4 Nov 2026
It’s Not Too Late to Heal: 3 Ways Journaling Helps You Move Forward and Prosper
It's not too late to heal. Dr. Amen Kaur shares 3 ways journaling helps you move forward and prosper, the research on writing and healing, and the missing step most people skip: love
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It's not too late to heal what's been holding you back. Writing about your feelings can help your body heal, but it depends on how you use it.
In one study, people who wrote about their most upsetting experiences healed from a small wound far faster than those who wrote about their daily plans. And when researchers looked for the reason, they couldn't fully find it.
In this episode, Dr. Amen Kaur explains what happens in your brain when you put feelings into words, why writing can leave some people feeling worse at first, and the one step that changes everything. Then she asks a bigger question: is there a power within you that science can't yet explain?
If you want 2027 to be a different year, one where you know your own value and create from the power already within you, find out about BEYOND at amenkaur.com/beyond
3 ways journaling helps you move forward
It calms your brain's alarm. Putting feelings into words engages the part of the brain that helps quiet the amygdala, your inner smoke alarm.
It lets old pain finish. Once your feelings are on the page, you can witness them rather than live inside them.
It makes room for love. Reading back what you wrote with kindness calms the body in a way positive thinking alone doesn't.
In this episode
Why writing about pain helped wounds heal faster, and why science can't fully explain it
The brain's smoke alarm (the amygdala) and the watchtower that calms it
Why you may feel worse when you first start writing, and why that's normal
How writing helped people who had lost their jobs find new work faster
The storyteller and the witness, and what's really happening when you feel you don't know who you are anymore
The missing step most people skip: love
Why kindness toward yourself calms the body, and positive thinking alone doesn't
What the mystics and philosophers have said about the witness, the presence within you
Try the practice
Give yourself 20 minutes and a pen and paper.
Name it. Write what's been weighing on you. Name every feeling.
Witness it. Read it back the way someone who loves you would.
Love it. Write a reply to yourself, as you would to a dear friend.
Then write one small next step. Try it three or four days in a row.
If what you're carrying feels too big to face alone, please reach out to a qualified professional for support.
Common questions this episode answers
Does writing about your feelings really help you heal? Research suggests it can. In a 2013 study of older adults, 76% of those who wrote about upsetting experiences had fully healed a small wound by day 11, compared with 42% of those who wrote about daily activities.
Why do I feel worse after journaling about something painful? Feeling worse at first is common. In James Pennebaker's original 1986 study, students felt worse while writing about painful experiences, yet visited the health center less over the following months.
What is the missing step in expressive writing? Self-compassion. Writing out pain alone can leave some people harder on themselves. Reading back what you've written with kindness, and replying to yourself with love, is the step this episode focuses on.
Research mentioned
Koschwanez and colleagues (2013), expressive writing and wound healing in older adults
Pennebaker and Beall (1986), writing about trauma and health center visits
Spera, Buhrfeind and Pennebaker (1994), expressive writing after job loss
Lieberman and colleagues (2007), putting feelings into words
Bessel van der Kolk, The Body Keeps the Score
Kross and Ayduk, self-distancing
Farb and colleagues (2007), two forms of self-awareness
Leary and colleagues (2007), self-compassion and painful events
Kiecolt-Glaser and colleagues (2005), relationship conflict and wound healing
Coan and colleagues (2006), hand-holding and the brain's threat response
Holt-Lunstad and colleagues (2010), social relationships and survival
Kangaroo mother care, Cochrane review (2016)
Kirschner and colleagues (2019), self-compassion and the body's threat response
Walburn and colleagues (2009), stress and wound healing
Broadbent and colleagues (2012), relaxation and surgical healing
Wisdom mentioned
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
Catherine Ponder, The Dynamic Laws of Prosperity
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