As a child, we live off of stories. We listen to them before we go to sleep, create them in our dreams, and live them out during the day. As humans, we live to tell stories about everything that happens to us, even things as mundane as going to the grocery store.
With this being said, it should be no surprise that research has found that writing 15 minutes a day for three days about our personal experiences can vastly improve our mental and physical health. For proof, we need to look no further than history.
Anne Frank showed us the healing power that writing can have for not only the audience but the individual. Psychology suggests that writers can process and feel through emotions faster than non-writers. Being able to quantify and write those emotions down helps us grieve them.
Maya Angelou taught us that writing can be communicated beyond language, that thoughts and feelings can be heard from the moment of that pen on a paper, or fingers on keys. We can communicate with each other efficiently through difficult concepts using writing.
Writing can show us success, self-reflection, reasoning, and compassion because writing takes the intangible and makes it tangible. Writing helps us explain the unknown.
Studies show that individuals who write down their goals are 1.5 times more likely to achieve that in which they want. But there is a difference between writing and writing mindfully. We can not simply write, just for the sake of putting words on a paper. Those words must mean something to us.
The journey to writing mindfully cannot be a task, we have to want to write or to inspire. Writing should compel us to keep going and motivate us to fill the world with our story. It is a commitment that we have to make but the ability to see it through is a reward in and of itself.
Everyone has a story, you can tell someone else’s but if you are really brave you pick up that pen and start writing your very own tale. Stop procrastinating and tell your story today: