The Power of Writing It Down: A Simple Habit to Unlock Your Brain and Reimagine Your Life

To influence someone means to have a transformative effect on their lives. To be a player in their story.

Dr. Bessel Van Der Kolk explores this in The Body Keeps the Score, addressing how if we only talk, we’re accessing one part of our brain, and we miss out on what the other parts of our brain have to teach us about ourselves. How do we access these other parts of our brain? Yoga, meditation, experiential therapy, neurofeedback—and of course, writing

What a loss it would be if all we ever did was stand back and evaluate ourselves. What a tragedy if we never just surrendered and enjoyed the miracle that we already are. Let the grace be in the writing.

In fact, the best things in life grow slowly: relationships, children, careers, the oak tree in your backyard, and your writing practice. Think of it like a garden.

One researcher speculated about why this is: “One of the main reasons for the negative effect on energy level and performance is because secrets make us feel lonely and sad. They also can make us feel more fearful, hostile, and guilty, but sadness and isolation make us more tired.”

It’s easier to treat writing as a low-stakes side hobby, when the reality is that writing requires us to get up-close, personal, and gut-level honest about how we are living our lives.

where you feel stuck in your writing, you’re not really stuck in your writing. You’re stuck in your life. When you don’t know what words to put on the page, it is almost always because you don’t know what to do in your life. When you aren’t sure what words to use, it’s almost always because there is something you want to say or do that you feel you

Great writing begins with great questions.

Trying to tell the truth about someone else is challenging and, in the end, uninteresting. The most interesting writing, the most interesting questions, the most interesting life comes when we’re able to tell the truth about ourselves.