Beautiful writing isn’t about the words we use, it’s about the emotions we evoke – Katie Ganshert
For Katie, an author of several novels and works of short fiction, life is a journey we’re all traveling, and like any worthwhile adventure, it’s filled with valleys and peaks, detours and shortcuts, highways and jaw-dropping scenery. Her happiness comes from the keys of her computer and her total mental health depends on it, like it is for the most of us who cherish writing.
To say the past year has been a difficult one for people is somewhat an understatement. But, despite the colossal devastation and the resulting decline in mental health, people who took to writing as a solace or wrote professionally were perhaps the happiest beings in the world.
Writing has powerful mental health benefits that promote happiness, creative thinking, language development and memory building. You don’t have to be Jeffrey Archer, Jane Austen or Khushwant Singh to consider yourself as a writer. Whether you are a scribbler, a secret diarist, a blogger, a would-be journalist, or simply jotting down personal future plans, all have proven links to happiness according to research. Find out few reasons how writing can help you lead a happier life.
- Writing promotes well-being and helps express emotions fluidly - Simply writing for the sake of opening up your thoughts and jotting them down on a page has huge therapeutic benefits that include increased feeling of happiness and reduced stress. A recent study examined the effects of writing in a sample group of 81 undergraduates. The students wrote for 20 minutes each day for four consecutive days on topics such as traumatic experiences in life and future plans. By the end, the project revealed a significant increase in well-being and improved mood among participants.
So, try to use creative writing as a tool to express your positive thoughts.
- Writing may lead to increased gratitude - According to a study, people who reflect on the good things in their life once a week by writing them down were found to be more positive and motivated about their current situation and their future. It is interesting to note that writing about the good things in life can have such an impact, perhaps because it forces you to really look at why those things make you so happy. Furthermore, according to Psychology Today, writing leads to better learning because we tend to retain and recall information better when we write. It also keeps our thinking sharper even as we age because writing, much like a physical exercise, keeps our brain cells active.
So, what are you planning to write today?
If you see yourself struggling with the writer’s block or want to sharpen your creative talents, you might want to consider taking up the popular nine-week Creative Writing course at the British Council.