Problems with Handwriting(?)

I worked with a man who used to write with his right hand, but one day suddenly wasn’t able to write letters such as a and s and eventually anything with that hand.  Even o appeared to be problematic!  Then he learnt how to write with his left hand.  He continued to write with his left hand for years until one day last year the same happened as did with his right hand years ago – he just couldn’t write anything with his left hand either!  Everything else in his life was OK – no other problems with anything else, just writing. He was a student and was pretty depressed about the uncertainty of his future etc. …

So I advised him to

• deal with his depression.  Although it’s natural that he’d be depressed in such situation, there’s no way anyone will learn anything while depressed.  So I told him to acknowledge the depression and extract its positive intention for him.  Then I told him to turn the depression down a few notches which would open him to learning new things.
• Since his handwriting problem was very context specific, I next asked him to carefully examine all the circumstances in his life at the time his right hand had stopped writing years ago.  Had he developed the extreme reaction in response to something unfortunate, difficult, unpleasant, traumatic, or problematic at the time?
• next to examine his life in the same way around the time when his left hand stopped writing.  Once he had this done, he could compare the two sets of circumstances.  Was there a pattern?  A recurring theme?  Any similarities?
• Now to deal with beliefs.  No matter what the findings around his two reactions, those reactions were based on something the guy believed at the time – and then reacted to.

People with problems with handwriting commonly believe that their hand / arm / brain have “stopped” working and that’s why they cannot write any longer.  Because we do what we believe in, there’s no wonder that these beliefs make people unable to write.  Of course, if you break your arm, you can’t write, because your arm is broken.  But in this case – and many others revolving around handwriting – these beliefs are formed as a wall of protection against something in their lives.  The brain goes overwhelmed and gets a power cut which will demonstrate itself in the end of functionality of the hand.

If you have an experience with any such belief, treat it as that person’s best current thinking.  In reality, nothing is wrong with their hands / arms / brains – apart from their response.   And the good thing about responses and beliefs is that they can be disproven and then changed for more useful ones.

So here are more practical steps I advised this guy:

• letters a and s, written in lower case, are similar on the eye and from the distance.  The letter e written in lower case would also fit into the group.  So if you wish to relearn writing of those – and any – letters, take one letter at a time which is written down somewhere and observe it.  Keep looking at it and trace its shape with your eyes along its lines and curves exactly as you see it.
• Once you have traced it with your eyes, try drawing it with your finger in the air.
• Now draw it again – this time with your whole hand holding a pen on a paper…
• Another good exercise is to take a picture printed on paper, turn it upside down, and copy it line for line.  At first, this may seem impossible, but once you get into it, you’ll be surprised at how good you’ll get at it!

For more information about problems with handwriting contact me.