New Year’s Resolutions. We’ve all made them, and we’ve probably all broken them at one time or another. Now that we’re 6 days into the new year, you might be holding strong to your new promise, and that’s great! But how do you plan to stay on the path for the remainder of 2022? According to one study, most people give up on their New Year’s Resolutions by February 1st, which means a lot of empty gyms and a lot of unread books. We’ve done some of our own research on how you can better stick to your own goals, and one of the best ways to do it is through writing. Whether or not your New Year’s R ..read more

Happy Thanksgiving! Today is a day we love to get together with family and friends, eat way too much delicious food, and focus on all of the gifts in our lives.  But let’s be honest, somehow the day seems to be more about hanging out and stuffing ourselves, than really digging deep and focusing on the meaning and purpose of the day. We can change that. You can change that. Give yourself just a few minutes today and write. Writing gives you a path to process and express all your thoughts and feelings by putting them into words. By having to choose those words, you have to take the time to ..read more

“Writing is where I go to be honest about how I feel.”  These powerful words are said by Alex, a victim of domestic violence, in the new Netflix series, Maid. She expresses this concept as she leads a creative writing group to other women in the shelter as a way to help them build strength and heal.  As the final episode unfolds, we watch as these women transform from victims of domestic violence to survivors. They shift from a slouched position to upright, from faces plastered with fear to smiles and laughs. As they put their memories, hopes and dreams into words and those words on ..read more

Writing Trails are a new feature on the Opyrus platform, aimed at promoting mental and physical wellbeing through guided writing practice. We like to think of writing as equal parts relaxation and mental exercise. When a writer enters a flow state, the processes of thinking and writing become almost perfectly intertwined. Words begin to flow perfectly from mind to paper, and the process itself can be almost meditative. We all struggle with complicated and confusing thoughts crowding up our minds, and writing allows us to focus on a single stream of consciousness that we can revisit at any time ..read more

You read that right. Writing is the next exercise of the 21st century. Of course, writing every day isn’t going to get you a six-pack or shed inches from your waistline—but it can help you stay on track and motived to achieve your physical goals by strengthening your mind-body connection. This article isn’t about writing as a physical exercise—it’s about writing as an exercise for your mind. Many studies have shown the impact of writing and how it increases your likelihood of achieving goals and completing important tasks. This is partly due to adherence to a routine, which leads to better foc ..read more

We live in a world where things move quickly. Modern advertisers work within a very small window to catch the attention of consumers, and even then they only have a few seconds to hold a person’s engagement and interest. Of course, there are perks to living in a modern society with rapid movement and improvements. We are able to see huge technological innovations occur in a single lifetime and watch as our daily lives become more globally interconnected, but how is that affecting our propensity for self-improvement? Being caught up in the motion of a fast-paced world means we’re not often as f ..read more

If you’re an author, it’s not unusual to find yourself in a creative rut. Maybe you’re struggling to find a new topic for your next book or short story, or you might find yourself totally unmotivated when it comes to getting the right words out on paper. Either way, it’s never a bad idea to practice some writing exercises that broaden your imagination. Whether you write fiction or publish scientific research, the use of writing prompts in a wide range of genres can really help to stimulate that writer’s brain of yours. It’s for this exact reason that we suggest you dip your toes into a few unf ..read more

I don’t remember the first time I wrote. I do remember, however, that I would always dream. I spent much of my time within my mind, my imagination creating and cultivating worlds where the impossible was reality. Imagination is a beautiful thing; free and unrestrained, capable of constructing worlds and designing stories. Words, too, are magical and enthralling. I must have known, from the first time that I attempted to form and intertwine words in a way that illustrated beauty, that I could not, and would never want to stop. Words enabled me to manifest my mind into the physical world and sha ..read more

If you’re on this page, you are a writer. It doesn’t matter if you’re a minor, nor does it matter if you haven’t published anything or completed any work. You might have even wondered about writing, only to dismiss it as some unattainable concept. But it doesn’t matter when you write–it matters that you’re writing. You’re never too young to start your writing journey. Every word you put on a page counts, because it’s unique to you. There’s never a right or a wrong time to write. Life never stops moving forward, and neither should you. Why wait when you can begin now? Everyone’s motivations are ..read more

If you’ve been following along with our more recent blogs, you may already know that expressive writing has some pretty significant health benefits. You can expect to see improvements in your mood, stress levels, and overall quality of life by keeping a journal, but what about the act of writing a novel? If you’ve ever attempted to write a book and been hit with obstacles in doing so, you’re not alone. Many writers struggle to complete their work or get it published, but the act of writing a novel alone can actually have huge benefits for your health. What we’re interested in talking about is ..read more