Writing Is Nourishment For The Mind And Soul

The magical power of words

Writing helps you to organise the thoughts bouncing around in your head and ideas nibbling at your brain.

Thinking is exercise for the mind. Having time to think, and doing something at your own pace is a delicious pleasure — like nuzzling and hugging my four-year-old, or feeling sunshine on my face.

Your attempts to piece your thoughts and ideas into a coherent piece of writing are like a sickness to start with — word vomit or diarrhoea. With skill, love, care, and time, they get better.

When you’re done, you can relish the sense of achievement that comes when you hit publish and share your story with the world.

Your precious thoughts in a moment are documented forever. Each story is a timestamp of your thought process and worldview at the time you wrote it. A careful store of memories.

That’s special.

When your story connects and your words turn out to be what someone is waiting to hear at just the right time, it’s like magic.

Writing helps you find inspiration in ordinary things. You look at the world in a different way.

Writing helps you know yourself better.

During the pandemic, I started journaling a moment of joy each day — anything positive or something I came across which made me laugh or smile. The process improved my mental health by helping me feel less sad, stressed, and overwhelmed. Writing became the healing and nourishment my mind and soul needed.

I love to learn. Reading and research go hand-in-hand with writing and in doing so, you always learn something new. You get exposed to new perspectives and discover information you didn’t already know.

The reader consumes and digests content with hungry eyes. If you take your time, this becomes food for the soul and mind.

I like writing for me. It’s freeing to create, experiment, and have fun writing what you want to write without pressure and worrying about whether your audience will like it.

I also like sharing what I’ve learned and lived through in my lifetime, helping others along the way, and building an audience who enjoy and are interested in what I have to say and how I say it.

The best form of nourishment is one that gives you joy. It’s easy and it shouldn’t be a chore. It should be an experience you can’t wait to have and when you have it, it gives you the in-the-zone feeling where you lose track of time.

Even when growth is slow, you keep coming back because it makes you feel good. It feeds the hunger for success and the desire to improve. It’s a fire that flames the motivation and confidence to keep going. One which is stoked by kindness and encouragement from others.

That is what writing is to me.

Written for Modern Women’s June writing prompt: Nourishment.