Journaling is a great way to learn how to express emotions on paper and preserve memories. Years from now, you will want to remember what you did many years ago, and a journal will remind you of the good and bad things of the past. In addition, the journal will help you vent frustration and anger when necessary, as well as delight. This is a great way to express your feelings and pour out your heart when you are sad and need to talk to someone (or rather, something) and tell about your most secret thoughts. Many of us started keeping a diary, but never got around to keeping it full-time. We started in difficult times and just quit when things got better, and that shouldn't happen. Keeping a diary is also necessary in order to preserve happy memories.
Steps
Keeping Your Own Diary
- Keeping little things - movie tickets, receipts, flower petals, etc.
- Pasting photos
- Making sketches and drawings
- Writing down poems
- Choosing quotes of the day or goals of the day
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Write basic information about yourself on the first page. You can include your name, age, best friend's name, class in school or major, and add information about hobbies and things you love. Many indicate where the diary should be returned if it gets lost.
Start your first entry by indicating the date and day of the week, the time and maybe the place where you are writing on that day. Write as you would to your best friend or even to yourself, mentioning enough details to remind yourself later about today. Remember that things may be different in the future.
Don't be afraid to name your journals. Imagine that this is a living person, and not an object, because one day he will become your best friend!
You can write about disappointments and triumphs, but also write about everyday things - your schedule, your friends, your tasks for the day. Over time, we forget what we thought we should have remembered forever, and everyday little things will become meaningful to you over time. Try to write optimistically - optimism will support you in the most difficult times.
If you take a break from journaling, start again. If you miss a day, several days or even weeks, don’t get upset, just start again from today. Excessive efforts to record everything that happened in hindsight - The best way lose interest in the diary. If after a few weeks you still remember an event that you didn't write about, it will come to mind later and you will be able to write about it. Don't worry if you miss a day, week or month, no one is keeping score.
Periodically re-read old entries and compare your current thoughts with them. Do this only when you are ready to accept yourself! If you start judging yourself, you will soon throw away the diary in disgust. Be lenient with yourself and look at the diary as letters from your former self to your current self, and most importantly, pay attention to how much you have grown and what you have learned from experience. After all, that's the beauty of journaling, that you can observe your own personal growth and emotional maturation as you try to become a better person every day.
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Try to hide your diary well. This is your personal diary, it should be safe! An empty book is a good hiding place for a diary.
- The journal can be hidden in other places, such as between the mattress and bed frame, tucked under a chair or table, in a video case, in a shoe bag, or in a jacket pocket.
- Have fun with the journal, it's not homework!
- Be honest in your journal. If you can't admit your feelings, then what's the point of keeping a diary?
- If, when reading old entries, you do not like something that was written, do not tear out pages or cross out words. Over time, everything will look different than it does now, in a couple of years you will read these notes and be glad that you saved everything you wrote.
- Try to put your journal in a place that will remind you to write. If you put it at the bottom of a drawer, you might forget it.
- Consider decorating the cover with stickers, drawings, photographs, etc. Get creative and you'll be surprised how much you can express yourself this way.
- Spit out every emotion on paper! Write about how angry your deskmate is at history, or about every little thing your friend does for you. A diary is a friend who will never reveal your secrets, so share everything with him: crushes, dreams, songs you want to write, etc.
- If it's really important to you to remember the day, choose a specific time to write in the evenings. For example, the way home from school or the time after returning home may be suitable for this. Any convenient time is good! Find a private place where you can write without fear of someone reading your diary.
- A diary can also be written in book form. Choose a name that you like and assign this name to yourself so that the reader who does not know the code cannot guess who it is about. we're talking about. Have fun with the journal, it's not homework!
- You may start using your journal as a notepad to write down things that interest you, and then suddenly you may find yourself wanting to add your own thoughts about it to the list.
Warnings
- Make sure you always know where the diary is, especially if it contains personal information that could compromise you! If there is extremely sensitive information, then buy a lock or buy a diary with a lock. Be careful and don't lose your diary.
- Write carefully so that what you write can be read in the future. You cannot know how many years you will have to keep the diary..
- Don't imitate anyone. This is your diary, keep your own style.
- Write everything down. Censorship would mean that you are not being honest with yourself.
- Don't bluff, be sincere.
