How Writing Helps You Think More Clearly (The Science of Journaling & Deep Thinking)

Can writing by hand actually make you think more deeply and improve brain function?

In this episode of Brave Moves, Julie DeLucca-Collins explores the neuroscience behind deep thinking, handwriting, and cognitive growth. Julie explains why handwriting activates more brain areas than typing and how intentional writing can improve clarity, creativity, emotional processing, and problem-solving.

This episode also explores how some of history’s greatest thinkers, including Leonardo da Vinci and Charles Darwin, used notebooks, diagrams, sketches, and writing as tools to expand their thinking and develop groundbreaking ideas.

If you feel mentally overwhelmed, distracted, creatively blocked, or stuck in reactive thinking, this episode will help you understand how writing can become a powerful tool for brain training, personal growth, and deeper self-awareness.

In This Episode, You’ll Learn:

•  What neuroscience says about handwriting and brain development 
•  The NTNU research on handwriting vs typing and brain activity 
•  Why writing by hand improves memory, learning, and cognitive processing 
•  How deep thinking creates new neural pathways in the brain 
•  Why great thinkers throughout history used writing to sharpen ideas 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

What if writing isn't about writing at all? But about thinking. Because some of the clearest moments in my life didn't just happen while talking, even though I'm a podcaster, they happen while writing. And not because I suddenly became wiser, but because writing slowed my thoughts long enough for me to hear myself clearly. And here's the thing: that's not just a feeling, my friend. That's actual neuroscience behind this. And in a world where we are constantly consuming noise, that matters more than ever. Now, before we dive in, if this episode helps you think differently, subscribe, leave a review, and share it with someone who could use a little more clarity right now. Because sometimes the breakthrough isn't outside of us. It's sitting inside quietly, waiting to be written down. And stay with me till the end, because at the end, I'm going to give you one brave move that can completely change the way you process decisions and emotions and even your goals. And honestly, it only takes a few minutes a day. So let's get into this. I think one of the biggest reasons people struggle with clarity today, and I see that all the time, is because we rarely stop long enough to actually process our thoughts. We react, we scroll, we consume, we distract ourselves. And sometimes we think, I've thought about this already, but thinking in circles is very different from thinking deeply. And writing? Well, writing is forcing depth. Now, here's the science behind the brain and the pen. Researchers at Norwegian University of Science and Technology studied what happens when the brain and people are writing by hand versus typing on a keyboard. And what they found was incredibly fascinating, and I love finding this out. When people wrote by hand, far more areas of the brain light up and communicated with each other. Isn't that cool? I mean, listen, if your brain is really communicating with all of its parts, that's awesome. Your brain is working. And the research researchers found increased activity in areas connected to memory, learning, sensory processing, movement, and information encoding. Basically, writing by hand forces your brain to slow down and engage more deeply. And here's why. When we type, we're moving fast. And boy, can I type really fast, my friends. But when we are doing that, a lot of times we're skimming our own thoughts. We are autocorrecting. We half-think while doing five other things. But writing by hand? Well, it requires intention. You have to physically form each letter. Your senses are engaged, your brain is processing differently. And scientists call this hepatic perception, I think. Yeah, I think that's what it is. The experience of touch and physical movement, and it matters more than we think because every letter you form by hand is unique. It's a unique physical act. You know, the way you write an A is different from the you the way that you write an E. And your hand is moving and curving and lifting differently. This is why I love, even though I can get messy writing in long hand, because I feel like I'm practicing something and creating something beautiful. And a lot of times, you know, it gets very messy. And it's still, it's your brain, it doesn't matter whether I'm writing perfectly or messy. I mean, your brain is still working on it. When we are typing, right, every key is the same motion. You press down, you release. You press down, you release. The physical act of creating is identical. And your brain notices the difference. When you write by hand, your brain isn't just storing an idea on paper and putting it down, it's tagging it inside its little computer. Now it's creating what researchers call hooks. There are multiple systems in the brain working together at once, and they're encoding through memory and movement and sensation all at the same time. And the thought doesn't just live on paper. The thought that we are writing down when we're creating each individual letter is living in your body. Your brain is moving fast. Sometimes our brain, and if you're anything like me and you have tons of tabs open, it is going too fast. Our thoughts sometimes overlap. And when we have all these thoughts, our emotions, because our thoughts create emotions, our emotions are then piling up, and ideas are then getting tangled into different things. And before we know it, that's what creates the overwhelm. Writing is going to slow the process down, right? If you think about it, we have 60,000 thoughts per day. And if all these thoughts are kind of growing through your brain and then they're creating motions in your body, it's exhausting. When you are writing, and that process is being slowed down, it's going to force your brain to organize your thoughts, prioritize ideas, and obviously make sense of the emotions that you're going through. And here's the thing about the slower process of writing by hand. You know, a lot of people think, especially, you know, nowadays, or even, you know, college students, think that it's inefficient to write by hand by hand. The typing gets the more words in. But it's not so much the inefficiency, it's the untangling that we want to go through. Now, I once heard said that Einstein said if you give him a problem, he would spend 55 minutes understanding the problem by writing it down and then five minutes solving it. Can you believe that? I mean, here's one of the greatest minds in the world. And he believed in the power of writing. And again, a lot of times we're in this confusion. And it's not that we're confused, it's just that our thoughts are on process. I can tell you how many times I I've sat down and I think, I don't even know what I'm feeling. And halfway through writing it, I realized, oh, that's what that's really about. And boy, have I come to some conclusions by just putting them that on paper. And that's really the gift of writing. Writing is also going to create a distance from the emotion as well. And this is huge. When everything stays trapped in your head, it feels bigger, heavier, more overwhelming. And when you write it down, well, you're