The Write Way to Positive Mental Health

I preach the ancillary benefits of writing on a regular basis. Some of the benefits one acquires after “training their brain” to think the way a writer must think include better time management, stronger research and communication skills, improved reading comprehension and more effective decision-making. The objectivity required to write has provided me the ability to learn things above my level of intelligence. I also preach and teach the cathartic benefits of writing. There have been numerous times when something I wrote provided immediate benefit to my psyche. And, as it turns out, years after writing those pieces, they are still providing positive mental health benefits. In this piece, I’m going to provide three examples of things written long ago that provided both immediate and long-term benefits.

“Don’t contact this office again.”

I graduated from college at a time when searching for a job meant writing a cover letter and putting it in an envelope with a resume and mailing it off, hoping for a phone call. Those letters either went unanswered or resulted in a “Dear Ken” rejection letter. But there was one rejection letter that, while not providing a job, provided great motivation for life. Early in November of the year I graduated, I was contacted by a company for an interview. I had two interviews on the same day and was brought back two more times. I left the fourth interview after being told I would be getting a call for another interview. I was hoping to have a job in time for Christmas. But instead of a phone call, I received a rejection letter.

I called the person in HR who I had been dealing with. I pleaded that there had to be a mistake. The HR person checked into the matter and found I shouldn’t have been sent the rejection letter. A fifth interview followed. Then interviews six through eight. Eight job interviews for a job working in a call center.

Two days before Christmas, a letter arrived. It wasn’t a job offer. It was another rejection letter. I had received many of them but the tone of this one was different. I was told that this company had no interest in hiring me as I wasn’t a “fit” for their company and there definitely had been no mistake this time. The letter closed with, “Don’t contact this office again.”

But contact the office is exactly what I did. Two days after Christmas I turned on the Smith-Corona typewriter and wrote a letter to the person in HR. The letter expressed my disappointment in how my job pursuit was handled, and the fact eight job interviews weren’t needed for an entry level job working in a call center. The letter wasn’t rude or vulgar. It was well structured, clear and concise, and my points were made in a professional manner.

When I walked to the top of Mary Ann Drive and put that letter in the mailbox, something wonderful happened. The anger, frustration, and embarrassment of being unemployed vanished. I didn’t have a job but writing and mailing that letter made me feel that my situation could turn around at any time. That letter was the first time I wrote something that provided cathartic benefits. (Six months after sending that letter, I sent five cover letters and resumes to five real estate developers. Two weeks later, I had a job with one of the top real estate developers in the city. My first job duties? Researching and writing reports on real estate projects, business ideas and stock and bond investments).

September of My Hair

I started swimming as a way to quit cigarettes. It worked. Even though I wore a swim cap I was worried about what the chlorine would do to my hair. I was also at an age when some of my friends were beginning to show hair loss. I wasn’t 30 years old but it dawned on me that I would have limited control over what my hair would look like as I started to pile on the birthdays. I wrote an essay titled September of My Hair. (The title comes from the Frank Sinatra song, September of My Years.) Many years later, I have no worries or concerns about what has happened or will happen to my hair. As I wrote in the essay, instead of worrying about my physical appearance—of which I had limited control—I realized I had to develop outside interests, adopt an entrepreneur’s attitude and keep growing my creative soul.

Busy Nation

In my world, I need to “advance my cause” on a daily basis. I need to market to people who work at non-profits, in benefits departments and in the HR profession (I know—ironic, right?). Many of the people I need to deal with start most conversations by telling me how busy they are. One day it dawned on me that my clients who own businesses, work in medicine or have successful careers never tell me how busy they are. They get things done. Even with all the things I have going on--my investment practice, my writing, biking, swimming and traveling—that I’m never too busy to do something that anybody who writes must do. And that is nothing but ponder. Best ideas come when nothing else is going on. I’m never too busy to be creative. I would be embarrassed to tell another human how busy I am. I wrote an article about the busy people and it was published in the Post-Gazette.

After it was printed, the editor contacted me and suggested we change the title from Busy Nation to Are you too busy to read this? for the online version. The editor did a great job of adding a photo with a sea of Post-it notes. A favorite line from the piece: “Busy Nation dwellers find 24 different ways to tell you how busy they are—all while keeping abreast of who is getting kicked off “Dancing with the Stars” or who “The Bachelor” is giving the rose to.”

Employment groups should be offering writing programs to their workforce. Better writers make better employees. All the time, money and attention devoted to improving mental health in the workplace should be funneled into writing programs. Such programs can be part of an entity’s wellness program and workforce development activities.

To read, September of My Hair, click HERE.

To read, Are You Too Busy to Read This? click HERE.