Did you know that writing by hand, rather than typing or printing, might actually help your brain?
I recently read about a study that was conducted on kindergartners. In learning, the kindergartners who wrote during a learning activity had more active, adult like brain patterns than the children who didn’t. The same researchers looked at adults and found that not only did adults who wrote have more brain activity as well, but it was of a different kind, and apparently more beneficial, if they wrote in cursive rather than printing or typing.
There’s another benefit, too. Cursive, or is that cursed-at? and even the dreaded Palmer Method or later D’Nealian Method, is designed to reduce hand fatigue. It’s meant to help you write a longer time with better legibility, while still making your handwriting look elegant. I’ve found this to be generally true, depending on your taste.
This is why I have started to write more letters and in my diary again. I also practice my handwriting with inspirational quotes or whatever poem I am currently memorizing. I find that handwriting puts me in a much more meditative frame of mind than when I print or type. I also find that my words tend to be a bit more poetic and eloquent, as if the beautiful letters demand more beautiful words to go with them.
As old fashioned as it may be, I am having fun with this and am really curious to see where it will go.
Mindflight 