The benefits of writing
The practice of writing is very common among people, and has been present in society for many, many years, either to create an incredible story in a book, or to prove some scientific discovery. It is possible to write about anything and everything that exists, and this is exactly one of the points that makes this practice so flexible and beneficial to human beings.
However, living in a society that is increasingly accelerated and with so many options to do every day, the practice of writing ended up falling on the priority list of most people. That’s exactly why I decided to research some of the benefits that this practice has on us, in the hope that this text will encourage you to share with the rest of the world a little bit of the universe that lives inside you!
Writing stimulates your memory: regardless of the content you intend to write about, you are exercising your mind, searching inside your brain for all the information you know about a certain subject, and this works your memory a lot. Over time, you will notice that words tend to be a trigger for memories that you no longer remember! It is worth remembering that our memory tends to get worse with age, so keeping it sharp often is essential.
Writing helps to organize your thoughts: this also impacts your anxiety, a symptom present in the vast majority of people nowadays. We often have many things happening at the same time in our mind, and we are unable to organize them, which makes us anxious and stressed. Writing about all these ideas helps to clear your mind and keep you calm.
Writing helps to communicate clearly: did you happen to have that “this was on the tip of my tongue” feeling? This can be due to problems with memory, shyness in communicating, or lack of vocabulary. All of these points tend to be improved with the practice of writing. In addition to greatly improving your communication and knowledge of the language you speak, your brain becomes sharper and you become better in organizing very complex ideas, as well as thinking of answers faster.
Writing makes learning subjects easier: that’s why our elementary school teachers encouraged us to write down the things they wrote on the board! You may have heard that “teaching is a great way to learn”, right? The process of writing about a subject, using your own words according to your understanding of that topic, has the same effect on the brain. It’s like you’re teaching someone else.
Writing helps to deal with emotions better: this is a benefit that is well known and used among people. Writing about your feelings can help you better understand them. This becomes very clear when we stop to think that many psychologists encourage the creation of personal diaries, in order to put on paper the biggest conflicts that inhabit us. Writing about negative feelings, such as disappointment and frustration, facilitates the process of overcoming them.
Another very common practice in this context is to write letters saying how you feel, whether in relation to a person or a situation. The purpose is not for the letter to be delivered, so there is no need to be careful with words. The simple fact of putting all this negative feeling out, even without ever addressing the letter to anyone, has wonderful effects on our psyche.
Writing makes you happier and more grateful: there are many studies that prove that writing about our lives, about the happy events and experiences we go through and we are grateful for, and also writing about plans and goals for the future, release dopamine levels similar to hearing music, or seeing works of art. In addition to feeling happier throughout the writing process, you tend to be more motivated and willing to achieve the things you wrote about.
At this point, I would like to give a tip to the reader, based on my personal experience. For a few years now, I have taken a few minutes every morning to write down three things for which I am grateful. They don’t have to be big things, they can be as simple as “thanks for not running out of butter for breakfast”. It’s simple, and it doesn’t seem to change anything, but in the long run you start to notice that you have much more reasons to be thankful and happy, than to feel down!
It is important to note that the benefits mentioned above are scientifically based (you can check in greater detail through the links written in the references), which reinforces the idea that the practice of writing can become a great ally of your mental and physical health. Also, these are only some of the benefits that writing offers you, there are other nice benefits and discussions around them in the referenced articles!
It may be a little difficult to start writing from scratch if you don’t have this habit already, but the magic of writing is that it becomes easier and more fluid with practice. You don’t know yet, but the world has a lot to learn from your ideas. You will not regret it if you try!
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