Handwriting as a training method?

There are a number of people that would describe my personality as a tightly closed book, written in small font, in code. I wasn’t always this open.

When I still lived in the city I had a ritual for starting my weekend. On Saturday morning I would walk to a used bookstore to pick out a few books for the weekend. I would then go next door to a small vegetable store where I would obtain a weekends worth of whatever fruit was on sale. There was little or no order to the bookstore but the owner soon realized that my interests were not quite mainstream and I was an easy mark for books no one else even looked at. He usually had a small stack of books that he thought I might have an interest in. Of course the majority was Science Fiction but I was also picked up books on chess, topology, biofeedback and handwriting analysis.

I found the book on handwriting analysis interesting. It pointed out some of the quirks in my personality such as the break that was created when I dotted my “i” or crossed my “t” before continuing. Based on the small crabbed character size and the tiny closed loops of my signature, I was judged to be extremely introverted.

That might have been true but I hardly wanted to announce my weaknesses to the world. I decided I would change my signature to reflect a more outgoing personality. I changed the slant, the size and added more flourish to my signature. On reflection, I’m glad my bank still accepted my new signature but the change in style did not happen overnight either.

Every time I signed my name I had to think about how I wanted it to look. Within a few months, it was easy I remember when I started the change, I was taking guilty pleasure in how much my signature was lying about my personality. I had no intent to modify my personality but in doing all this there I noticed a perceptible shift in my personality. No, I wasn’t going around in public accosting people with my opinions ( that came later with this blog) but I did become more open and outgoing

Here’s the question. Did the change happen because I changed my handwriting or because each time I signed my name I had to think about the changes I wanted? I believe that handwriting reflects a portion of the writer’s personality but I have a hard time believing that changing your personality is as easy as making a few loops larger or smaller.

Certainly the changes I made in my handwriting were intended to reflect the personality I wanted not the personality I had but I never thought that these small behavioral change on my part would have far reaching effects on my personality. Today my signature is not quite as open as when I started making this change but it’s much more open than when I started. It’s also a fair reflection of my personality.

Which came first, the signature or the blogger? Have I chanced on a new method of behavior modification? Can I change my handwriting to reflect a skinnier me?

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