The other day I was challenged to write my daily affirmations in cursive. Ok ok I was simply advised that it’s better to write them down in cursive. I have them. I write them daily.
The challenging part was …
How do I write in cursive?
I am ashamed to admit that I had to google it. My first stab at it looked like I was recovering nicely after a stroke. My second stab was the word affirmations. This word had an a, two f’s an i, a t, an o which you would think was straight forward but joining it between the i and then n? WTF And then the s… I had to look up the s. Surely Aiden has the “How to” cheat sheet in his homework bag somewhere?
After affirmation no 10 I finally got into the swing of it. Usually my MO would be to look up why writing in cursive is beneficial and immerse myself in the neuroscience theory behind it all. However I thought I’d change things up a bit and and just see what happens.
I also write 3 amazing things that happened every day, so here’s my cursive spin on that;
The 3 amazing things I learnt:
1. I dwelled on the lines.
Learning to write again in cursive slowed me down. I had time to absorb the sentences as I was writing it, letting it sink in. Kind of like when you stretch your muscles. It’s only effective if it’s longer than 20 seconds as the muscles have to feel it.
2. It focused my thinking on two things:
The words I was trying to write and forming the letters correctly. I actually refined a couple of the affirmations realising the word wasn’t necessary or something could have been said in a better way, with less letters, specifically the challenging words like…. specifically.
3. Attending to the detail.
The phrase “dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s” was never more applicable than in cursive writing. You have to go back after each word has been painstakingly written out and remember to dot the i’s and cross the t’s otherwise the word doesn’t make sense. It looks unfinished.
I know the benefits of writing goals and affirmations down instead of leaving them to float about aimlessly in your mind. I know the benefits of actually writing, handwriting them down as opposed to typing. And now I see benefit in writing them in cursive as opposed to my schizophrenic haphazard writing style which is largely pen grip and tip, paper stock, and mood dependant.
So, today I am grateful for cursive for slowing me down, focusing my thoughts and reminding me to pay attention to the detail.
Perfectly Sorted 
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