On a podcast recently, someone asked me when I started writing. The question almost didn’t compute. “As soon as I could,” I answered. The idea of writing didn’t arise in me as an aspiration. I didn’t pick a literary genius to look up to or fall in love with a dreamy English teacher. Not that there is anything wrong with either of those paths, of course. I wrote because I had to. Because there was so much overflow. I wrote to find myself and make sense of things and figure out what I was thinking and because picking words to go with experiences and emotions made me feel like I had a say in something. I wrote because I was confused. I wrote everyday because whenever I stopped I found myself at sea. Because whenever I got stuck the best tool I had was to write myself out.
That’s all still true and likely always will be for me.
But it doesn’t really matter why I write, here’s why we should all write:
Improves memory and keeps thinking sharp
“Writing can help still your mind, which allows you to remember and recall memories better, think more creatively; it can also help you come up with interesting connections between observations or ideas that you might not have otherwise.” James Pennebaker, UT Austin
Boosts productivity
Understand barriers getting in the way, assess relationships, prioritize, and be better equipped to create solutions.
Writing is an organizational system. It can help organize events in our life, our day, and our thoughts.
Helps build routine, creates structure, and infuses discipline into your day.
Boosts your mood
Writing about your feelings helps regulate parts of the brain related to processing emotions, which helps you to feel calmer and happier.
Writes you into history which can help if you have challenges with self-worth.
Writing can silence our inner critic.
Reduces blood pressure, stress, and anxiety. Boosts immunity
Writing helps break the cycles of rumination and worry that accompany troubling thoughts. When these are chronic, you get stuck in fight or flight.
Pretty compelling evidence, yeah? And, there is sometimes a huge abyss between knowing and doing, so let’s write together. And I don’t mean stressful, writing for an imagined audience of critics kind of writing. I mean daily free-writing. Where you get a prompt and set a timer and just go, not looking back until the end of the week.
Here’s the plan: three times a week, I’ll send you a prompt and you will take 5 whole minutes to write about that prompt. No more, no less. There is only one rule: once you read the prompt you start writing and you do not stop, edit yourself, pause, or second guess for the full 5-minutes.
Let’s see what there is to discover.
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