There is always several research into areas that are beneficial for health, however we always face resistance in doing it. Starting with basics like eating healthy food, water, sleep etc. and moving on to additional activities like exercise, meditation, journalling etc.
I am always itching to advice someone to write if they are struggling and then last week I realized I do not write often, at least not as often as my itch to advice to write. Hence, here I am trying to practice and avoid preaching.
One the main issues in picking up journalling is how novel and how complicated it sounds. Social media is filled with resources on how to journal, there is several ways and methods of doing it -> journaling, writing to a diary, bullet journalling, Shadow journaling, art journal, junk journalling not to mention very tempting stationery supplies that go with it. I could go on, but my instincts are many are put off with the word journalling itself.
Coming from a different background, journal sounds so cozy and yet so novel to me and it took me a while to realize that it is just writing.
As in just write. with a pen, and a paper, just write…
Once I realized that, I did notice the benefits of writing. Here are some of those observations.
-> writing declutters your mind – e.g. when there is too much information floating in your brain, taking a simple piece of paper or notepad, and jotting down everything – it helps so much with decluttering and organizing your thoughts. Once you write, you would notice that most of it is not useful information and can be trashed and rest retained and actionable. this includes numerous lists.
-> direct and faster connection to the brain – This is not always obvious but when putting thoughts on paper, it makes the thoughts more tangible, and you start questioning the thought process and tend to find logic in it. This can poke holes in many of the thoughts & beliefs that are swirling in our mind unconsciously.
-> simplifies the flow -> if you cannot document, then you have to course correct it -> similar to Feyman’s technique
-> forces you to learn or master the concepts -> because you cannot write about a topic which you cannot relate to.
-> visual -> language barriers, capability barriers -> When communicating with diverse audience, writing in different formats, helps bridge the gaps and brings multiple capabilities together. This is especially true in visual forms of writing like flow charts, venn diagrams or block diagrams or table structures.
Writing is the most overlooked and underrated skill. Especially with the advent of technology as many of us slowly moving away from physical writing as a form of communication.
Is writing always fun or easy -> no, I face resistance and procrastinate all the time before putting out an artifact. You are sure to come across many authors who complain about how much they hate writing :D. These are some options to navigate through the resistance:
-> interleave – this is where you write a part/block and take a break
-> find accountability partner – this is very helpful strategy that works wonders. A quiet video call or offline accountability partner.
-> write about something you are passionate about to get the momentum and switch (interleave) to topics that take additional effort to write.
-> a mini-victory lap once you are done…
Because of my self-ban on preaching, I am going to leave it here 🙂 and plan on practicing writing more often…