The Power Between Brain, Hands, and Pen. 8 Handwriting Facts That Will Literally Change Your Mind.
The white page is perfect. A blank space filled with potential. Breathe in the possibilities!
When we touch a piece of paper and hold a pen or pencil in hand, we leave a piece of ourselves behind in the marks we make on the perfect, blank page.
It’s as though our hands somehow hold all of our memories and moods. Have you ever tried to remember something, but it only came to mind with a pencil in hand to tap-tap-tap on the page? Your writing hand becomes one with your eye to concentrate all focus on the marks streaming onto the page, like an arrow between head, heart, and expression. Maybe your voice is whisper quiet on the paper today, grumpy or ponderous or overconfident tomorrow.
What will you bring from your heart and mind today, from your hopes and fears? What’s the tenor of your voice?
Signing your name, like practicing your penmanship, takes practice and play. Write your name and nicknames in as many styles as you can. Keep your wrist relaxed, allowing your hand to move so the letters flow and the forming of your name can be a whole-body sensory experience.
Let your hands dance and swirl across the page.
Do a handwriting dance in the air first if you wish.
Sign your autograph with a few sensational scribbles thrown in.
Make art out of the letters in your name: large scrolls, sideways slants, uppercase loops.
Include smudges and cross-outs too.
Find a look you're happy with and take this new, looser signature style for a test-write.
Author Jane Yolen says, “Exercise the writing muscle every day, even if it's only a letter, a note, a title, a list, a character sketch, a journal entry. Writers are like dancers. Without that exercise, the muscles seize up.”
Concentrate on that mysterious connection created between your brain, hand, and pen. Write a memory or truth to a friend in your unique hand, sign it with flair, and slip it under her door.
8 Handwriting Facts That Will Literally Change Your Mind
Fact 1: Your brain, eyes, hand, and pen create an unusual synchronicity when you write. This could be why 70% of all writers do their first drafts on lined legal pads.
Fact 2: Handwriting is no longer being taught in school past second grade. *Sigh.*
Fact 3: Elementary school students who write essays by hand not only write more than their keyboard-tapping friends, but they write faster and more complete sentences too.
Fact 4: Areas of your brain light up when you write words by hand versus just studying the words closely.
Fact 5: The motion of your hand as you write calms the nervous system, forges creative connections, engages your motor skills, and keeps your mind sharp.
Fact 6: When you form letter shapes, your hand works harder and creates more neural connections than when you merely select a keyboard button with a letter on it.
Fact 7: Knowing someone's handwriting can be a marker of a friendship’s longevity.
Fact 8: Paper is unplugged and distraction-free, unlike the Internet. An Obvi but a Goodie.
