Did you know that writing someone a letter is a great way to improve your BRAIN health?
Yeah! It’s super great for you and it's not just for kids writing to penpals in school.
Research is in my corner on this and today I want to share some interesting studies I've found, so if you like science, this post is for you!
~ Norwegian brain researcher and professor of psychology Audrey van Der Meer concluded that writing by hand increases brain connectivity which is known to be crucial for memory formation and encoding new information and therefore sets up the brain for learning. Her study showed a large difference between students who wrote by hand and those who typed on a keyboard. The results of her study were so interesting! The students who wrote words in cursive showed increased brain activity and communication between various brain regions because of the careful forming of letters and the increased use of the senses. Those who were typing did not.
(Frontiers journals, news release, Jan. 26, 2024)
There is no way that this only applies to young students just learning to write, but imagine the cumulative effects throughout our lifetime. Our brain is a muscle. If we miss out on creating brain pathways every time we type something instead of writing it down, we are missing small but effective exercise for our brains. No wonder great grandma has a mind like a steel trap and we can’t remember what we ate for breakfast.
~Indiana University performed a study that concluded that hand writing unleashes creativity which is not easily accessed in any other way inside the brain and brain imaging during this study showed that certain neural activity was increased similar to imaging of brains during meditation. This is due to the fact that the act of writing slows us down and brings us into the present moment. Neuroscientist Dr. Aguirre notes that mindful writing rests the brain, which potentially sparks the creativity mentioned before.
~Writing letters has therapeutic benefits and can positively effect your mental AND physical health.
In an article published by Piedmont Health, Laura Garvey, a National Certified Counselor stated that “writing is therapeutic because at the core of writing is self-expression”. Counselors understand that writing has psychological, mental, and physical health benefits. She also makes an interesting point that “writing a letter helps us to be as clear as we can possibly be, sometimes you can rehears a phone conversation, but it may not go as planned. Writing a letter gives you the ability to say exactly what you want to say to the best of your ability. It can be really healing to express your thoughts and feelings exactly how you mean to express them.”
I think one hang up for a lot of people is the fear of what the other person will think of our handwriting. To that, I say, have you ever cared what someone else’s handwriting looked like? If it really stops you from expressing yourself, then maybe that letter never has to be sent. Maybe it just needed to get out onto paper and then you can let it go.
Even if you never send that letter, it can still help you get clarity about a situation, let go of negative feelings or thoughts, spend time inside the positive feelings toward someone else, prepare something you want to say, or maybe write thoughts for someone in the future to find.
Words have power. Just skim through “Atlas of the Heart” by Brene Brown and you’ll realize all the vastness of emotions conveyed through the nuanced differences in word choices. When we blast through a text message or rattle off a phone call, we may not use the words that best convey our emotion or meaning and we don’t allow our bodies to fully process the emotions brought on by a topic or situation. By hand writing a letter, we are allowing our brains to fully express our emotions more clearly by having the time to find the right word that conveys and then we are allowing our physical body to feel and to process through the emotions we feel from our thoughts.
Honestly this last point may in fact be the reason I have felt so hung over lately for no apparent reason. I get about 20 text messages and 200 emails every day, plus social media notifications on 3 different platforms. I blast through them as quickly as I can to clear out all those red bubbles on my phone screen so I can feel relaxed and yet, I feel anything but afterwards. I have responded to about 30 different scenarios and trains of thought in about 10-20 minutes and I feel so yucky afterwards. After listening to Kelly Watkins explanation of therapeutic letter writing on youtube, I think this may be my root cause for lying exhausted on the couch in some kind of funk mood without having accomplished much for the day.
Does this resonate with you?
Life happens at top speed these days and there are so many symptoms manifesting in our society and when you stop to piece it all together, it seems that it could just be that our physical nature is not made to live this fast and it’s taking a toll on the quality of our lives, work, relationship, physical, and mental health.
Spending 10 minutes just writing a small note to someone is such a simple way to start reclaiming our minds, building our health and relationships. It’s so simple we over look it, and yet it is incredible to me just how powerful a tool it can be.
So today I’m encouraging you to add this one to your wellness toolbox. Pick out a card with colors and images that speak to you and set a timer for 10 minutes during an afternoon coffee break. (Or grab a kit!)
You will feel 100 times better for it. I always emerge from writing even for such a short time so relaxed and refreshed I’m wondering what day it is, like you do walking out from a great massage.
Maybe it’s just that- a massage for the mind. Maybe that’s why there is only one letter difference between ma-ssage and me-ssage. Words are powerful. Coincidence? I think not.