Reader Response Draft 4

In the article “Writing Your Way to Happiness”,Parker-Pope(2015) states that writing one's own experience can help to develop mental health and bring a good mood,giving people a sense of happiness. The author believes that our world outlook and self-positioning depends on these personal statements.These claims were illustrated by examples. Stanford researchers once carried out a study on the college freshmen. Results showed that writing could encourage people and give them confidence towards their future. Parker-Pope also mentions that writing can help people to face the difficulties in their life truly. By taking an example of a woman, Siri in the Johnson & Johnson Human Performance Institute, she realized her real problems through writing.It is asserted in the article that writing indeed helps people recognize what hinders them and lead them towards the happiness. 

However, writing and editing one's stories is not sufficient to bring happiness and improve physical health.

In the article, the author states that "by writing and then editing our own stories, we can change our perceptions of ourselves". In order to be happy and shed the negativity, people are trying to subjectively ignore their shortcomings and delete them from their stories. By doing so, they can have more positive attitude to live on their lives. However, only looking at the good side of oneself is not helpful in leading a happy life in the long term. Through editing, people will get into an imaginary story easily and wallow in unreal happiness. Belmer (2013) mentions that in order to achieve happiness, people have to be honest about themselves. Even though people can put more attention on their strength, they still need to know their weaknesses well.After getting to know oneself better, they can be more rational and treat things in a more mature way. There are less trifles that bothering them and this will make them enjoy a more happy life.

Furthermore, the author believes that people can realize the real problems that stop them from happiness through expressive writing. It is true that writing allows people to calm down and recognize their real obstacles. However, writing does not give them the solutions to those problems. In reality, sometimes people might actually know what real problems are, yet they just deny them and get stuck. Writing indeed is a way to talk to oneself. It becomes difficult for people to solve those problems when they do not want to admit those. Instead of talking to oneself, Williamson and King(2014) states that "our relationships with other people are the most important thing for our happiness". People need to build a close and strong relationship with someone else and look for the solutions to the problems together. This is an effective and more useful tool to move away the obstacles on their ways towards happiness. For instance, there are many suicide cases of young people all over the world.From their last words, most of them were struggling against something but finally could not resolve them.In such a situation, expressive writing gives little help.In order to achieve happiness, writing is not sufficient. People ought to get more suggestions from their trusted which help them solve their issues.

The author also argues that writing about personal experiences can improve one's physical health,like reducing symptoms among cancer patients. However, in my point of view, writing is just a way to shift their attention to other things. It is not sufficient and they need more physical exercise to maintain health, including mental health. For most of the people, being overweight or not eating nutritious foods can have a negative effect on their mood.These root of unhappiness cannot simply solved by express writing. Widrich(2014) mentions that exercise is a cure for nearly everything in life and leads people to the happiness. Exercise has been known to have a positive impact boosting self-esteem, sense of control and endorphin levels which gives people a feeling of happiness.According to these evidences, physical exercise is also essential to have happiness.

All in all,Parker-Pope's assertion that express writing can help people to achieve happiness is not complete as there are lots of other important elements on the way to happiness. Other things,like knowing the weakness of oneself, building strong relationships to look for solutions,appropriate physical exercise, are all important to bring people a happy life.

Word count:719 words

References:

Parker-Pope.T(Jan 19,2015). Writing Your Way to Happiness[Weblog post].Retrieved from http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/01/19/writing-your-way-to-happiness/?_r=0

Belmer.C(Feb 22,2013). 17 Ways to Shed Nagativity and Achieve Happiness.[Weblog post].Retrieved from  http://www.mindbodygreen.com/0-7806/17-ways-to-shed-negativity-and-achieve-happiness.html

Williamson.M & King.V(Nov 3,2014).Ten Easier Step to Happier Living.[Weblog post].Retrieved from http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/nov/03/ten-easy-steps-that-will-make-you-a-happier-person

Widrich.L(Feb 4,2014).What Happens to Our Brains When We Exercise and How It Makes Us Happier.[Weblog post].Retrieved from http://www.fastcompany.com/3025957/work-smart/what-happens-to-our-brains-when-we-exercise-and-how-it-makes-us-happier