- Make sure the ink does not bleed through the paper.
- Write only with a pen, the pencil will fade over time.
- Be yourself. You don't need other people's memories.
What you will need
- Favorite pen: Ballpoint, gel or fountain pen are best. You can buy ink in different colors.
- Page Decorations: Photos, tickets, acid-free stickers, clippings, trading cards, ribbons, dried flowers, etc.
- A lock and key, a small padlock with a case, or a nice hiding place for a journal.
- A place where you can be alone to write. Some people who keep a diary set up a special place to write.
Make sure your journal reflects your personality. You can add a personal touch to your diary:
Whether to keep a personal diary (in youth slang “ld”) is truly a personal matter for everyone, but teenage girls, girls and women for the most part prefer to reveal their treasured things to a silent piece of paper rather than to close friends. At the same time, creative and romantically inclined people have no questions about how to keep a diary correctly: they write what they want, draw according to their mood, write in and paste in quotes, clippings from fashion magazines, pie recipes and other interesting things.
But if you don’t have your own vision of your own diary, and don’t even know where to start, this article is for you: ideas, recommendations, highlights, creative solutions will give you ideas individual style and creation. So, how to create and beautifully design the flyleaf and pages, and what can you write in your personal diary?
Where to start keeping a personal diary?
From desire. If a girl or girl wants to keep her own diary just because all the girls in a class or university group have one, then this will immediately become a failed idea: the process of communicating with a paper friend will end exactly on the second page, when a suddenly flared passion for a fashion trend will subside. In the world modern technologies, gadgets and social networks, it would not be out of place to ask the question - what is it for, What does a personal diary look like and what should be in it?: If the answers to these seemingly simple questions have not been found, the idea of a diary should be put aside for a while.
When deciding to keep a personal diary, think about the purpose - what will it become for you and what is its meaning?
The most obvious purpose of introducing a diary into personal life communication becomes: a thin or thick notebook or notepad will become the most understanding and trusting interlocutor, which is lacking in social life. Another group of the female population will define journaling as an opportunity to capture the emotions of a visit interesting places, memories of significant events and impressions of meetings with interesting people. And still others will even keep a diary for self-analysis of their own actions, reviewing actions taken, re-evaluating themselves and their mistakes, and reflecting on their successes. Everyone has their own goal- it is important to realize it, and then your personal diary will become a true masterpiece, and not routine writing.
What will become a diary?
We will not consider in detail the option of an electronic diary: these are also a statement of one’s own thoughts and a description of events, but not intended for internal use, and for worldwide public readings. But just as with all modern gadgets, a significant number of reading enthusiasts prefer books in the classic version rather than in audio or electronic ones, the same is true with personal diaries.
A diary is a mirror of a person’s soul
A teenager’s electronic personal diary on a computer or website can begin with some interesting or, conversely, dramatic incident, a meeting with old friends or a trip. Electronic diary on a personal computer has its advantages (a strong password, beautiful graphics for design, the ability to make an unlimited number of copies), but diaries in paper form give a special atmosphere, romance to the process of communicating with oneself and something nostalgically vintage, but that’s what they should be, what kind of notebook for diary entries about life? And this is also a personal matter for everyone:
it will be convenient for one to write on separate sheets of paper, which are always at hand, combining them as you write into a ring binder or paper materials organizers of other options;
others will find ordinary ones comfortable 18-sheet school notebooks or notepads that can be put in your purse - they do not take up much space and weigh practically nothing;
still others will approach the matter monumentally, starting a thick barn book or diary under voluminous texts: descendants will undoubtedly appreciate the painstaking work of my great-grandmother, which tells about the super-duper Seventh iPhone and the release of the next episode of Star Wars.
Keeping, notes and pictures for a personal diary - style, design, size of inscriptions and drawings also play a role. When deciding what a personal diary will be like, you should not be guided solely by the externally attractive cover: first of all, its owner should think about about the comfort of entering your notes into it. As for what is needed to design the first page of an LD, this will already be decided in the process of working with it.
How long does it take to keep a diary?
How to start keeping and organizing a beautiful personal diary - rules, as such, do not exist. As well as some kind of official or generally accepted timekeeping to fill it out. If you don’t turn a pleasant activity into writing down every step for many hours every day, then It doesn’t take much time to keep a diary. You should not treat the diary as work: entries in it can be made hastily or in detail, but in any case, if there is desire and inspiration.
