For those of you who’ve not seen it, The Wolf of Wall Street starred Leonardo DiCaprio as Jordan Belfort, directed by Scorsese. It tells the true story of Belfort’s career as a New York stockbroker and how corruption and fraud led to his downfall. Right at the end of the film is a scene starring the real Jordan Belfort, on stage running a sales masterclass and his ask? “Sell me this pen”, as he holds up a cheap, ballpoint pen to his audience.

It’s something I’ve thought of periodically since the film came out in 2013, and the more I’ve grown and developed myself, the clearer the answer has been as to how I would sell the pen. 

When you write, you feel the words – your body and your nervous system respond honestly to the words on the page. Instead of holding onto your thoughts, feelings, fears and worries –  by getting them out onto a piece of paper, you’re giving your brain and your nervous system space which automatically feels better. Your intuition and your gut respond in real time to the feelings your words create. Some of that might be joy, some of it might be fear – by letting yourself feel the emotion and sit with it, you release tension, you release the anxiety and life starts to feel better. If you sit with the emotion and let yourself feel it instead of pushing it down, it will disappear within 90 seconds and your body will have processed it. 

When worries and emotions stay in your head, your brain keeps treating them like unfinished business. That keeps your stress response switched on and that’s why we ruminate on things. But when you put those thoughts into words, your brain starts to organise them. When the brain can organise something, it doesn’t have to stay on high alert about it which means your nervous system can start working the way it’s been designed to – more adaptive.