3 reasons why writing is good for you

It is already a widely known fact that even a few minutes a day devoted to reading may affect your life in many positive ways. But we rarely find anyone talking about the benefits associated with the activity of writing. And it turns out there are many.

There’s no need to be a laureate, Nobel-award-kind-of published author, nor to be a writer/poet of the stature of St. Teresa of Avila: daily writing, modest as it may be, creates habits that help to develop skills related to problem solving and concentration, thus making your life better one letter at a time.

We wanted to share three good reasons to make writing part of your daily activity:

1. It improves your communication skills.

As explained by Sherelle Walker in a note for SciLearn Blog, our heads are often filled with disjointed, random thoughts all scrambled together with scattered ideas and something blurry on top. Maybe some other thoughts are better defined, but still kind of incomplete, showing some loose ends. Writing down your thoughts (even in a diary, to keep track of your progress on those matters) helps better develop your skill in communicating your thoughts, ideas and opinions to others. Since you have already written them down, you will at least remember the main points you wish to bring up.

2. It helps you organize your day.

“To-do” lists can be annoying, but they also happen to be useful. Writing down what is still pending can help you to manage your time more efficiently. Who knows? You might even find you have an extra hour or two a day just to let your mind wander around! Writing helps creating narrative structures, which in turn form an archive of memories sewn together as sequences of events. These structures have a cause-effect relationship that shows you the relationship between what you do and what you get out of it.

3. It reduces anxiety and helps in coping with difficult situations.

Alfredo Álamo recently posted a story on Lecturalia, on how a university conducted a study that involved following 60 people who had just been fired from their jobs.

Those who took the time to write on a daily basis, regardless of whether it was just taking some brief notes or writing a few paragraphs in a diary, found new positions much earlier than those who didn’t, and suffered considerably less psychological damage.

When writing, both your breathing rhythm and your cardiac activity slow down, and several areas of the brain, associated with thinking and memory, become active — exactly the kind of effect achieved through meditation.