It is no coincidence that a diary can be used as a planner for future affairs: it will show how much time does a housewife waste?. Don't have anything to write about for the last day, couple of days, week? – it makes sense to think: maybe time was just wasted? Such information will give impetus to general mobilization and decisive action within one person.
Each girl or woman determines the mode of working with the diary that suits her: daily, weekly or situational
“When I want, then I write”- the correct answer to the question of how often to write in a diary. Being obligated will destroy a trusting relationship with such a friend, and harping on every line will not give either positive emotions or a pleasant result.
Another point that diary owners don’t think about: re-reading notes from time to time is both desirable and necessary– this will refresh your memory of events and allow you to track how your thinking and assessment of situations and people’s actions changes. Over time, not only we ourselves change, but also our perception of the same dynamic, not worth a second world around us: such an analysis is useful and determines the degree of maturation of the individual.
How to properly keep a personal diary
Correct in this case is a synonym for “how convenient.” You need to relax, be alone with yourself, your thoughts, a pen or pencil (according to your preference) and a diary. You don’t have to comb your hair and don’t, now you are nature itself. Those who have problems with the Russian language should not think about the rules of spelling and punctuation - write freely, even with mistakes.
For each entry, enter the day, month, year - everything is forgotten over time, but the chronology will return you to the exact moment of the event
When expressing, caution will not hurt: on the one hand, why then is a diary needed, if not to pour out everything that is sore on its pages?; on the other hand, the possibility of it being read by another person should not be excluded. And in most cases, it will be a bomb. Atomic.
How to sign and properly format a personal diary: tips and ideas
For adults, busy and working people, perhaps the design of the diary is not so important - most likely, they would settle on an expensive diary with a thick, stylish cover and elegant pages. But how can a girl or teenager create and fill out pages inside the wish list? Surely young ladies want something enchanting, sparkling and joyful- styles, ideas and photos of filling out a personal diary or diary can be viewed on online blogs, the social picture network Pinterest and similar resources. Or just come up with something of your own.
In general diary design depends on:
own desires and ideological vision of the new “friend”;
creative skills (calligraphy, drawing skills);
available free time, which, without prejudice to study, work or family, can be spent on making notes.
Thematic pages and stories- a super idea, everything will be used here: from scrapbooking to stickers and Chinese calligraphy. For a trip to the sea, the page can be painted with soft blue watercolors, pearl beads and decorative colored sand can be added, the “forest page” can be perfumed with eau de toilette with a woody aroma and decorated with pine or spruce needles - there is room for imagination.
Many people already think at the beginning of their journey, how to design the last page creative diary: perhaps someone will like the idea of a stylized door to the future, their own poem, or simply a beautifully executed inscription “To be continued...”
There are no special rules in design either - it is only important that its owner liked the diary. For those who have free time young girls will need magazine clippings and scrapbooking elements, materials for appliques, a set of colored gel pens and felt-tip pens, text highlighters, glue sticks, self-adhesive rhinestones, decorative tapes and paper, etc. Girls' favorite pictures are cute cats, cute bears, butterflies, flowers and angels.
How to make it interesting and what to write about in a personal diary for a girl, girl or woman
describe emotions and attitude to what is happening– it’s not the bare and boring facts that are important, it’s the feelings evoked by the situation that are important;
you can throw out what has accumulated verbally or graphically– as you like;
they will remind you of memorable exhibitions, visits to cinemas and theater productions, interesting trips, romantic dates tickets and booklets, letters and notes from loved ones– if you want to store them at the end of the diary, it is recommended to glue an envelope to the cover and put them there or paste them directly onto the current page;
write down and sketch gift ideas for relatives and friends;
do sketches of favorite models in boutique windows with the expectation of sewing the same ones in the near future, but with mother-of-pearl buttons;
To increase self-esteem, it is recommended to paste it into a diary your own successful photos, celebrate achievements and do not hesitate to praise yourself for success;
People rich in dreams are advised to write them down before they are forgotten - dreams open the curtain of a person’s inner consciousness and experiences;
women's diaries become a treasure trove quotes, aphorisms and funny jokes: for the owner of the diary who does not rely on her own girlish memory, periodically reading them is useful and brings pleasure;
useful phrases in English;
spending money, planning expenses for purchases;
admired for its simplicity or sophistication culinary recipes;
words of favorite songs, poems, poems.
