22. Helen Gregory - When handwriting, you are engaging your whole body, not just your brain. It can be cathartic: a holistic activity, something that comes from the soul.

Handwriting & You!

Helen Gregory​
Owner​
Beyond the Cheat

Helen is an intuitive people person who is known for her deep understanding of what makes people ""tick"". She brings this insight to Beyond the Cheat – an online haven for people who’ve been betrayed by their partner. She has a wealth of experience both from her background in HR and Development, initially within blue chip organisations, later within her own people assessment consultancy and subsequently through coaching and mentoring others.

Writing is something about which Helen is passionate. She has long wished to write a book about her many and varied life experiences: she brings humour and quirkiness to her texts and enjoys playing with words and meaning. Etymology and linguistics hold an intense fascination for her, as does the artistic form of the written word in the shape of calligraphy and illuminated lettering.

Helen’s business is online and she is living her dream life writing daily in the form of blog posts, social media posts, coaching and course materials and downloadable information. Becoming involved in authoring and co-creating in the “Life After …” series has been a fascinating, revealing and empowering process and one which Helen would love to share with others in combination with her established coaching skills.
​Speaks About

• Writing is such a gift. I was taught proper cursive handwriting using an ink pen when I was 7 or 8. Today I have three ink pens, all with different coloured inks, that I use constantly.
  
• I take great pride in my handwriting and I’m often complimented on it – even though it looks very unlike that which I was taught!
  
• I write down practically everything! Lists and plans for work and for my personal life. Spider diagrams to sort out the thoughts in my head. Journalling daily to record not only the day’s events but my thoughts and feelings, what I feel I’ve achieved, what I could have done better, what I’m grateful for.
  
• As someone who delivered training and assessment centres for many years, being able to observe, understand and write effectively was crucial. Often writing was on a flipchart in training sessions and in assessment centres writing detailed, objective feedback on candidates’ performances had to be completed by the end of the day.
  
• I’ve learned to write quickly and still be neat and tidy. I can write reasonably levelly without lines. I doodle – often geometric, symmetrical patterns (there must be some psychological reason for this!) and frequently illuminate letters or write in my “old school” cursive handwriting – just to check that I still can!
  
• A couple of decades ago, I took an evening class in calligraphy and illumination and to this day I have several odd pens including one that we made ourselves out of bamboo and which we dipped in ink.
  
• It’s imperative that children are able to write, despite this being the “digital age”. It’s quick – quicker than opening a phone, opening the correct app and typing in. It’s YOURS – it’s your hand: your feelings and emotions that go into that text, even if it’s just a shopping list. Handwriting carries emotions: yes Moonpig is great when you’ve forgotten to send someone a birthday card but I would much rather have a card that’s late and has been written in by hand than a card that’s only got computerised text within.
  
• When handwriting, you are engaging your whole body, not just your brain. It can be cathartic: a holistic activity, something that comes from the soul. To me, writing is a magical medium in that it conveys my message not just in the meaning of the words on the paper, but also the form of the written word, the size of the writing and even the colour of the ink.