Through writing, you can clear your mind, brainstorm ideas, and plan life events. This is because writing mainly helps us express our thoughts and feelings, bring ideas to life, and organize activities. You do not need to be a professional writer to benefit from the process. Therefore, our research team at Find It Health has highlighted the numerous benefits of writing.

Regular writing will benefit you psychologically, socially, physically, and improve your overall health and wellbeing. The common ways to maintain an active writing lifestyle are to keep a journal, diary, or even start a personal blog.

Benefits of Writing by Hand

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The act of writing by hand is making a big comeback in our today’s world due to its numerous benefits. For example, research proves that it enhances our thought processes, boosts creativity, and promotes expressive writing among many other benefits.

When you finally decide to pick a piece of paper to start writing, here are what you stand to gain:

·      Improved Learning and Comprehension

When writing by hand, you’re able to summarize in your own words, draw quick diagrams and illustrations. This will help you in learning and a better understanding of complex ideas. This benefit is mostly applicable to students who take notes by hand and not by typing on laptops. More so, it is easier to get distracted typing with a laptop than writing on a notebook by hand.

·      Boost in Creativity

You can come up with better ideas when writing by hand. This is because longhand writing gives you the freedom to focus, think, make mistakes, correct them and continue writing. You also write with your unique handwriting, making you more appreciative and freer. This is unlike looking at a screen and typing with a keyboard, making everything appear so perfect and final.

·      Improved Writing Skills

Writing by hand improves your writing skills, making you a better writer. Certainly, when you write by hand, you take it slowly and consider any word you add duly. You can also quickly track your progress and edits. It takes effort to write with a pen on paper, and the reward for your effort is improved legibility, fluency, and quality of writing.

·      Deep and Critical Thinking Capacity

When you write by hand, you become thorough in thinking, trying to find the connection between complex ideas coming to mind. Your thought processes become deeper and more refined as you process the things you write slowly and carefully. Many bestseller writers such as J.K Rowling, Stephen King, drafted their ideas first by hand on paper.

For more self-care ideas, visit the Find It Health page on easy self-care ideas for your bodily wellbeing.

·      Increased Ability to Focus

Writing on paper will make you focus on yourself and your writing with little or no distraction. This is unlike using your laptop or smartphone with so many tabs, buttons, and features that could easily cause distraction. A single notification can cause harmful damage. But, with pen and paper, it is just you and your thoughts.

Find It Health pointed out also how to meditate with different crystals to increase focus.

Health Benefits of Writing Daily

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Regular writing may impact your health in many positive ways such as slowing down mental aging and battling dyslexia.

The following are ways by which writing can benefit your daily health:

·      Writing regularly may slow down mental aging

Just like any other part of your body, the brain will tend to grow weaker when not put to full use. And, among the best ways to keep your brain active and curious is by writing daily. A study published on BBC suggests that regular writing and reading can protect the brain as you age.

·      Writing can help you battle dyslexia

Dyslexia is the dissociation of the brain auditory and language centers leading to difficulty in learning and reading. According to Marilyn Zecher (former teacher and language specialist at ASDEC), regular cursive handwriting is an effective therapy to establish a connection between the two centers. While cursive seems to be declining in public education, specialists suggest that it remains an effective tool in battling dyslexia.

·      Writing helps to stimulate and develop the brain

The different parts of the brain used for different functions come alive when you start writing. Writing down your thoughts in a notebook daily helps to boost the brain capacity, and keep you alert always. Dr. Klemm in an article published on Psychology Today says that cursive improves thinking levels because, for every letter of the alphabet, there are specific hand-eye coordination requirements.

·      Daily writing relieves anxiety, stress, and depression

Writing is a powerful healing tool that helps in boosting mindfulness, helping restore calm. It keeps you aware of your current situation, slows down your thoughts, and brings peace to your stressed, anxious, or depressed mind. Just like meditation, expressing your daily experiences in a journal tends to make you more cheerful.

Have you ever wondered what controls your peace of mind? Find the answers in the 7 guides and ideas for mindfulness.

