Reader Response draft 1

In the article “Writing Your Way to Happiness”,  Parker-Pope (2015) states that writing one’s own experience can develop mental health and bring a good mood, thus giving people the happiness. The author believes that our world outlook and self-positioning depends on these personal statements. 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(2015) also mentions that writing can help people to face the difficulties in their life truly. By taking example of a woman Siri in the Johnson & Johnson Human Performance Institute, she realized her real problems through writing. Thus, it is asserted in the article that writing indeed helps you recognize what hinders you and lead you towards the happiness. However, writing and editing one's stories is not sufficient to cause 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 keeping happy in the long term. 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. Through editing, people will get into an imaginary story easily and wallow in an unreal happiness. Thus, it is insufficient to achieve happiness through writing and editing one's stories. People also need to reasoningly treat themselves.

Furthermore, the author believes that people can realize the real problems that stopping them from happiness through writing things down. It is true that writing allows people to calm down and tell the true obstacles. However, writing does not give them the solutions to those problems. In reality, sometimes people actually know about what real problems are, they just deny them and get stuck. Writing indeed is a way to talk to oneself. In one's subconscious, they do not admit the real problems, especially relate to themselves.Therefore,it is difficult for people to solve those problems. Instead of talking to oneself, Williamson(2014) and King(2014) states that "our relationships with other people are the most important thing for our happiness". People need to build close and strong relationship with someone else and looking for the solutions to the problems with people surrounding. This is an effective and much useful tool to move away the obstacles on their ways towards happiness.

The author also argues that writing about personal experiences can improve one's physical health,like reducing symptoms among cancer patients. However, I think writing is just a way to shift their attention to other aspects. 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. And also, 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. Widrich(2014) also mentions that exercise is a cure for nearly everything in life and leads people to the happiness. Thus, people also need to take physical exercise in order to keep happy.

Belmer:
http://www.mindbodygreen.com/0-7806/17-ways-to-shed-negativity-and-achieve-happiness.html

Williamson(2014) and King(2014):
http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/nov/03/ten-easy-steps-that-will-make-you-a-happier-person

Widrich(2014):
http://www.fastcompany.com/3025957/work-smart/what-happens-to-our-brains-when-we-exercise-and-how-it-makes-us-happier