November 20, 2024
This post is part of my 30in30 challenge, where I write 30 minutes every day for 30 working days. Due to my limited time for this challenge, the content will be only very lightly researched and edited. The idea is to just write. Find my voice, and find the courage to publish. To follow my curiosity wherever it may take me.
Beware of the power of the mind, as it can create castles in the sky and cages on the earth
I want to return to what I said in another article: Thinking is horizontal, but writing is vertical. This idea deserves an article on its own, as it is truly fascinating.
The human brain can process information very fast. But have you ever wondered about the actual speed of thought?
It's more complex than just putting down a number. The speed of thought depends on the type of mental process involved. Was it a reflex reaction to stimuli? If so, the speed would depend on many factors - one of them the type of the type of neuron involved in processing the thought. Or was it a problem-solving thought? In that case the speed of thought might depend on the complexity of the problem being solved. While I cannot give you a number, it's safe to say thoughts are fast and not always easy to control.
Have you ever tried to meditate? Focus on your breath? It's harder than it seems! Before you know it, your breath is forgotten and you are thinking about something else - it feels like your mind is on fire, playing an infinite, ever-speeding game of whack-a-mole, jumping from one thought to another.
Now that we have established that thoughts are fast (and not always in our control), let's talk about the speed of human speech. In English, an average speaker will say about 140 words per minute. A fast talker will say about 170 words per minute or more.
While fast, this is far from the speed of thought.
Even if you try really hard, you cannot voice everything you think. Your thoughts are just too fast. This is why saying things out loud can slow thinking down; it can help calm a racing mind. Whenever I have something that is bothering me, I take myself out on a walk somewhere secluded. And I talk to myself - yes, out loud. I have a conversation with myself. I give voice to my thoughts and body, making them more real and human. Rather than being an abstract concept in my mind, I give them the chance to present themselves. Often, when I say something out loud and hear myself say it, I realize that whatever seemed so real and scary in my mind sounds simply ridiculous when said out loud. Talking out loud helps to sort through thoughts that are a nuisance and pay attention to those that deserve to be paid attention to.
Let's slow things down even more. How fast do people type? The average typist can type about 40 words per minute. The more skilled you are, the quicker you can type. But it's nearly impossible to type as fast as you can speak unless you type very fast and speak very slowly.
What about handwriting? The average speed for an adult is about 13 words per minute. The speed can increase with practice and various adjustments to body posture, grip, or pens used, but it won't be anywhere near the speed of typing.
We have truly slowed down now. The longer something takes you, the more time you give yourself to think it through. We started with a racing thought - which was vertical and shallow. We slowed it down by speaking it out loud and giving it some body. And then we slowed it down even more by writing it down.
This is where the magic happens. You take time to think things through, develop your ideas, and give them substance. To choose the right words to describe what you are trying to say. To make sure your sentences are not just grammatically correct and spelled right, but that they capture the essence of what you are trying to say. Every detail matters. A comma can change the meaning and the rhythm of the sentence. A word can change what emotional effect you are going for with your writing.
Handwriting, in particular, can help us process ideas and improve recall and conceptual understanding of the task at hand. Handwriting is one of the most complex motor skills the human brain is capable of. When we write by hand, we engage multiple brain regions: the prefrontal cortex to plan what we are going write, and the visual and motor systems to produce the fine-tuned written outcome. We hardly think about the act of writing anymore; it's something we learned when we were young. But it is quite a complex and beautiful activity, a form of art.
Handwriting is good for your brain, and good for your soul.
We live in a fast-paced world. Everything is about optimization, performance, and speed. But sometimes, just sometimes, it is good to slow down. Thinking is one of these times. It's time to go horizontal.