Rewire Your Brain Series: Write it Out, On Paper

I Kept Throwing Away a Key to My Healing

I write. I don’t just mean here on this blog. I mean, I write with paper and pen. It wasn’t always that way. In fact, it was just the opposite.

For more than 20 years, I was proud to say that, personally, I was nearly all digital and paper-free in my business, Creative Stream Marketing. It’s not because I wanted to save trees, although I like trees, and I’m for saving them. It was because I couldn’t stand paper clutter. Some paper is necessary in business. If it wasn’t critical, I’d scan it and throw away the paper. Outside my love for creative work and dealing with people, scanning a document and throwing away the original became one of the small joys of my day.

Digital is Better, but Not for Everything

It’s not that I hated paper. I have iPads and an Apple Pencil, and love being able to create, edit, save and share—all without the hassle of paper and pen. Confession: Any time I’d see someone in a business setting with a pen and paper, I’d quietly wonder if they rode a horse to work that day. It seemed inefficient, outdated, and pointless with so many digital tools available. Why bother with a paper and pen?

Further, people I respected in business and life encouraged me to write in a daily journal. I’d think, That’s dumb. I don’t have time for that… and it’s dumb. I now realize the dumbest thing was my opinion.

Enter anoxic brain injury and cognitive impairment. Suffering a brain injury changed the way I process information and how my memory works. It caused cognitive impairment, among many other things. After a long time of struggling to get back to normal, I realized my old life was gone for good. I was sent to speech therapy. Speech therapy? I was having cognitive issues, not speech issues. Ok, I was having speech issues as well, but that’s not the point. That’s when I learned that speech therapy is cognitive rehab. Who knew? I didn’t.

My cognitive therapy started with some handwriting tasks and expanded from there. I had some alarming memory experiences months after cardiac arrest. I’ll share one. Then you’ll understand how those experiences drove my need for therapy.

Fallen Leaves, in May?

One incident that stands out is when I looked out my kitchen window one day in late October. My backyard was blanketed with leaves, and all the trees were dead. We have woods in our backyard. So leaf removal isn’t a Saturday project, but a major effort that lasts months.

Why did I feel alarmed at leaves covering my backyard? I thought it was early May. I’ve worked from home since 2006, and there was no one else home to snap me back to the present. I stood there, shocked, wondering if all the trees died overnight, causing the leaves to fall in the spring. A few minutes later, I thought to myself, it’s not May. My daughter got married in June. It’s June! Wait. Why are all these leaves on the ground in June?

Still confused, I kept processing, mind wandering, lost, looking for clues or cues. Then it hit me—Lisa and I went away in August. It was August, not June. Wait… It still doesn’t make sense for leaves to have fallen in August. Did fall come early? Close to 10 minutes later, I remembered my family and friends threw a surprise birthday party for me in early October. That seemed like weeks ago. Now it all made sense, or at least more sense.

Writing Trains the Brain to Remember

My assignment from speech therapy began by writing a simple log of tasks in a notebook as I did them. It was just the facts, nothing else. Usually, I’d log every work or personal project hour by hour. Other times I’d forget an entire three-hour period. That in itself was something I had to learn to remember.

It’s not that I needed to remember what I ate for breakfast, or that it rained, but it trained my brain to remember past events.

Writing Gets Burdens Out of the Brain

Anoxic brain injury caused neurological damage. My body was stuck in fight or flight mode as its default. Being stuck there causes anxiety, depression, brain fog, fatigue and more. Between speech therapy and other neurology appointments, I was encouraged to expand my daily log of events to include my feelings about each thing that mattered. There was, and is, no pressure to mentally resolve anything. It’s just facts, and my feelings about those facts. The goal was to calm my nervous system, which would reduce symptoms of movement disorders, and bring more peace as a result.

Handwriting is inefficient compared to typing, and that’s why it’s beneficial. It’s slower, and it forces your mind to slow down and process what you’re writing. I’ve taken the advice to write down all my emotions, even irrational thoughts. Writing about traumatic, stressful or emotional events has been found to result in improvements in both physical and psychological health.

A Step Toward Better Health Can Be Simple

In January 2025, I had another visit at Cleveland Clinic, and signed my name to the top beam of the new Neurological Institute being built. It said, “If you or someone you love has a neurological condition…” Clearly, I qualify.

Newsweek ranked Cleveland Clinic number five in the world as a top hospital in neurology. I’m thankful that’s where I’m treated. They have all kinds of medical expertise and technology. Yet, part of my treatment was to write how I felt about various events in my day. The positive changes I’ve experienced are evidence that it works. It’s such a simple task in a technically advanced world. Anyone can do it. The point is that some conditions might require the latest technology, but the majority of us can get mental and cognitive benefits from writing.

Work It Out by Writing it Out

Now my daily log, written in pen on paper, includes what I did, my interactions with people, events I attended, and how I felt about each. I may have felt joy in a relationship, anger over injustice, annoyance with a company, peace in a storm, or a thousand other emotions. I work them out by writing them out.

I may have felt it, but now I have more clarity to see the thought was irrational. It’s easier to file it under the Irrational category in my mind, and then let it go. The more I write about how I feel, the less irrational, negative thoughts have power over me. I think negative thoughts less often.

It feels like magic, but it’s actually science.

Fast, Easy and Free

I’ve tried countless pens, notebooks, and journals and found what works for me. I’ll share those in another post. For now, you don’t need anything special or expensive. Just grab a pen and a piece of paper. In fact, searching for the perfect pen and notebook distracts you from writing—the task that can bring positive change to your life.

Writing has brought me healing, strength and clarity. The next time you get a knot in your stomach over a negative thought, I encourage you to write about it.

Ask yourself:

• What are the chances this negative thing will happen to me tomorrow?
• Does that potentially negative experience impact my life at this moment?
• What is the opposite, positive thing that might happen instead?

Answer yourself in writing, even one sentence.

Writing can rewire your brain. You can reroute negative thinking, enjoy the present moment, and have more clarity for your future. It's like seeing a counselor, but no appointment is necessary. It's free.

OTHER POSTS IN THIS SERIES

• Rewire Your Brain Series: Speak Different Words
• Rewire Your Brain Series: Endless Possibilities