Yesterday we talked about the lost art of letter writing. We also talked about how to make writing easier if your fingers are stiff and sore. Would the idea of hand writing a letter to put in with your Christmas cards sound more palatable if I mentioned that handwriting stimulates brain activity?
We have all been caught up with the idea that exercising the brain, as well as the rest of the body, is a good way to retard dementia. An article by Gwendolyn Bounds (The Wall Street Journal, October 5, 2010) explores how the forming of letters becomes a key to learning, memory, and thinking.
Writing by hand is more than just another way to communicate. Writing by hand engages the brain in learning. Something goes on in the brain when you manually draw out letter forms. Putting pencil to paper somehow creates stronger images. You might remember how writing out your notes when you were in school helped imprint the material to your brain.
There is something personal about the written word. Handwriting says a lot about a person’s personality. Graphologist’s study hand writing and can actually identify unique personality traits through handwritten words.
Retraining people in handwriting skills could be a useful cognitive exercise. Even messy handwriting has certain ramifications. People judge the quality of your ideas based on your handwriting. I can remember having classes in penmanship. We used lined papers and were taught how to form our letters carefully. We lost a lot of that perfect form when we started writing faster. We scribbled in an effort to keep up with rapidly escalating thoughts. Pretty soon we had a hard time reading other peoples hand writing or even our own. It distresses me when I get to the grocery store and can’t read my handwritten list.
As we get older we lose a certain amount of manual dexterity. The fingers become stiff and sore and if we grip the pen too hard our fingers get cramped. We write too quickly and our letters are too small and writing is no longer a pleasurable activity. Let’s start over again. Let’s slow down and try to dredge up some of those basic skills. Let’s slow down and put some of our thoughts on paper. Remember how to relax the hand, draw the letters carefully, and learn how to communicate all over again. Carefully write a few sentences. Tell someone that you love them today.
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