Writing is so much more than what one would think. In most cases, writing is a useful tool for thinking, expression, and creativity.

Here are 7 Psychological Benefits of Writing Regularly

1. Writing makes you happier

Much of the research on writing and happiness deals with expressive writing or jotting down what you think and how you feel.  

Expressive writing has also been linked to improved mood, well-being, and reduced stress levels for those who do it regularly, says Adam Grant:

“Research by Laura King shows that writing about achieving future goals and dreams can make people happier and healthier… And Jane Dutton and I found that when people doing stressful fundraising jobs kept a journal for a few days about how their work made a difference, they increased their hourly effort by 29% over the next two weeks.”

2. Writing helps clarify your thinking

Laziness with words creates difficulty in describing feelings, sharing experiences, and communicating with others. 

In Richard Langham’s book Revising Prose, he shares that one of the most important benefits of clear writing is making sure you’re actually saying something. The cost of confusing someone else with unclear prose is high, but what about the cost of confusing yourself?

3. Writing can help you handle hard times

In one study that followed recently fired engineers, the researchers found that those engineers who consistently engaged with expressive writing were able to find another job faster. According to Adam Grant: “The engineers who wrote down their thoughts and feelings about losing their jobs reported feeling less anger and hostility toward their former employer. They also reported drinking less. Eight months later, less than 19% of the engineers in the control groups were reemployed full-time, compared with more than 52% of the engineers in the expressive writing group.”

Older research also shows that writing about traumatic events actually made the participants more depressed until about six months later, when the emotional benefits started to stick. 

4. Writing makes you feel more grateful

As the authors of one study noted, subjects who reflected on the good things in their life once a week by writing them down were more positive and motivated about their current situations and their futures.

The catch was that the benefits were minimal when they wrote about them every day. This makes sense; any activity can feel disingenuous and just plain boring if done too often. It seems like the key is to reflect and write about gratitude regularly, but not because you have to.

5. Writing helps close out your “mental tabs”

Have you ever had too many Internet tabs open at once? It is a distraction. When I feel like my brain has too many tabs open at once, it’s often the result of trying to mentally do too much at the same time.

Writing gives form to your ideas and gets them out of your head, freeing up bandwidth and preventing you from crashing your browser. Getting important ideas down alleviates the stress of losing your thoughts to time or an overcrowded mind.

6. Writing is a proven way to learn

Information often sticks better when it’s learned as though it needs to be taught or re-written in your own words. This concept of having a “writer’s ear” never fully clicked with me until I seen my husband writing regularly.

There’s a certain discipline required to create interesting written work that demands the individual be receptive and focused on finding new sources of information, inspiration, and insight. Personally, I’ve read books, listened to podcasts, and watched videos I would normally have put off in order to learn something new so that I might write about it later.

Writing around a certain topic for some time will allow you to build off of older thoughts, utilizing what you’ve already written to develop ideas on a grander scale. I’m sure many writers have written a paragraph that leads to an essay, which leads to a series of articles, which leads to a book. That was certainly the case for my husband. 

7. Writing is leadership at scale

There are sincerely interesting opportunities that an “anyone can publish” world brings about.

The ability to leave an impact at scale through your words alone is an astounding concept. There’s a bit of a creative shock the first time someone emails you, thanking you for the work you’ve put out and sharing how it has helped or influenced them.

The positive feedback for this “leadership at scale” leads to gratitude and further motivation for the writer. 

www.sparringmind.com/benefits-of-writing

Andrea Gaines