Writing — Why you should do it too.
Imagine if there was something you could do today, for free, that would help you become less sad, become a better worker, a better thinker, help you to sleep better, and as a bonus meanwhile you could be creating the best gift your future children or spouse could ever ask for! — Well, there is, and this something is called Writing.
I used to love writing as a kid, I remember writing stories and finding it both fascinating and fun, but then something happened.
I think what happened could be blamed on three big parts and most likely thousands of smaller, with the first and most obvious big one being myself since I was the one that stopped. The two other big ones would be some of my old teachers and the final society as a whole. I blame some teachers because while they were right that I sucked at spelling and grammar; and still do, I was not necessarily bad at writing as a whole — which was the message that I got. I blame society for not telling me that writing can be a hobby that you can have, here I equally blame the hypothetical but still very real people that frown at the thought of me writing during my spare time, and for the fact that writing, in general, is not being pushed more, as is done with reading for example.
See, not only is writing a hobby that you can have, and not only is it ok to write even if you are 27 and still have no idea when to use a semicolon;(?) I would even go so far as to say that you should be writing!
But less about you and more about me again, after all, I am the one writing here, you can write about you.
These are the reasons as to why I write:
1: It’s fun, I know that is a very personal one that might not resonate with everyone, but I think it is fun.
2: The small amount of writing that makes it here might help someone, at least I know for a fact that it is helping me, so I guess that is a good start.
3: I tend to think that many people with their heads full i.e. me, have to write to get some of the stuff out to look at, you know, just to check that they are not completely insane.
4: Trying to use social media and most kinds of regular media at a minimum, I need and want to spend those hours with.
5: Because I get in to flow while doing it and I, as well as most other people, really like that feeling.
6: I like to talk and think about the topics that I write about here. So I figured that writing about them serves as a substitute for another human when there is no one around to talk to. And as a bonus, it might also increase the likelihood of people talking about this stuff with me.
7: It simply helps me keep a clean head, and a clean head something I am a big fan of. When I write, I have a much easier time falling asleep, meditating, and focusing on other stuff in general because it somehow feels like I have gotten rid of a lot of stuff that used to be running around in there.
Leaving me and going back to you, sort of:
These are two of my own made-up theories (I have not taken the time to look up actually studies supporting them, but they do make some sense) about more general benefits of writing.
8: Writing helps you think better — I personally usually write to figure stuff out. it can be a problem in my life or a field I find interesting, anything really. I think that there is no better way of getting a clear picture of any topic and my own thoughts around it than writing about it. By putting all the information in front of you, you greatly reduce your working memory load as compared to when you try to juggle it all in your head, and therefore, you lower your overall cognitive load. At least this seems to be the case for me.
9: Writing helps you speak better because the thing about writing is that it makes you more articulate, thoughtful, and precise when using words. See, I’ll let you in on a secret — thinking is not done in words. Well, at least not only, thinking is actually super complex and kind of abstract but you most likely supplement your words with other “mental stuff”, such as images, feelings, and so on. But speaking is done through words, at least mainly, and so is writing!
And the good thing with writing compared to speaking is that you can look over it and deliberate with yourself if those words really do whatever other “mental stuff” you got going in there on justice or not. So, if you write a lot you will get a more intuitive sense of how to represent all the messy internal stuff with words: Therefore, practicing this in writing makes you a better speaker!
10: Expressive writing to help with dealing with hardships in life — A science-backed perk to writing!
11: Writing will make you a better worker and student — Since writing well and being able to put forth your ideas well is important in most lines of work and studies today, writing more will likely serve you in these domains as well.
12: You will have an autobiography! — A Kinda weird but still a possible bonus perk to writing.
Someone in your future might want to read your autobiography! So, if you have already written a scrappy version for yourself, there you go, just brush that off and you can hand it over. While you might think that I am going of on a grandiose tangent here picturing myself getting famous, I am really not. And discounting the fact that you will be super famous, because luckily, most people do not get super famous. I would like to propose the more concrete and likely scenario that you will meet a partner, or that you will have kids, and maybe both, these examples are at least somewhat likely and if one or both of them comes to fruition, someone of these hypothetical people will most likely want to read your autobiography.
