We spend the day typing. Working, writing papers and emails with the computer, sending messages to our friends, making the shopping list on a mobile phone note... Little by little the act of writing by hand has been relegated to specific notes, filling out a document for a concrete procedure or as a hobby for the nostalgic.
But the truth is that writing by hand brings many benefits to our mind, helping to keep the brain in top shape and even giving us emotional well-being. So, after learning what are the advantages of rescuing the paper and the pen, you will surely start to prioritize it from now on.
When we write by hand, many more areas of the brain come into play than when we only need to press a key. The coordination between the brain, the eyes and the hands is activated and we must concentrate much more to write and develop our ideas. In this way, we focus better on what we are writing than if we did it on a typewriter or keyboard.
Therefore, thanks to that absolute concentration, learning also improves. We retain ideas better and understand concepts better when we write them by hand.
Closely related to the previous section, thanks to that concentration and learning, our memory is also activated. Writing by hand strengthens our cognitive function, contributing to a better memory.
Therefore, it is very useful to reduce the risk of diseases such as dementia and Alzheimer's. In fact, it is highly recommended that seniors keep a journal by hand.
Handwriting stimulates neural activity and thereby fuels creativity, imagination and problem solving. Thanks to the connection between our mental conceptions and what we put on paper, our ideas and work are more creative.
Since we need to concentrate and put more effort into writing by hand than digitally, we hone our skills in the field of literacy. It significantly increases our reading comprehension and also our narrative when writing.
In turn, we improve calligraphy and spelling, since the fact of not having an autocorrect forces us to make an effort to avoid making mistakes. All this is especially interesting in the case of young children who are learning to read and write.
Handwriting, along with other disciplines such as cooking, painting or playing an instrument, are activities closely related to mindfulness. While we write by hand we are completely focused on how our ideas materialize on paper, so we disconnect from our worries and relax, thus fighting stress and anxiety.
