"I'm a hopeless romantic who still believes letters are much more beautiful than text messages." Anon
When was the last time you wrote a hand written letter? Before email was the norm, you may have written to a penpal who lived thousands of miles away? To show your gratitude, you may have posted a hand written card to your grandparents. Before Instagram was even a thing, you might have enjoyed sending postcards from your holidays, to express how much of a good time you were having. Did you ever write a love letter to a loved one? Maybe you are a big fan of hand written letters. If you are, I salute you!
Looking back, I loved writing letters. I thoroughly enjoyed the sensation of using a fountain pen to write long form, I even got excited about sealing the envelope and posting the letter through my local letter box. Although, I did live in the countryside and there wasn't much going on other than riding my pony or making dens with my younger brother. However, I was that girl who loved to write with a a fountain pen and weirdly loved dictation in english class. All those memories bring back a sense of nostalgia. Equal amounts of joy and anticipation, especially when someone wrote a letter to me.
I think it is a real shame that so many of us seem to have lost that personal touch. Not taking the time to write longhand, and not embracing the joy of sharing our stories via hand written letters seems really sad.
Which is why I've decided to launch a weekly online letter writing club. Same time, same place each week. It will be for an hour max. We will spend the first 10 minutes introducing ourselves, explaining which type of letter we plan to write and to whom. Then we shall spend around 40 minutes writing in silence but staying on the zoom call as a group. We shall then put our pens down and join back as a group to share how you found the letter writing experience.
Some weeks there will be a letter writing prompt and other weeks we will have a theme such as love or thank you or sorry. Plus, we could all select a certain individual we'd like to write to, it might be women in Ukraine, a homeless person, a nurse, a neighbour, an elderly relative or a letter to your future self. There are endless ideas for letter writing and endless reasons why we should be writing letters on a regular basis.
If this sound like something you'd enjoy and would like to join, please follow me on instagram @easeretreats or send me a message via my contacts page and I'll send you the link for our first letter writing club meet up. Thursday 9th Feb at 11am
Just in case you're not sure if the letter writing club is for you, I'll leave you with this...
3 reasons why should start writing letters:
Writing is good for your brain - writing words onto the page can aid brain cognition and function. It can help normalise your feelings and allow you to process your thoughts more clearly.
Helps you embrace your creative side - stepping away from the tech and engaging with a more slower paced activity can encourage more mindful thinking. Allowing your thoughts to be focused and your creative expression the opportunity to flow.
Writing creates connection - even though we are more connected in the digital age, it seems that we are more disconnected than ever. We have a huge loneliness problem in the UK with individuals more prone to depression. Sending and receiving hand written letters offers an element of deep connection, boosting your mood and bringing joy and delight into your day.
I encourage you to pick up a pen, find some plain paper and take a moment to write a short letter to a loved one. I guarantee you'll enjoy it. If you'd like to learn more about the benefits of letter writing please don't be shy, join the letter writing club with ease Thursday 9th Feb at 11am
Until the next time...
Take care and stay safe xx