Experts have estimated that the mind has between 60,000 – 80,000 thoughts a day. That’s an average of 2500 – 3,300 thoughts per hour.
It’s kind of intense to imagine all of those thoughts running around through your head with nowhere to go.
But what if we could give them an outlet?
How A Daily Writing Practice Can Change Your Life And How To Start
Getting words out of your head and onto paper can help you in many ways.
Whether you choose to journal or simply decide to write out your thoughts and/or ideas, the impact is similar, and it’s positive.
According to a study from the University of Rochester, journaling can help you to manage anxiety, reduce stress and cope with depression.
Writing can help you identify what’s causing you stress or anxiety in your life. Then, once you’ve identified your stressors, you can work on a plan to resolve the problems.
By choosing to practice daily writing, you will naturally begin to experience many benefits, some of which include:
1. Unblocking your emotions
When you write, particularly around your feelings, you reach into your soul and grab hold of what may be hiding in the dark. Sometimes there may be some ickiness in our hearts that perhaps we haven’t wanted to face. These emotions need to come out and by putting them down on paper, you are giving yourself a chance to acknowledge and resolve them.
2. Creating space in your mind for creativity
When you unblock and release your pent up emotions, you then create new space in your mind and heart. Within this space, there is room for more imagination, creativity and presence to exist. The great thing about creativity is that it builds upon itself. That is, the more you do it, the more you are inspired. As you get more and more comfortable with writing, you will find that accessing your creativity becomes easier and easier. This will flow into all aspects of your life and will enrich it for the better.
3. Releasing the need to be perfect
When you practice writing daily and allow yourself to just flow into a stream of consciousness, you remove the “editing” from your words which would normally be present in a conversation. This means that you are actually allowing your thoughts to be as they are in the moment without criticism or judgement. Naturally, this means they will be imperfect, but upon reflection, you will notice they are still absolutely beautiful!
This all sounds great, so how do you start?
Starting a daily writing practice is like any other habit you wish to create. It starts with a commitment and continues with one!
To begin, all you need to do is :
- Buy yourself a new journal specifically dedicated to this daily writing practice. Or if you are choosing digital, make sure you block out distractions so you can focus on writing.
- Decide what time of day you are going to write and schedule it in.
- Start. Imperfectly.
Whatever you choose to write about will be unique to you. You could try journalling about your day, or you could write a short paragraph of a story. It doesn’t matter what you write, it only matters that you write.
Do you practice writing daily? I’d love to hear your thoughts!