The human race created a way of communicating a long, long, long time ago. It was how we could put words or pictures to things in our world to make more sense. It helped us better understand what's around us and it's only evolved from there, it's still evolving today! Writing, to many, has more meaning than just words in a book you read the other day or a paper you wrote the night before it's due. It's also been found that writing may actually be beneficial to your health.

1. The stories we read can tell much more

Do you remember how English teachers would always tell you to look for symbolism or deeper meaning in class? Well, sometimes they were right. While the color of the curtains may not be super important, looking into how interactions of characters or setting can tell you things you can't read in the fine print. This involves using creativity to better understand the story and might help you put meaning behind your words as well.

2. Writing lets us express ourselves

This is the obvious one. Writing helps people get their thoughts onto paper, or a computer too. The words in our head might be harder to say than to actually write, or sometimes we don't want to say them to other people. This might be why journals and diaries are important. Otherwise, better expressing ourselves can improve relationships with friends and family, or people may know what you need in life instead of letting them guess.

3. Your brain will thank you

Studies have shown that writing can actually improve intelligence. Daily writing encourages better critical thinking and clinical thinking skills. No, it may not help you on your next math test on this Friday, but in a few months or years, you'll be thanking yourself.

4. Achieving your goals will be no sweat

Motivation can be hard to have and hard to keep. Writing in a journal daily was proven to improve your motivation, unfortunately not overnight. If you write down what you're grateful for, you may naturally want to try harder in completing your goals, which only adds to more things to be grateful for!

5. Increases memory

Forgetting your keys? Don't remember where you put that folder? Writing might be the answer if you're stuck with a bad memory like me, or if you want to improve your current memory! Daily journal entries have shown that, over a 7 week time period, memory can certainly be improved. Next time you write, keep your keys close to you just in case.

6. Your stress levels will stay low

Just like reading, writing is something that eases the mind and keeps the body calm. Because of the fact that it let's us express ourselves, see above, keeping stress bottled inside won't happen, meaning that less will be on your mind to make you worry about. Writing gives a sense of relief to people and in my experience, I always feel calmer on the days I write in my journal.

7. Overall health habits can improve

Nowadays, it seems super simple to just let our fitbits and health trackers take care of our information, but writing down your health can help you better understand different patterns that our devices can't. Take mood for example, our mood can be affected by so many different factors, and writing how you feel each day may give you a better understanding as to what is affecting it.

8. Skills to pay the bills

If you're new to writing or an experienced writer, writing is a way to improve and sharpen your skills. "But I write all the time! And I read all the time!" You may think that, but texting and reading Buzzfeed (one of my guilty pleasures) is not a way to keep your skills up. Writing for a resume or a report to your future boss requires skill. I don't think you'll be writing "LOL" on a resume any time soon.

9. Putting the tech away

Snapchat is fun, Twitter is cool, and Netflix is always awesome, but taking a break from the technology is beneficial to staying in check with reality and with yourself (says the one who's writing on a laptop). A break doesn't have to be the whole day or even hours upon hours, but just long enough for you to write whatever is on your mind and make sure that you're okay. These breaks have helped me before with my addiction to games and Snapchat so much!

10. We keep memories with us

Yes, I know that we always have a camera ready because of our phones, but sometimes we can't capture that memory in a picture. Writing memories down can help us store them with us and maybe even better remember them because of our detail in words. Reminiscing on our favorite memories might even make us more grateful that they happened.

11. It reveals who we are

Little things, such as style can affect our writing, but even style can show what we value in life. Writing can show others what our morals are in life, what we desire in life or how we want to impact other people. It may show the person that we normally don't let others see because we are scared to be judged for who we really are. Or, with another way to look at it, you might be meeting a part of you that you weren't aware was there before.

Writing is beneficial is so many ways. It helps both our health and our lives. Sure, texting and tweeting is easy, but writing is something that keeps us in check with ourselves and helps us reach others. It can be an adventure in finding ourselves and what we're like, or it can be a relaxing past time. Nonetheless, taking time out of your day to writing a little bit helps in more ways than you think!