The Many Benefits of Writing

Writing is an activity that seems almost genetically ingrained in us. We’re natural storytellers, so it’s no surprise that we have writings (like the Epic of Gilgamesh) going back more than 5000 years. But writing is good for more than just disseminating information and telling stories; it has many personal benefits as well. Writing as Therapy Humans are hard-wired to be communicative beings. Generally, we love to share our experiences and communicating about bad experiences tends to make us feel better. However, according to research, blogging and writing about our experiences can trigger the same chemicals in our brain that help us relieve stress when we talk about our feelings. It turns out that our high school English teachers were onto something when they forced us to write in a journal every day. Writing helps us to be happier and less stressed! Better Communication A limited vocabulary can constrain the expression of thoughts, feelings and ideas. It’s disheartening to have a great idea but not being able to fully express it in a clear way. Luckily, regular writing seems to boost the ability to communicate effectively. According to Judy Willis, who studied writing in math and science-based learning, folks who wrote regularly were able to better describe their abstract thoughts into something more readily understandable. Twitter and texting can sometimes lead to us overly condensing our ideas into a package that isn’t always as clear as it could be, but regular long-form writing can help counteract that tendency. Communication takes practice, so it’s no wonder that people who write often are also usually good at other forms of expression! One way to better retain information is to rewrite it as if you were needing to teach the info to someone else. Since you’ll be writing to keep the message fresh, you’ll tend to seek out other sources that will reinforce your ideas and cement the data in your mind. Many teachers can attest that learning to just answer test questions will sometimes lead to your brain categorizing the data as unimportant, to be dumped after the test is over. But learning as if you were going to have to teach something will help your brain flag the information as essential, so you’ll retain the information more readily. Writing out your ideas is an important step in the process. Think about all the scientists who have written books: that writing actually helps the scientists’ memory retention! Writing Leads to More Writing One of the indirect benefits of writing is that you’ll be able to branch off of what you already have learned while composing an article and use that data to write other things. The most successful Internet writers are able to take information and present it in different, but relevant, ways. While not an obvious benefit, work tends to lead to more work. So keep learning and writing about what you’ve learned! Making Money Thirty years ago, many writers could only dream about the ease at which we can get our writing out into the world. From blogs to newsletters to social media, our ability to self-express today is pretty amazing. The Internet has given us the ability to turn that self-expression into money-earning potential. If you think you have the chops, why not try writing with Constant Content? We have numerous writing opportunities for you to use your skills to make some extra cash. The benefits of writing are abundant—more abundant than a simple blog post could fully explain. However, the benefits above already far outweigh the effort it takes to jot down your thoughts. The research adds up: if you want to be a happier, more expressive and have a memory like a steel trap, writing is simply too good an activity to ignore.