·      Writing expands your memory, helping you remember more

You are more likely to remember things when you write them down. The spatial relationship between your hand movement as you write and what you’re writing helps you to memorize the information for longer. A publication on PBS NewsHour states that physical writing experience increases the chance to learn and memorize.

Psychological Benefits of Writing

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Taking out time to write each day positively affects the way you see things, making you more grateful and happier.

Here are the psychological benefits of writing to help you live a life of gratitude:

·      Writing makes you more cheerful

The art of self-expression through writing notes about your daily activities leads to improved mood and reduced stress levels. This is because you pour out your feelings in the journal. Also, by writing about your daily goals, you form a habit of self-motivation. These can make you happier and more cheerful.

·      Writing leads to better communication and socialization

Each time you write, you improve your communication skills and learn how to describe your feelings better. As such, communication with loved ones or a larger audience becomes more effective. Writing reduces the feeling of “oh! I can think of a great idea, but I don’t know how to express it”.

·      Writing increases your feeling of gratitude

Through gratitude journaling, you become a more positive version of yourself. Gratitude journaling is more about counting your blessings by writing them down. Those who do so are more motivated and optimistic about their future. Of course, when you note the good things in your life, you quickly relate to why they make you happy.

·      Writing improves your resilience

Writing is a powerful tool that can help you cope with hard times and chaos. Bad experiences bring about chaos, restlessness, and negativity. In times like this, what you need most is peace of mind. Writing to express your feelings will lead you to self-awareness, helping restore calm. Just like the effect of meditation, you will be less affected by negative events, and pick yourself up each time.

·      Writing helps you see challenges for what they really are

Some challenges may appear overwhelming in thoughts, however, when you write them down, they do not appear to be much. Writing down tasks will make you see them for what they exactly are. The best way to go about these tasks will also come to mind. So, whenever you’re dealing with issues on emotional intelligence or hard sciences, try writing them down. This provides a better understanding and faster solution.

Frequently Asked Questions on Journals

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Why is writing so healing?

Writing is a means of communicating your feelings and thoughts. Therefore, through writing activities such as self-care journaling, you can improve your emotional, psychological, and physical health.

Emotional healing manifests when you’re at peace with your thoughts. Writing as a tool helps you to express your negative emotions and heal from them. Still, by writing, you can pick up and replace negative emotions with positive ones.

The main feature of writing that pushes healing is “self-expression”. Thus, writing helps you to search within your thoughts for all negativity, and push them out onto the pages of a notebook, closing the chapter for good.

How does writing impact your physical health?

Writing increases your productivity level and gets you ready to tackle your daily tasks squarely. This is possible as a result of several brain neurons activated through writing. Just like physical exercise improves your mental alertness and gives you energy for your daily routine, writing gives the same feeling.

Other ways that writing impacts your physical health is by:

·       lowering your blood pressure.

·       helping you deal with stress, anxiety, and a depressed state of mind.

·       strengthening your lung and liver functioning, etc.

For further learning, here is a research article by Cambridge University press on Emotional and Physical health benefits of expressive writing.

Is writing a form of therapy?

Yes! Writing is a form of therapy recommended by various therapists for mental health, dyslexia, stress, anxiety, depression, PTSD, etc. Research has proven the effectiveness of adopting writing as a therapy for the mentioned mental health issues. It is therefore advisable to add expressive writing to your daily routine to help with stress.

Does writing heal?

Many spiritual healers recommend writing as a healing tool to manage emotional stress. Certainly, writing has positive effects on your emotional health. If you are battling a lack of concentration or restlessness, writing can help slow down your thoughts while closing your mental tabs. Due to the healing impact of writing, many meditation experts adopt it either before or after practice.

See this Find It Health page to learn the way to meditate for anxiety and stress relief.

Conclusion – Research by Findithealth.com

There are so many benefits of writing grouped into mental health benefits, psychological benefits, and emotional benefits. This shows you that the simple act of writing every day impacts your overall well-being. In fact, it makes you a better person in dealing with your day-to-day activities. 

Find It Health recommends regular writing as an effective self-care tool. The good thing is, you don’t need to be a professional writer to benefit from the practice.