00:00 Today's episode discusses a science-supported journaling protocol that has been shown to improve mental and physical health in various ways, backed by over 200 peer-reviewed studies.

05:55 The Waking Up app offers various types and durations of meditations, including yoga nidra, which has been scientifically shown to restore cognitive and physical energy even with just a short 10-minute session, and the app also provides a free 30-day trial; Dr. James Pennebaker's research on a particular form of journaling, which involves writing about difficult or traumatic experiences for 15 to 30 minutes without stopping, has been widely studied and shown to have positive impacts on mental and physical health.

11:54 The journaling protocol involves writing about the most upsetting experience in your life, exploring your emotions and thoughts about it, and connecting it to your past and future self, with a recommended writing time of 15 to 30 minutes.

17:59 The journaling protocol involves writing about the most difficult experience in your life for 15 to 30 minutes, and it is recommended to take a period of quiet time afterwards to settle down and transition back into daily life.

24:21 Journaling about distressing experiences can lead to different levels of emotional expression and distress, but both low expressors and high expressors benefit from the journaling protocol in terms of reduced distress and baseline stress levels.

30:52 People who have more extensive knowledge of words that describe negative emotions tend to have a lower negative emotional state compared to those who have more extensive knowledge of vocabulary words that pertain to positive emotions, and the word patterns people use in their natural speech are more important than their knowledge of vocabulary words in determining their emotional state.

37:11 Completing the writing protocol described in the podcast has been shown to significantly improve physical and mental health outcomes, including reducing depressive symptoms, relieving chronic anxiety and insomnia, improving symptoms of arthritis, lupus, fibromyalgia, and irritable bowel syndrome.

43:23 Completing the writing protocol described in the podcast has been shown to significantly improve physical and mental health outcomes, including reducing depressive symptoms, relieving chronic anxiety and insomnia, improving symptoms of arthritis, lupus, fibromyalgia, and irritable bowel syndrome.

49:17 Subjects who completed the four bouts of emotional writing experienced a greater degree of T lymphocyte activation in response to an immune challenge compared to those who wrote about non-stressful topics, and high disclosers had a greater immune response than low disclosers, highlighting the impact of emotional intensity on the immune system.

55:35 Writing about traumatic or stressful events activates neuroplasticity, allowing the nervous system to rewire itself and create positive shifts in mental and physical health.

01:01:28 Recalling and writing about stressful or traumatic events in a structured way increases the coherence of the narrative and engages the prefrontal cortex, leading to positive shifts in mental and physical health.

01:07:41 Recalling and writing about stressful or traumatic events in a structured way increases activity in the prefrontal cortex, leading to improvements in mental and physical health, despite the initial distress caused by revisiting those experiences.

01:14:08 When people tell the truth with a coherent structured narrative, it increases activity in the prefrontal cortex, which is involved in generating coherent narratives and regulating subcortical structures, and a study using non-invasive brain stimulation showed that stimulating the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex made dishonest people more honest.

01:20:26 Accurate and truthful reporting of experiences, even if they are negative or traumatic, can lead to increased activity in the prefrontal cortex and have positive effects on mental and physical health, including reductions in anxiety and improvements in sleep.

01:26:38 Journaling has a number of important features, including being zero cost, flexible in terms of duration, and having numerous positive effects on mental and physical health.

01:32:41 Writing about stressful or traumatic events for 15 to 30 minutes, four times either on consecutive days or separated by a week, can have long-lasting positive effects on mental and physical health.