Can Writing Improve Your Breathing? The Science Says Yes

To me, writing is not just an artful form of expression. It can also enrich your life by helping you exhale.

If you simply take everything in and keep it there, you're bound to fill your mind with endlessly regurgitating thoughts and worries that can leave you restless, even awake at night.

Writing is the exhaust valve. It's the exhaling part of breathing, getting things off your chest so you can sleep more contentedly instead of letting your thoughts continually implode.

My stress-relieving exhales are my weekly blogs at www.maddenmischief.com, including my latest one about Catholicism in turmoil. They've helped me stay sane and sober through the many years I've been faithfully taking my exhale medicine: writing.

So don't just have thoughts. Give them birth. Write them down and share them, especially the ones that enlighten and, even better, inspire.

I discovered writing early on while majoring in journalism at Temple University. I later studied communications at the Annenberg School at the University of Pennsylvania while working the sometimes hazardous night shift as a reporter at The Philadelphia Inquirer. One night I even got my ass kicked covering an angry mob's protest.

My writing skills eventually landed me safer, if saltier, and later cushier jobs in public relations, ultimately whisking me up to the nosebleed level of vice president and assistant to the CEO of NBC. That CEO was my comedic genius buddy Fred Silverman, with whom I also worked at ABC on many of the hit television series he masterminded and I promoted.

Eventually, all that nosebleeding led me to launch my own PR firm, TransMedia Group, which grew into one of the nation's top headline-grabbers for some of America's largest companies. Today, my talented and resourceful daughter, Adrienne Mazzone, runs the show as its illustrious president, while I happily continue helping from home as CEO and proud dad.

That's right, I'm always writing, whether it's manuscripts, blogs, articles, or news releases designed to capture media headlines across the country. These fingers of mine are constantly working the keyboard on my laptop, just as my father, violinist William Madden, used his fingers to bring music to life by pressing strings, and my brother, Don Madden, used his to create Playboy's full-page cartoons, one every month for 50 colorful years.

Yes, exhaling through music, art, and public relations runs in the family. Maybe that's why we all slept so well, including my dad and brother, who are now up in heaven, where they're probably still creating.

So please don't hoard your thoughts. Don't keep them locked inside.

Write them down. Share them.

And let writing help make this a better, better-read, more educated, and more inspired world.