Enhancing mindfulness in a written emotional expression exercise

Written emotional expression has garnered significant evidence as a therapeutic tool for the processing of traumatic life events (Frattaroli, 2006; Pennebaker, 1997). However, its underlying mechanisms are still not fully understood or clearly defined. In this study, we predicted that written emotional expression exercises could serve as a mindfulness process. The goals of this study were (a) to test whether the writing process enhances mindfulness levels and (b) whether we can enhance mindfulness levels by building on a traditional writing instruction. To pilot this exercise, we modified the instructions of the traditional writing exercise to instruct individuals how to exercise mindfulness in their writing. Participants (N = 40) were randofmly assigned to either the traditional-writing group (TG) based on the Pennebaker instructions (Pennebaker, Kiecolt-Glaser, & Glaser, 1988) or to the mindfulness-enhanced group (MG), which incorporated mindfulness-based instructions (Levitt et al., 2004; Hayes & Smith, 2005) for writing about students' most stressful life experience. The Toronto Mindfulness Scale (TMS) was used to measure reports of curiosity and decentering before and after the writing exercise. Results revealed that decentering increased after participants engaged in the traditional writing exercise but not the mindfulness-enhanced exercise. Contrary to our prediction, curiosity reports did not change significantly overtime, and the mindfulness-enhanced writing did not differentially enhance individuals' mindfulness levels compared to the traditional writing exercise. These findings provide preliminary evidence that decentering may serve as an underlying mechanism in expressive writing. Future studies should replicate these findings and assess mindfulness changes in expressive writing over the course of several days.