxiety, |
| 1:06.8 | two biggies to perennials, sadly, in my life. |
| 1:10.6 | And that's not all. Various forms of journaling |
| 1:12.4 | practice have been shown to increase immune response, sleep, memory, focus, time management, |
| 1:17.9 | and decision-making. Today I'm talking to the guy who really pioneered all of the science around |
| 1:23.4 | journaling. Dr. James Pennebaker is a professor emeritus of psychology at the University of |
| 1:29.4 | Texas at Austin. He's published over 300 articles and written or edited 12 books. I interviewed |
| 1:36.1 | Dr. Pennebaker jointly with my wife, Dr. Bianca Harris, because she and I recently designed, |
| 1:42.8 | wrote and published our own journal, which you can order |
... |
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