I began blog seriously two years ago today. So Happy Second Birthday, Dreaming Beneath the Spires.
What I like about blogging
1 1) Social Benefits:
Blogging has exploded my social universe. I have met dozens of genial, congenial fellow bloggers or readers through my blog. This has been a surprise.
My world has dramatically expanded. Roy and I were reflecting that well over half the people we have met up with over the year have been people I know through my blog. These have been pleasurable and interesting encounters, and some people I met through my blog have become my real friends, and some real friends who read my blog know me better, warts and all.
Research suggests that blogging helps your social life. Bryan Allain claims that if you continue blogging, your best friends two years from now will be people you haven’t yet met. That’s true for some of my current very good friends.
2) Psychological Benefits:
A psychological benefit of blogging is that it keeps you current with your inner life. The commitment to daily blogging means that you process your thoughts, feelings and emotions—and share the results in public!!—which means you better process them thoroughly!
The unexamined life caused much unhappiness, I believe. You know…when you are not sure why you are doing what you are doing; when you are not living the life you want, but are too busy to slow down and revise it; the vague sense of dissatisfaction when your life is not aligning with your dreams, hopes, ideals and ambitions.
Blogging helps you slow down and examine your life. A study shows that bloggers report feeling less anxious, depressed and stressed after two months.
And the affirmation kindly readers offer you, and the psycho-social benefits of interaction with them, in cyberspace or real life, is not to be underestimated.
3) Spiritual Benefits:
My blog is primarily a spiritual one, concerned with the intersection of faith and daily life.
“How do I know what I think until I see what I say?” novelist E.M. Forster famously wrote. Spiritual blogging has helped me work through my thoughts, ideas and feelings and see things more clearly. I have not infrequently written a post that ended up saying the exact opposite of what I initially set out to say. Or, I have nuanced, moderated or broadened my ideas mid-post.
We don’t devote enough time to probing and examining our spiritual ideas, puzzlings and wonderments. Writing a spiritual blog daily helps us to hound these down.
4) Physical Benefits
I wouldn’t have thought something as sedentary as blogging would have any physical benefits, but apparently it does.
Scientific American: “But besides serving as a stress-coping mechanism, expressive writing produces many physiological benefits. Research shows that it improves memory and sleep, and boosts immune cell activity. Blogging triggers dopamine release, similar to stimulants like music, running and looking at art.”
5 Character: Writing online every day, even if just a brief diary entry of your thoughts, feelings and experiences is a discipline. And you mature and change, as so many inchoate half thoughts become fully formed and firmly expressed.
Disadvantages of Daily Blogging
1) The biggest one is the time it takes. It does, however, take significantly less time than it did at first. I write so much faster than I did. I get so much more right the first time.
And I anticipate being even quicker in another year. However, I do budget an hour a day to write 2 post (revise today’s and draft tomorrow’s), and 20 minutes to read and comment on other blogs. If I haven’t got the day’s post finished and the next day’s drafted in an hour, I take another hour.
So to be get anywhere with blogging–my blog is ranked 21 among the UK’s Religion and Faith blogs—takes time: an hour or two a day, if we are to be honest.
2) It’s sedentary, indoor, intense work. As such it may not be ideal for a writer whose “real” work is sedentary and indoors.
3) I have not found it compatible with writing books, which is where my heart reallyis. Am still struggling to find a way to balance the blogging and “real writing.” I have been able to do some real writing over the last month, so I have hope.
4) Very personal first-person blogging, as I do, is, not devoid of risk. You may well reveal things about yourself which you later wish you hadn’t, and you definitely risk giving the wrong impression of yourself (as any autobiographical writer who writes in short daily installments does). Then you reveal things about yourself which you are unaware you have revealed, and you glaringly reveal things about yourself which you yourself are still oblivious of.
5) Outspoken posts, or those in which one rashly refers to recognisable individuals, can make you enemies. Ouch! You might even have to change your churchJ.
5) Outspoken posts, or those in which one rashly refers to recognisable individuals, can make you enemies. Ouch! You might even have to change your churchJ.
Challenges
1 My blogs are so much better when I write them the day before, and get to sleep over them. I sometimes get to do this, and would like to do it as a regular practice. Which takes organisation.
2) Finding a way to combine writing books with blogging.
Questions and request for feedback
1) My blog has been a focused Christian one. However, I am thinking of branching out to other things which interest me. See this, In Praise of Naps.
Would you like to read posts on subjects other than faith or would you prefer a focused Christian blog?
2) Which kinds of posts are your favourite?
3) Would be grateful for any other feedback you’d like to offer—on blog design, content, or anything under the sunJ
Thank you for reading my blog, dear readers!
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And here are some stats, to look back to next year, for I guess, I am committed to daily blogging:-)
And here are some stats, to look back to next year, for I guess, I am committed to daily blogging:-)
Followers on Google, 115, On Facebook, 101
Blogger Stats
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Pageviews today
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230
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Pageviews yesterday
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470
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Pageviews last month
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13,187
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Pageviews all time history
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129,596
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Read my new memoir: Rosaries, Reading, Secrets: A Catholic Childhood in India (US) or UK.
