What if Your Thoughts Were Different Depending on Where You Put Them?
When I face a topic I want to write about, scribbling it out by hand first feels dramatically different than if I type it out on Ol’ Compy.
I’m fascinated by this.
And it’s not just the feel I’m talking about — even though analog writing is way slower than typing, my clarity of thought & structure of the whole idea materialize much faster when a pen is the vehicle.
Therefore, I pondered: what if there’s more to this than we realize? What if handwriting is a tool to keep dusted & well-oiled?
So I had to explore. And what I found makes me want to scream it from the mountaintops.
First: some background.
Let’s Read About Reading
(Is this meta?)
Sometimes we get a read (ha!) on something — or someone — by looking at the family, so let’s look at writing’s cousin:
How & what we read have a dramatic impact on what we take away. Or, more specifically, on how much we retain.
Over the past decade, growing research has found that people who read books on digital devices can recall less than people who read the analog versions. This is a multi-faceted phenomenon.
One of the simplest ways to see it is via our sensory faculties:
When we read a physical book, we engage with far more than just our eyes. Our entire posse of senses gets in on it. Sight, touch, smell, & even sound can contribute to our experience with the physical object that— rather magically — transfers an entire concept from another person to us.
(Okay, so taste isn’t always so involved, unless you get desperate for fiber. But if you’ve ever snacked on a certain food while racing through a story’s climax, for example…)
Even our spatial awareness helps with the exchange, and this is arguably the most critical aspect:
When two groups were studied & compared, the group that read a story on an e-reader had significantly more trouble recalling the chronological order of events than the group that read it in a physical form.
It comes down to geography. While the e-reader group could remember the story’s general events, they had a minimal frame of reference for where in the story specific things happened.
In other words, they couldn’t refer back to a physical place in the book’s pages for certain points in the tale.
If that doesn’t blow your mind… Well, keep reading.
Now To Write About Writing
(…)
As brilliant creator David Lynch describes, the act of creating is “connecting to source,” and writing in any form offers us clarity of thought & an improved sense of well-being.
But it turns out there’s a veritable pantload of benefits when it comes to analogue writing, in particular.
For one thing, studies show that taking notes by hand helps you remember important points much better than pecking it out on your phone or computer.
This is partly because it stimulates your Reticular Activating System (RAS), a group of nerves that filter excess info so that only the important stuff gets in. It relates to our wakefulness, ability to focus, & fight-or-flight response, and it’s the force behind learning something new and then “suddenly” seeing it everywhere.
But the journaling method of Expressive Writing goes even further.
This type of writing is solely focused on (privately) exploring past trauma, and diving into one’s deepest thoughts & feelings. Since its inception in the late 1980s, repeated studies of this practice have validated its staggering list of biological changes & benefits to physical health:
- Major drops in stress, depression, anxiety, & blood pressure
- Significant boosts in sleep, mood, social engagement
- Improvement in the quality of close relationships
- Dramatic enhancement of immune function
To better emphasize that last bit: Expressive Journaling strengthens T-cells, or T-lymphocytes, which are directly involved in our ability to fight off the SARS/Coronavirus.
In conclusion: Journaling fights Covid.
Are you sold yet?
Scribble to Your Heart’s Content
Any writing, done in any way, regarding any topic, provides an avenue of creative expression that is at once therapeutic, cathartic, self-revealing, and blockage-obliterating.
Certainly, many of you know this already. After all, why else are you here?
Where analog writing gives us divine freedoms in the security of privacy, digital writing gives us the opportunity to see ourselves in the reflections of others.
Perhaps it could be simply said that journaling is the path to the self, and publishing is the path to connection.
Whoever you are, wherever you stand, however visible you wish to be or not be, start writing now.
You have nothing to lose and everything to gain.
If you found this valuable, I have a most digital of Tip Jars that warmly welcomes anything you’d like to write, too. :)
Thank you very much for reading.
