Learning to let go of emotional wounds can be difficult, but it's necessary to stay healthy. Getting physically hurt may be painful, but the healing process is straightforward. You can take medication, wrap bandages around your wounds, and wait a certain amount of time before your body heals. Emotional pain is trickier, because there is no physical wound to heal, and it can be hard to let go and begin healing something you can’t see. Over time, this pent-up negative emotion can result in even more damage to your mental and physical health. Fortunately, there is a great way to start healing those emotional wounds: writing meditation.What is Writing Meditation?Charles A. Francis, co-founder of the Mindfulness Meditation Institute, has developed a form of “writing meditation” that focuses on love and kindness. Based on the ideas of Buddhism and other traditions, writing meditation focuses on a set of affirmations that will help change your views of other people and see the world differently. Traditionally, these meditations were comprised of reciting verses either aloud or silently, or listening to someone read them. Francis decided to use writing as an alternative to previous methods, and believes it can help one focus better on what is being said.By implementing a writing meditation, the Mindfulness Meditation Institute hopes to help heal wounds from past, painful experiences and lingering anger. There is a large focus on compassion and understanding the suffering of others, which will help show you how to forgive easier. The Benefits of MindfulnessThere is a huge emphasis on mindfulness in this type of meditation. For instance, there may have been an event when you were younger that still pains you, such as a parent saying hurtful things or a personal failure. Utilizing mindfulness will help you realize that perhaps there was a reason for those events that may not have been easy to understand, such as your parents trying tirelessly to make ends meet or going through rough times themselves.Emotional wounds need to be dealt with, as they can prevent you from moving on. To get a better idea of what the term “good health” means, Francis points out that it’s not a matter of being physically ill; rather having the mind and body performing at optimal levels. Letting anger linger can hold you back and lead to mental, physical, and emotional fatigue. Getting past the negative thoughts will certainly give you a new sense of freedom.Aside from helping you shed painful emotions, being mindful and practicing writing meditation can help improve your productivity, according to Francis. Concentration, focus, creativity, and the thinking process are all areas that work more efficiently with a solid grasp of mindfulness. Additionally, you will be able to view things from a much broader perspective, access memories easier, and see how everything ties in to the bigger picture.In the accompanying audio segment, co-founder of the Mindfulness Meditation Institute, Charles A. Francis, joins Dr. Mike to discuss how you can heal the emotional wounds from your past that keep weighing you down.