Writing Wellness 101: "One Question; Six Answers"

Is this a session about good writing? Or is it about writing well? Or perhaps about a career writing articles about health? No, no, and no! None of the above! This session is about the process of writing as a proactive strategy toward your improved health and wellness.

Today I want to reflect on the many times—and ways—in a given day we may be asked “How are you?” In different circumstances, and from different people, this simple question can mean many different things AND you will be motivated to respond differently. I can think of at least six different circumstances where the basic question is the same. (You may be able to think of more.) Even though the question is the same, you will respond differently each time.
1. You meet an acquaintance in the post office and she asks “How are you?”
2. Before or after a meeting, a colleague asks, “So how is everything going for you?
3. On a phone call from a parent or sibling, after five or ten minutes of catching up on recent events, your mother/father/sister/brother/aunt/cousin asks “And how are you doing?”
4. After dinner and a discussion about sharing household chores, your partner may ask, “How are you doing with all that’s going on these days?”
5. Your best friend in another city emails you about some tough times with a parent and then asks, “Now tell me what’s going on in your life!”
6. You are wide awake—again—between 2 a.m and 3 a.m. You tip-toe out to the kitchen for a cup of chamomile tea and pull out your journal. “So,” you say to yourself, “What’s going on that I can’t sleep?”

“How are you?” is a question with many meanings! We all know that sometimes it is just a simple greeting, more like a statement of “It’s good to see you!” than a real question inviting a real answer. People saying “How are you?” in the post office rarely expect an answer that describes how you are in any more detail than one or two words, “Fine,” “Not bad,” “Very well, thank you,” or “Great!” followed by a reciprocal question asking, “and how are you?” But beyond this superficial type of “How are you?” there is an opportunity in every other question for a wellness comment. And your journal is a terrific place to practice this kind of honesty about how you really, really are. At least three levels of writing wellness apply here. One is that writing honestly about emotionally difficult topics has proven to be good for your health. And the second is that this kind of writing may help you speak up (in a constructive way) about issues that are troubling you, small or large. A third benefit is that you may come up with solutions, alternatives, options, resolutions, new perspectives, and or forgiveness during your writing process, and any one of these also contributes to your overall wellness. For research summaries and bibliography on this topic, please access my website at www.metaphorical-ink.com and select the “Research on Writing” button.

For your writing:
For each “How are you?” in situations numbers two through six above write a one page answer that mentions some real and true answers to the question and real and true reasons why you are doing well or not doing well. For each situation, your wellness statements may be different because different issues will seem appropriate for discussion with a colleague, family member, friend, partner, or in the privacy of your journal. If situations two through six do not fit your lifestyle, first come up with five situations where someone might ask you a version of “How are you?” and then continue with writing a one-page answer for each.

Quotation for Percolation:
The world can only be as sane and healthy as the individuals living in it. If we want to live in a balanced environment, we must find and heal what is out of balance with ourselves.
Mahatma Gandhi