Creative Writing Can Release and Reduce Stress
PANEL OF 3 LitArtsRI POETS DISCUISS AI-Prompts
If you are dealing with anxiety – chronically draining or acutely painful – put your feelings into words. Naming any problem is the first step toward overcoming any problem. Therapists say that speaking or writing creatively about struggle gives us an edge on our struggles.
Poetic expression is one creative means of releasing the stresses that complicate our lives. Unlike journaling, which tracks our progress over time, poetic writing captures a here-and-now view of our feelings. Understanding our feelings moment to moment helps us understand ourselves. And understanding ourselves helps us find new ways of managing our stresses.
Where do I start?
We might begin by looking at poems about anxiety. Don’t worry. We are not trying to compete with these poems. As you read a poem, look for phrases that resonate with you. There will always be something that “feels” real to us. Brick by brick, phrases build poems. You can find resonant phrases everywhere people speak, or sing, or write. So harvest some bricks. When you have a harvest, start stacking them. As the stack begins to take form, it will suggest new phrases to you. Go for it !! For ourselves, the process of writing a poem can hold much more healing power than you might imagine. The process can give us the sensation of being in control of our feelings rather than sitting in the back seat of a car wildly driven by our feelings.
What makes a poem work?
There are three things about a written poem that set it apart from other writing. First, poems start with reflecting on our feelings and what they mean to us. Let the feelings find words. When you find words that work, don’t worry about what words are “supposed to mean.” Interpreting words is the task of a reader, not a creator. Our personal use of personally meaningful words is all that matters in managing anxiety with poetry.
Second, some poems rhyme and many poems have a cadence that is carried along with the words. Free-verse poetry doesn’t worry about this. Rhyme and rhythm mean much less that resonance. Some reader’s will feel resonance in your words, while others will not. Such is poetry. All poets write first for themselves. They find words and let them flow. Any statement with richly resonate words is poetry.
Third, a poem may be intended to be mysterious to others. Being a bit ambiguous is important. Uncertainty creates spaces for others to “write themselves into” our expressed feelings. Ambiguity helps others find ways to related to our feelings.
Should we worry when we write?
We shouldn’t worry. I mean what is the point? We may have heard someone use a phrase over coffee some morning. Use the phrase. You found it, you have it. Let it change if it feels like it should have a different shape, but remember that all heartfelt expressions are a string of personally meaningful phrases. When we write poetry for our personal reasons, we don’t have to reinvent the world. We borrow from the world of phrases, and then (if we choose) we might give back to that world.
Borrowing words and phrases gets edgy depending upon whose words we borrow and how extensively we use them. In every day speaking, in crafting songs, or in writing poems, we often use and are inspired by naturally raw poetry. Imprecise meaning doesn’t matter it is meaningful enough for us. Let yourself be inspired.
How do we start?
What if we are stuck? What if we don’t know were to start? What if we have too many possible ways to start and cannot find a path into what we hope we can say? This is commonly called “writers’ block.” One way out is to talk to others and, in conversation, to feel echoes of resonance for feelings that are still buried beneath words. This, of course, is difficult if we feel that others might judge us as we fumble for our words. Well, there is an option.
Recently, a way to bounce phrases in a non-judgmental space has been invented. We can bounce our phrases in “conversations’ with Artificial Intelligence. Some writers will scream “no, no, no!” But wait. We are writing for ourselves. If we bounce a phrase off an Artificial Intelligence “agent,” the resonate echoes that we hear may roots in another writer’s works. Ok. True enough. But if our phrases prompt a resonate response from Artificial Intelligent, what does this say about our original phrase? The response may give us hints for the resonance of our initial question. This can be our starting point.
In conversations with Artificial Intelligence we may find ways forward from both the questions that we ask and from bits of the responses that we get. Use them !!
Is Artificial Intelligence a monster or a muse?
AI is seen as a monster by some and a muse by others. The difference is in how we use it. When used appropriately, AI can nudge us to find our own poetic language. Here is one way to find your muse.
- Open any browser and type “Write me a poem about how anxiety eats my hope.” Google will point to some websites but will also give you an option to use an AI platform to respond to you request.
- If the AI response doesn’t work for you, you can tell it to “Try again.” You can continue to ask for additional responses or you can modify you request and start again.
- Try a modified request like … “Write me a poem about ‘anxiety is a beast that eats my soul’.” Any better resonance?
- Keep on fine tuning your quest until your request gets you some resonating response. Maybe some of the phrases will suggest how you might modify your request.
- Recognize that your request is a poetic creation. Sure, you can continue to build upon it writing your own poem, but the magic has already started to happen. You are “discussing” your poetic phrases with AI.
- You might like having this conversation with other AI platforms. There are more than a dozen AI platforms specific for poetry.
With our created and harvested heartfelt bits of human language, we are poetic. As we select, trim, or expand and recombine language and then we cannot help but create something of our own. But throughout it all, it is the voyage and not the destination that has the healing power.