How can I get over an emotionally painful experience?

Answer: Try writing about your painful emotional experience for 15 minutes a day for four consecutive days.

“Writing about your problems can help. When people are asked to write about an emotional upheaval in their life for 15 minutes a day for four consecutive days, a number of changes are seen. Over 200 research studies report that emotional writing can improve people’s physical and mental health, help them sleep better, and even result in their getting better grades in school.

The first emotional writing study was published in 1986 by Professor James Pennebaker and his student Sandra Bell…”

Hear James Pennebaker tell the  rest of  this amazing research story  in this 5-minute video:

Here’s another 4-minute video where Professor Pennebaker goes into more detail in how to do the emotional writing (and how not to do it) and why it might work: