Want a new you? Change the loop of your As

NEW DELHI: Want a brand new you? A positive, confident and successful you? Just change the curves and slants in your writing and voila! You might find a different you in three weeks time or so. At least that’s what graphotherapists say. And though it might sound magical, it’s a lot of work. Handwriting, they say, is a reflection of personality. The loops of O’s and A’s, for instance, may show you as introverted, while the loops in D’s and G’s may reveal your openness to criticism.But some experts in India are looking at ways to use handwriting to change one’s personality or even treat certain diseases.
Kolkata-based Mohan Bose is one of the few practioners of this new therapy called graphotherapy. This has evolved from the previously-existing art of handwriting analysis or graphology. He believes that if handwriting can reveal the secrets of one’s personality, it might also be possible to change it by changing the handwriting and turning negative traits into positive ones.
The therapy works on the premise that the subconscious mind can be affected by changing handwriting and with practice, positive traits like a long ‘t’ stem (reflects ambition) or an inflated ‘d’ loop (reflects openness to learning), will become a habit and part of one’s personality. To start with, the handwriting is analysed and the negative traits are marked. Someone whose handwriting wavers and is inconsistent, a sign of instability, is asked to write with a constant slant towards right or left. If someone’s handwriting runs downwards on the page, a sign of pessimism and depression, he’s asked to write with an upward slant.
After two pages of writing everyday for three weeks, the subconscious mind, says Bose, gets the message and the positive trait becomes a habit. "When that happens, negative personality traits vanish and there are remarkable changes," he adds.
Bose also uses this therapy for dyslexia, attention deficit and problems like frequent spelling errors, mild depression, anger, pessimism, frustration, lack of concentration and many other psychosomatic disorders which originate in the brain.
Graphotherapists are also using handwriting to diagnose diseases. "The handwriting of people suffering from high BP, joint pain, skin infection or even cancer will have traits which won’t be there in a healthy person’s," says Bose. Thorn-like strokes within 1/10th of a millimetre of certain strokes, reflect high blood sugar and spots in the loops of certain alphabets reflect pain and anger.
However, finding links between handwriting and diseases is nothing new. Research as early as the 1970s at the American Research Society had established that handwriting is one of the first things to be affected in a person suffering from cancer. "But while it is being studied and researched by universities abroad, in India, it’s relatively new. So far, no effort has been made to study the links between brain processes and handwriting and its role in reversing and treating certain diseases," laments Bose.
amrita.singh@timesgroup.com