Writing: A Tonic for Aging Brains

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Why take up writing in your later years when logic and prevailing views consider that phase in life a period of decline? Although the decades beyond 60 are commonly seen as less robust physically and cognitively, some strengths accrue later in life.

Problem-Solving and Wisdom

Problem-solving, for instance, gets better with age precisely because our internal library of experiences broadens over time. That gives us more data to choose from to solve problems in a greater number of ways than younger people. The aging brain doesn’t need to approach each situation as if it were novel.

Over a lifetime, the brain’s frontal cortex automates many processes through pattern formation. It uses a shorthand system to determine if something is familiar or not. If it is, it searches within its archives for a way to handle or resolve it behaviorally. This patterning is done with little or no awareness on our part. An older person can run through their repertoire of experience very rapidly, like a computer doing a search, while a younger person has fewer bits of data on which to build a problem’s solution.

When we can tap into a vast store of memories, have less of a need to handle every new situation from scratch, and have fewer distractions from the outside world, we can focus more completely and with less distraction.

Another strength is wisdom, a quality that is enhanced in older folks. Wisdom is the product of a long and interesting life, cumulative decision-making, and stored patterns to facilitate new learning. At this point in life, we have the ability to express our thoughts with richness, ripeness, and depth not possible before, enhanced by aging like fine wine and the best cheese. Plus in this stage of life, we have much to say as we look around and back at the mounting decades, making new observations and connections that wisdom confers.

Dr. Gene Cohen, gerontologist and psychiatrist, was the author of several books linking the wisdom of the aging brain with creativity. His findings suggested that the older you get, the more your store of information and perspective on life grows, which enhances your creative potential. Dr. Cohen’s research on creativity in later life points to a natural tendency “to reminisce and elaborate stories, whether in oral, written, or visual form...a part of nature’s plan to pass the wisdom of human expression on from one generation to another.”

Cohen makes the case that older folks have the ability to write compelling stories about their own lives, and should, for their own enlightenment, or to pass along as their legacy. As long as people have been able to read and write, they have had the capability to creatively write stories, but most don’t until their later years because life doesn’t tend to slow down until then.

Elders have something to say. Some find that they have talent, which is both surprising and delightful. Some enjoy the process of sharing their wisdom. Still others want to leave something behind in the form of their personal or family history. But one fact is ubiquitous: Seniors feel energy, passion, and satisfaction when they write. It’s fun. Plus, at this point in life, writing is both the process and the outcome—no longer do the storytellers feel a need for any kind of externally driven goal or reward. As a psychologist, writer, and author of four books, I’ve taken the time to write about my own life, and I teach other older adults to do the same.

However You Do It, Writing Is Therapeutic

Writing is portable. It can be done anywhere. For introverts, the preferred mode might be alone on an electronic device, in one’s own indoor space, or longhand sitting in nature. For extroverts, groups or classes may be most desirable for the social interaction that stimulates them. For ambiverts (those who do not see themselves as introverts or extroverts), a combination of social and alone venues may be the best choice.

There are all kinds of writing platforms. Clearly, you can just start writing and see what comes, which is usually referred to as stream of consciousness. But such writing is not organized in any particular way. If that freewheeling approach doesn’t appeal to you, there are memoir classes available at most senior centers. There is also the approach introduced by Julia Cameron a couple of decades ago, originally designed to spark creativity in screenwriters. Her best-selling book, The Artist’s Way, has exercises and writing assignments to stimulate moving from thought to written word.

As a psychologist and a person of age, I particularly like the writing format called Guided Autobiography, created by James Birren, Ph.D., a gerontologist who wrote extensively about aging. This is a small-group format, usually limited to six participants, originally based on a 10-week program, but which can be adapted to fewer or more sessions. This method cues events and experiences from participants' lives, organizes, and records them. Group members write short structured assignments based on a variety of life themes. When I first used this approach, I was amazed at the depth and meaning that surfaced from my senior participants’ writing.

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For example, while talking about her early years in one of my classes, a 94-year-old woman blessed with an extraordinary memory produced a notebook that her husband had kept seven decades before, noting their daily expenses from travel in Europe shortly after World War II. It was so detailed that it included the cost of a cup of coffee and croissant with the dates consumed. You can imagine the memories and emotions that such a treasure trove of material produced.

It never fails to amaze me that my students can produce the most splendid memories when a prompt (one of many offered each week) surfaces a long-forgotten event, feeling, recollection, or story. Then, of course, the student is free to build a memoir around their writings, simply enjoy the process of unearthing their past, or, encouraged by their classmates, get something published.

Writing about one’s history stimulates the aging brain’s cognitive functioning while providing a worthwhile and meaningful way to spend time with other like-minded people.