creating space. And it's not as crazy as you thought, right? Sometimes in your brain, we're making it bigger. Um, you also are becoming more of an observer rather than just the person that is reacting to the thought. And neuroscience is going to support this. Writing helps us regulate because it activates different parts of the brain. And emotionally, that is super helpful. I love, and again, I keep a notebook in front of me throughout the whole day when I'm coaching, when I'm about to work on something, because even in the moments, right, when so many different things are going on, if I start to doodle, I can immediately feel how my cortisol is being lowered. And that's that cortisol is a stress hormone. Our nervous system releases when we're we're overwhelmed, which is why journaling feels calming. Not just because the problem disappears, because it doesn't, but because your nervous system stops spinning quite so fast. And by the way, even doodling does this, right? Friend, if a blank page feels intimidating, start with a single swiggle. Seriously, just go and maybe draw a happy face. And the problem is not so much that you have a blank page in front of you, is that we tend to be so hard on ourselves, right? We stare at the page and we immediately start judging and think, I need to write this, I need to have all the things to say. And a lot of times I hear from people, I don't know what I'm gonna write about. And this is where a lot of people go and run straight to AI when they're trying to create maybe their social media, right? Oh, write me a post and make sure that blah, blah, blah. But that's not really right the solution. Because here's the thing technology, it's and again, I'm not anti-technology. You know I love it, but what is happening is that AI is solving a problem because we're judging ourselves that we're not, I don't know how to write that, I don't know how to say that, I don't know what to put on there. But the blank page is not about you being broken. It's doing the exact thing that it's supposed to do, it's creating space for you to think. So if you get stuck rather than running to AI, maybe you were trying to type it and type this post, then grab a piece of paper and write it out and see what comes out. Because that's when you are creating that time to not be quick about it, not to be perfect, not be precise or sound polished immediately, but you are giving yourself the space to say what you need to say. You know, your ideas and paper don't have to be a full idea. They can be maybe one word or one phrase or one question or a fragment of a sentence. And writing, it for many of us, we think it has to be perfect, but it's not about performing, it's a process. Writing is a process. Take it from someone that has written a couple books. The writing is iterating, it's sitting with something unfinished. It's actually where the thinking really happens. And when you resist that difficult part of just writing and staring at a blank page and head for an easy button, you're skipping the real part that makes you smarter, honestly. Now, great thinkers nowadays also, you know, go and fill papers and fill their journals and keep notes and write letters. And for many of us, we discount how much we can bring to the surface. I hope, you know, that you know, this episode is not just about saying, go and write your book or you need to journal every day. No, you need to just grab a piece of paper and from time to time put what is in your head in paper because that will help to create clarity. You know, it's going to help you notice patterns. You know, your writing becomes the evidence that you're looking for to start noticing your recurring fears, your recurring dreams, your excuses, or maybe even those desires that sometimes you don't even want to voice. And we think, why do I keep struggling with this? Then look back and realize, oh, I've been telling myself the same story for many years. That is one of the reasons I love writing. And here's the big things, and here's some practical ways in which you can writing, use writing as a tool. One, you can do the brain dump and you can set a timer for two minutes, 10 minutes, and write everything. Thoughts, worries, ideas, frustrations, no editing, no grammar, no structure. Just be messy, be willing to be messy. And think of it as dumping everything that is in your mind into outside of you on that piece of paper and just clear the mental clutter. The other way that you can do it is be the problem solver on paper. Take one problem that you're struggling with. What am I not seeing? Ask that question and write it on top of your paper, and then force yourself to explore the possibilities. No phone, no Google, no distractions, no AI. Just think on paper. And this is gonna be kind of like your Einstein 55 minutes, and you'll see that at the end you're probably gonna have that solution. Now, future self-writing is the other way that you can leverage writing for yourself. Write from the perspective and the vision of the person you're becoming. What does she prioritize? Does she think this is good? What did she do every day? What would she tell you right now? You know, your brain responds powerfully to identity-based thinking. I love leveraging my future self. And Julie 2.0 always has the answers for me, always reminds me that I'm capable of things and gives me that roadmap that I need. And it all makes it so real. I can go on and on and on about this writing and how you know there's so many different things and how writing is helping us train our mental capacity and how it can be our superpower. But I want to leave you with this. Your brave move this week is to schedule a few minutes to writing, deliver it thinking. Don't think of it as I'm gonna go write. Go think of it as I'm gonna go and do some thinking on paper. Just you, a notebook, or even a piece of paper. It doesn't have to be fancy. Because here's your next breakthrough might exist on the other side of the mental discomfort that sometimes we go through when we see a blank page. And remember that you're capable of deep thinking and that this world often gives you space for creating, but we have to be willing to take that space. You have to train for it, you have to practice it, you have to protect it because the quality of thinking shapes the quality of your life. And the pen in your hand, that might be the most powerful tool you own. Now, friend, I can't wait to hear what you have to say about this episode. Tell me, are you using writing practices? Are you definitely going through a place where you are strengthening your mind by using some of these tools? I'm curious. I want to make sure that the episodes that I am creating, and I do those by putting them out on paper. I just put my ideas on a piece of paper and decide how I'm going to structure these episodes. So if this is helpful, let me know. Send me a note on Instagram, or just I think on the show notes, you can go and send me a message through there as well. I love that you are here. I love that you're part of this journey and make sure that you're not doing life alone, that you find the community. And I would love for you to be a part of our community because this community is here to support you in your dreams, in your challenges, and celebrate with you as you continue to go confidently in the direction of these dreams that you hold here. Until tomorrow, remember, I love you so much.