Calligraphy Trains Your Character

If you think writing an essay is difficult, try copying out a paragraph from your favourite book in calligraphy, modern or traditional. The amount of focus that goes into it, aiming for consistency in every alphabet, says it all. Discipline in practice, patience in progress.

Personally, I’ve learnt so much about patience especially when I do long pieces. Even down to the act of waiting for the ink the dry tests my patience! Imagine the number of times I actually screwed up because I couldn’t sit and wait long enough.

In a world that screams for your attention, where we are increasingly expecting instant gratification and cannot wait for anything at all, calligraphy hones our concentration, focus, and patience. Ever had a moment when Facebook took more than 2 seconds to load and you sighed in exasperation? wink

Calligraphy Helps You Slow Down and Think

As many calligraphers would put it – calligraphy isn’t like regular handwriting. You don’t blitz through it like a doctor would, or like when you’re trying to finish up that final sentence in your essay before time’s up.

Calligraphy requires you to slow down and observe every single letter form you create.

Some people say calligraphy is an art, I say, calligraphy is drawing with letters.

Calligraphy and Writing can be Therapeutic

There’s a reason why people keep diaries.

Studies have shown that writing, and by extension calligraphy, has a positive psychological effect on the writer. Especially in the cases of patients suffering from life-threatening or terminal illnesses, people struggling with psychological problems or even just stressed out people. Are you stressed out today?

The American Medical Association and several world-class universities around the world have conducted studies led by PhD researchers that show writing, combined with reflecting, has a positive effect on a person’s mental well-being.