Every time my father scolded me as a child, I would dissolve into tears, never being able to respond logically. And there the matter would end — with an exasperated father and a lachrymose daughter! Soon I figured that emotions were getting in the way of proper communication and the best way to get across my point would be to write to him.

A great admirer of the written word, he could be easily manipulated with some good writing! Ever since, whenever things get out of hand emotionally, I have often resorted to penning down my thoughts to share later, rather than expressing them in anger. Encouraged by my father, I even started writing a personal diary, which was used to vent all my adolescent angst and troubles. It helped me a lot, except at times when my Mom or sister discovered my hiding place and read it. All hell would break lose then!

After marriage, there was no question of maintaining as volatile a missive as jottings in a personal diary. No point maintaining a personal diary if you cannot be soulfully honest! By the time password-protected technology arrived, I had grown out of the habit of a personal diary, but had luckily switched to sharing my thoughts and experiences with an audience of readers!

Everyone has stories that have built up over time, stories that need to be told. Those who have the talent of story telling are able to share theirs either through creative means or talks and discussions. Others live with their stories.

Everyone should really try his or her hand at writing. You don’t always have to write to be published, or even to share. The best kind of writing is at times for your own self. It helps you to express yourself, put your life in context, unravel the tangles, discover good and bad recurring patterns, and the final purpose of your life. Writing is a great tool for thinking through and resolving issues, even as it helps improve your wellbeing by reducing stress levels and giving you a feeling of achievement.

Writing can help you understand and face the present, resolve the past and plan for the future. Regularly practiced, it has great therapeutic value. Almost like meditation or driving on a well-recognised route, sometimes you go into auto-pilot and end up writing things that your conscious mind has not yet really enunciated or accepted formally.

Personal experience tells me that writing is possibly the best way to express yourself and resolve your emotions in moments of deep grief. And again for me personally, at the end of all argument is the act of writing — as a means of sensible, rational communication. Body language, facial expressions and aggressive tones can often harm a relationship much more than what is actually said. I am a great believer in knowing when to back off from a verbal spat, give yourself time to cool down, and then express yourself through the written word.

At times, writing also helps change the story of your life. You can do it equally effectively just for yourself in a journal, or for the rest of the world by publishing a book. I recently read actor Gulshan Grover’s autobiography ‘Bad Man’. The theme established through the book is that of a good man with a traditional upbringing and values, who struggled to stardom, consciously choosing to be a screen villain, even rejecting some juicy roles because he did not want to play the good man. A story of deprivation, grit, success and adulation! Had he not written the book, the world would have continued knowing Gulshan only as the ‘Bad Man’! Writing it down helped Gulshan change that story!

Writing is a good aid to memory too. I find I can absorb things I write down better than those I just hear. It is a great way of prioritizing — it helps to write down all that needs to be done and then crossing out completed tasks with great satisfaction. But surely the greatest benefits regular writing can give you is clearing the clutter from your mind, sorting out your life and helping smooth out relationships.

So, what is stopping you? Pick up that pen or start typing.