Writing Engages Neuroplasticity

Caterpillar explores a running shoe.

Following the routine of a writing practice assists us to shape thoughts, feelings and adjust behaviors in all aspects of our lives.  After a period of time and word enthusiasm, we learn about ourselves and how to excavate way into our lives with words.  This takes advantage of the brain's ability to form new habits. 

Scientists used to believe that after childhood development, the brain remained fixed. Nothing replaced brain cells as they aged or became damaged by substances.  Now we know from PET and MRI technology, that the brain can add neurons as a result of our activities.  It can reshape itself throughout life.  As we increase an activity, the more connections the neurons discover. The wiring strengthens.

Yogis have experienced this neuroplasticity in their practices. In the Yoga Sutra, Patanjali explains how steady practice without interruption builds habits over long periods of time.  Even though the way to remove bad habits by replacing them with good ones sounds too easy, the discipline of writing works to enable neural links.

As writing practice increases over time, it becomes a new habit that competes with old ways of thinking, doing and problem solving.  It systematically energizes the ability to feel what's happening in mind, body and emotions.  As writing probes into the psyche, it guides many areas of life.  When we write with our senses, we become involved with awareness and and even taste food in a different way.  Touch, scents and hearing heighten along with sight and perception.  We learn what gives us a thrill and what it takes to remove angst and frustration as we write from mood to mood.

If we reach for a pen when frustrations or other emotions set in, we will return to that habit. With just 15 minutes a day, writing will energize the brain into new wiring.

Creative Write:  Focus on a writing meditation today.  Begin with a frustration and write until it deepens your awareness or another idea emerges.

Writing the Moments

"If your journal consists of the best moments of your life and reading, then rereading it will be like walking a high mountain trail that goes from peak to peak without the intervening descent into the trough of routine. Just reading in such a journal of high points will tighten your strings and raise your pitch." Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Ralph Waldo Emerson kept what he called "commonplace books." These bound volumes recorded his ideas, observed images, turns of phrase, high points from his life and reading. He relished words and language and used his notebooks to capture everything for his future writing.

During childhood, I started writing in a blue diary that closed with a lock. Many secrets inked the pages, along with treasures pasted beside entries. Over the years, I have kept various notebooks. Because of my curiosity for change, black bound books moved aside for spiral notebooks. I tried hand-sized books to carry and exchanged them for covers of colorful design.

Often I can't decide just where to write my notions so they begin life when and where the ink falls. I record observations and eavesdrops, collect words or phrases from readings, feelings and frustrations. Charts and doodles fill pages. I write on and on then return to these pages to mine ideas and develop thoughts more fully.

Emerson prized the process and advised writers to try anything to keep it going with determination. He called it a "casting moment" when you see it and keep the writing in its original form, uncontaminated by later improvements.

I appreciate the process more than the product because of the feelings of freedom and exhilaration I gain pushing the pen.

Creative Write: Determine your best way to document what attracts you. Experiment with journals in a variety of sizes and shapes. Use colored pens to engage with words. Don't worry about results. Stay in your casting stage as long as possible.

Unclutter for August

The Ginkgo Biloba Bonsai loses every leaf to become a stick. It unclutters in order for new foliage to emerge.

A new month encourages my need to unclutter in a ritual I call - throw or stow. A tug toward a turtle's simplicity pulls as I observe my office and closet. Ah, to have a paperless office, and a closet with minimal clothing and shoes. How to push past clutter to life's essentials?

I envision a wide-mouthed vacuum to suck until my surfaces shine in emptiness. After the purge, I'd add to my desk: one tall vase with a daisy and my Magician. As my desk charmer, he sits with hands in the air, eyes closed. His white beard reveals a sneaky smile. Light bounces from a crystal ball beneath his belt that rests on the robe. Of course, I'd have to keep my fountain pen stable.

Over the years I have perfected a clearing ritual to deal with clutter. I call it the Two Box Trick. If I have an article to re-read, letters or items I perceive might call to me later, I make notes on my calendar or in my Journal. I put all in a red box hidden in a corner of my office. Brochures from exhibits, play programs or items from writers' conferences, I stow in a green box.

In three months, if these objects haven't sneaked out or begged me for safekeeping, the two boxes deliver their contents to the black trash container outside. When I began this brutal ritual, I peeked into the boxes. Of course I discovered forgotten treasures. An hour later I had dispersed them around the room. Now I have the confidence to THROW! without a lift of the lid. I have trained myself not to look - just release relent let go! It feels like such a cleansing. My mind become lighter as well as the office.

These techniques apply also to writing. I've often searched in vain for the beginnings of a poem or essay. In angst, I have rewritten. What a difference the distance made. When later I discovered the original brainings about the poem, I learned that my ability to make the poem better resulted from its loss. Now I lose a poem or two on purpose.

Creative Write: Part 1: Take fifteen minutes today and open three drawers in your writing space. Take out the contents and put them in a box. Go without them for two months. If you do - Don't peek - throw them!

Part 2: Lose two pieces of writing today. Give them a month of hiding. Then - go ahead approach them from scratch. You'll discover a brilliance.