Writing Things Out: Exploring and Finding Peace

We have times that our thinking seems full of gaps. Experience has taught us that writing things out helps us explore, remember, and find peace.

Discoveries and Realizations

C.S. Lewis, one of the most versatile, widely read, and loved of all 20th century writers, admitted, “We do not write in order to be understood; we write in order to understand.” He helped an incredible worldwide audience understand A LOT—as he followed his own understanding quest.

On our everyday level, writing things out helps us understand our own thinking.

• Writing slows us down. Minds can flash and ooze around like mercury; writing happens in time and space. We think in and react in words, which can be somewhat solid and concrete if we allow our minds to go that way.
• Writing enables us to use more deliberate language. As we select words, even doing so quickly, we recall other words we know and use.
• If we read often in texts and technologies similar in subject, content, purpose, intended audience etc. to those we will be writing, memories in these areas pop into our minds as we write.

When writing things out, we can consider and react to our potential readers: why we are communicating with them, including what we want them to learn, think, and do.

While serving as mission leaders, we asked our missionaries to write often in study journals and personal journals. Those who did were better learners, teachers, and communicators—better able to clarify their thoughts and thus speak and teach more clearly and intelligently. Reading, thinking, and listening allow information to flow into the brain; writing, speaking, and acting allow information to flow out. To be successful communicators, we need both forms of learning: input and output.

Memory of Importance

Elder Richard G. Scott counseled a BYU audience,

Write down in a secure place the important things you learn from the Spirit. You will find that as you write down precious impressions, often more will come. Also, the knowledge you gain will be available throughout your life. Always, day or night, wherever you are, whatever you are doing, seek to recognize and respond to the direction of the Spirit. Express gratitude for the help received and obey it. This practice will reinforce your capacity to learn by the Spirit. It will permit the Lord to guide your life and to enrich the use of every other capacity latent in your being.

I will consistently strive to learn by what I hear, see, and feel.
I will write down the important things I learn, and I will do them.

During our learning and thinking experiences, we may not quickly and easily understand what is most important, perhaps missing many important things. Writing things out allows us to come back to them without the loss caused by life’s distractions. Careful revisiting allows us to carry our thinking further—possibly to new directions, new relationships, or additional examples or applications.

Preach My Gospel advises missionaries to keep written records: including study plans, lesson plans, goals, records of teaching sessions, and anticipated questions with well considered answers. We reminded our missionaries that the Lord invites them to write often to experience writing-related benefits.

Stillness and Peace

 Writing as we ponder our thoughts, experiences and insights can bring us opportunities to listen to the Holy Ghost. We may ask how we can enrich the lives of others and bring them closer to Christ. We may ask if what we are thinking and writing is worthy of a disciple of Christ.

Many find peace in keeping a daily journal. In our mission, we noticed that missionaries who wrote in their journals every night before bed were mentally happier, healthier, and more resilient than those who avoided it. Many even slept better. In leaving, no one told us that she or he wished to have written less. Some wished they had written more. The Lord allowed them to learn so much in such a short time that they couldn’t possibly remember as much as they wished without writing it out. Their missionary journals became treasures of knowledge, life lessons, and recorded progress.

Finding peace as we write about our thoughts, feelings, insights, and messages from the Holy Ghost does not end with missions or mission leadership.  They continue lifelong.

President Henry B. Eyring wrote of his daily recording experience. Returning home after a very hard day, and reflecting briefly on his blessings, he received this revelation: “I heard in my mind—not in my own voice—these words: “I’m not giving you these experiences for yourself. Write them down.” As he went inside, found paper, and started writing things out, he understood more: “I was supposed to record for my children to read, someday in the future, how I had seen the hand of God blessing our family.”

His account and his life continued:

I wrote down a few lines every day for years. I never missed a day no matter how tired I was or how early I would have to start the next day. Before I would write, I would ponder this question: “Have I seen the hand of God reaching out to touch us or our children or our family today?”

We recall that Eliza R. Snow prepared for the pioneer trek by purchasing a bottle of ink. She knew that crossing the plains and settling the unknown territory beyond would be challenge-intense but incredibly faith-fortified. She needed the ink to explore her thoughts, learning, observations, relationships, and, above all, the teachings and inspiration of the Holy Ghost. Even the “small” things must be recorded to recall. And she would absolutely require the peace of mind and heart that would sustain them all. We are blessed daily by their examples.