Now the interesting question is why. Why are there such remarkable benefits to journaling?
有趣的问题是为什么?为什么写日记能产生如此显着的好处?
Let's understand the process, the mechanism. So there are a few things that are at play here.
我们来理解一下这个过程和当中的原理。现在有几件事情在这里起作用,
One of the things for example with positive emotions is that when you are replaying it, you are simply, you are fortifying the neural pathways.
例如你带着积极情感在回想其中一次经历,你其实是在增强神经通路,
You replay, you imagine it again and you make it more likely to happen again.
你再次重现,想象它让它像重新发生一样,
Just like when you have a river, remember the analogy from two weeks ago, you have a river, and the more water go through it, then the wider it becomes, and then the more water is likely to go into it. That's self-reinforcing nature of change.
就像你面前有条河,记得两周前的类推法吗,你面前有条河,流过的水越多,它就变得越宽阔,然后越来越多水流进去。这是变化的本质,自我实现。
So the first thing, the first reason why writing especially about painful emotions but not just painful emotions, the reason why it helps is because of tension.
因此,为什么写下,尤其是痛苦情感,但也不只是痛苦情感,之所以有所帮助是因为紧张感。
We talked about ironic processing- Daniel Wegner's work from here.
我们之前讲过丹尼尔·韦格纳的“反语处理”,
And what he talks about is that when we suppress unnatural phenomenon, it often intensifies. Be it thinking about a pink elephant or be it suppressing painful emotions.
而他谈到当我们抑制非自然现象时,通常会适得其反。比如想像一头粉红色的大象,或抑制痛苦的情感。
And when we give ourselves the permission to be human, we are much more likely to release it, to let go, which is why therapy helps, which is why sharing with friends, opening up helps, which is why journaling helps.
当我们准许自己为人,我们都倾向于释放感情,放开心胸,这就是治疗产生作用的原因,就是为什么和朋友分享与人倾诉以及写日记能有所帮助,
This is the whole idea of suppression or repression.
这就是抑制或压抑的概念。