Connect on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/anitamathiaswriter/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/anita.mathias/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/AnitaMathias1
My book of essays: Wandering Between Two Worlds (US) or UK
Hi Nicole, Blogging is also the quickest way to get known as a writer. And it has its own satisfactions. But is is a huge time-consuming distraction for a writer!!
I enjoyed this post! I found this post through a google search on blogging daily. I blog about 4 to 5 times a week now and I've been working hard to develop a standing of some kind in the blogosphere! So I've been curious about the benefits. But I can relate to your challenge of doing real writing. I'm a writer, too and doing both can be a huge challenge!
Thanks Penelope and Joanna. “Lowering the bar” helps make daily blogging fun. Telling myself it doesn't have to be a magnum opus. 250 words, a single thought is okay. I do have drafts of ideas to play with and develop on days without inspiration, so I don't have to rely on an inspiration each day–can just play with ideas which have come on busy days.
And I have loved “meeting” you guys through blogging!!
Congratulations on your blog birthday and on the amazing self discipline it must take to post every day. What an achievement!
oops – BLOGS! Helps to proof read … Sorry!!
Happy birthday blogging! I have found your bogs a great inspiration – and am so glad to have 'met' you through this. Your journey of blogging is such a help: I only started a few months ago, as a therapeutic aid to try to help me through some PTSS, and so what you have described here is enormously helpful and encouraging. I set out to write a blog a week; recently thought twice a week might be a good idea; and now am inspired by your daily goal.
Please continue to inspire and enthuse the rest of us!
(and enjoy Istanbul!)
-Penelope
Hi Mary, It took me hours in the beginning too–and was ruining my life. I think blogging daily helped me to write fast, so that many posts takes just 20 minutes to write and revise, and I can usually do 2 or more in a hour or two. It becomes second nature the more you do it.
Of course, I had been writing for many years before I started blogging, so already had a few writerly tricks up my sleeve:-)
Congratulations and Happy Birthday! Wow! I look forward to reading your post in detail later today (I get this late at night and open it in the morning)…I have so much to learn from you. I take hours and hours to write one blog.
Yours are inspiring and your breadth is awesome! I am called a somewhat different way, but I love what you write!
@Nancy, thanks. Cleaned up the blog design, puttings ads at the bottom. Long posts are tempting–it feels good to deal with a subject comprehensively and satisfyingly, though I am aware that many will stop reading quickly ):-
@ Sipech, I guess I blog first thing, after my quiet time, so I always have time for it. When I try to do other writing first, I rarely have time or energy for a good post, which means stats suffer. Will have to resolve this dilemma.
The other reason I am prolific is that I do not do any paid work at the moment!
@Emma. Thanks. I think the blog flows in tandem with my spiritual life. When that feels flat and lifeless, Christian blogging feels like a chore–and broadening the scope of the blog feels so tempting. But most of the time, I am pretty excited about Christ, and faith in him (fortunately!!).
@Miss Mollie, Wow! I doubt I would have the energy to blog daily if I worked. It's too intense.
Thanks, everyone!
Happy birthday. I admire your dedication as well as the length and depth of your posts. I'm so glad we stumbled upon each other. I have found old and new friends with my blogging. I'm only past my first year. Keep writing. I know what you mean about writing the books and keeping up with the blog. I work full time as a home health nurse and seems my blog must come first. I'm finding my way in this writing world. God bless. Write it all.
Happy birthday! I love reading your blog – especially hearing about how your faith works out in the struggles and joys of daily life. But to be honest, I think I'll read whatever you write – so run free..!
Hi Anita
Happy blogging birthday! Actually, that almost sounds rude. Happy birthday to your blog.
I would largely agree with point 2. The main reason I blog is to try and capture various nebulous thoughts, commit them to language and then see if they make sense. Unfortunately, lots don't so I end up writing a few hundred words and deleting the whole lot.
I have no idea how you are so prolific. I try to update a couple of times per week but often struggle to find the time for that. Hats off to you.
Keep up the good work!
Congratulations on posting every day for the last 2 years. What an interesting summary of the benefits of blogging. I have found some of your posts inspiring and interesting and you always write well and with disarming honesty. In relation to your questions. I will probably still read your blog even if not all posts have a Christian focus. I prefer short posts – if I want to read something longer I'll read a book. I hope you will keep your blog design simple and not too cluttered. If it starts to have too many adverts it will put me off. Hope that helps. Keep up the good work. God bless you.
Thanks so much, Josh:-)
Happy 2nd birthday! While I haven't been around for the entire two years, I've enjoyed catching up recently. I, for one, would love reading some posts that branched out a bit, as long as most of your posts were still about Christianity. Keep up the great writing, Anita!