Having worked in hospitals for over a decade, I witnessed the extremes of human emotions over deaths and second chances.

Now the virus is testing everyone’s ability to cope with the perceived pending doom, the gut-wrenching uncertainty, and powerlessness.

Learn to process your emotions by writing them out. 

The simplest method of self-therapy against these emotions is writing about them on paper. Dr. James W. Pennebaker, chair of the psychology department at the University of Texas, Austin, has conducted much of the research on the health benefits of expressive writing. 

Writing about emotions may ease stress and trauma. 

Dr. Pennebaker discovered writing about emotions may ease stress and trauma. When participants write nonstop while exploring their innermost thoughts and feelings without inhibition, it helps people to organize thoughts and give meaning to a traumatic experience. 

The process of writing promotes healing. 

The process of writing may enable them to regulate their emotions and break free of the endless mental cycling typical of brooding or rumination. When people open up privately about a traumatic event, they are more likely to talk with others about it—and this suggests that writing leads indirectly to reaching out for social support that can aid healing. 

Create a habit of describing your feelings to overcome difficult emotions.

The next time you find yourself nursing the old wounds, write down your feeling in a notebook. Don’t worry if you can only write words and phrases at first; no one can read it but you. Call it your journal of emotions. 

Create a habit of describing why you feel that way on paper, and date your entries. After a couple of months, go back and read your earlier writing; you’ll see how far you’ve gone on the path of healing. 

Unleash your emotional burden on paper so you can live free.

Let words bring clarity to your thoughts. Let constructive thoughts bring forth the actions you need and leave behind the destructive ones.

We can’t control everything, but we can control our own thoughts and actions. Do you have any destructive thought that serves you no good?

Write it down to unload your burden, then toss it away, literally and figuratively.