With desire and knowledge foreign languages you can keep a diary on one of them: agree, personal diary in English is not only intellectual and stylish, but also excellent practice for expressing your own thoughts and expanding vocabulary.
The diary of married ladies most often presents an ascetic version: short, to-the-point entries without additional embellishments
Thick cardboard cover will make the diary safer, and the creativity of the owner of the diary will highlight an ordinary notebook or notebook from a bunch of similar ones, creating a small personal corner of mood. With the help of master classes from the online community of needlewomen and available materials, it’s easy to create own textile cover with elegant trim with lace and sewing and/or rhinestones and buttons (felt ones look original and cozy, but are not so practical to use - they get dirty and wear out). Depending on the mood or time of year, the covers can be easily changed.
To maintain complete secrecy, you can buy notebook or notepad with a lock or find a secluded place in the room for handwritten treasures away from prying eyes and hands. How much does your own diary cost? Truly, it is priceless, but not at all because of the beautiful expensive cover - the time and heart invested in its pages will eventually make this small notebook or book a family heirloom, which subsequent generations will cherish with tenderness.
Conclusion
And why is all this needed? This question returns to the first point of the article - goals. The set goal of keeping a diary will become the motivation for filling it out: feelings and thoughts, perception of people and events, analysis of one’s own strengths and weaknesses, fears, achievements and actions.
Personal diary- this is a letter to yourself in the future and news for yourself from the past
The diary will become not only a way of self-expression: it will help distracted and fussy people to organize both thoughts and actions, teach planning, consistency and structuring in the presentation of their judgments. Some people need to make notes for the development of detailed memory and insurance against senile sclerosis.
A personal diary is not just a biography and a psychotherapeutic attempt to understand oneself, find harmony and: in some cases it is necessary for a detailed assessment of your life. Keeping a diary involves a person's attempt to become better, wiser and make fewer mistakes in the future.
2 February 2014, 15:34We all document our lives in one way or another. through social media, blogs or even personal diaries. Many people have heard about the therapeutic effect of a diary and think that they know how to keep it correctly in order to get the maximum benefit from intuitive introspection. In fact, with written practices, everything is a little more complicated: not all entries have a therapeutic effect, not all diary systems can be suitable for a specific person (some can even be harmful), and their tasks are also different. To understand where to start keeping a useful diary, what is the difference between different methods and what rules to follow so as not to harm yourself, we have prepared a short reference.
Masha Vorslav
Who and why
came up with the idea of keeping a diary
Before man had modern means communication, writing was his main means of communication - not only with the outside world, but also with himself. The diaries were kept in different ways and about different things: Japanese ladies-in-waiting recorded the internal kitchen imperial court, Quakers - from their spiritual explorations, Mayflower passengers - from the hardships of a transatlantic voyage. Across the centuries-old abyss, all these letters are united by a psychological component: regardless of the content of the diary, its side property has always been a projection of the author’s inner state. Depending on how disciplined, eloquent and honest the writer was, a more or less clear portrait of him emerged. The fact that it can not only be interesting to outside readers (in the case of memoirs or biographies), but also useful for deep self-analysis, was one of the first to think about the American social worker and psychotherapist Ira Progoff, who developed an accessible system of therapy and self-help (in well-known limits).
In the 1950s, that is, at the beginning of his career, Progoff decided to build on the ideas of depth psychology and studied the trajectories of its prominent adherents. He was most interested in Jung's approach: he, unlike Sigmund Freud, Otto Rank and Alfred Adler, believed that any client has sufficient resources for self-knowledge and self-help. But Jung insisted on the need for expensive analytical therapy, which not everyone could afford, and the tangible participation of a psychotherapist (according to Progoff, the charisma of a doctor only prevents a person from understanding his own unique system of symbols and reflexes, the existence of which Jung insisted on). Progoff's humanistic approach pushed him to search for a spiritual practice that would allow even a poor person to receive psychological assistance. In addition, it was important for him to put the doctor’s figure into the shadows as much as possible, so that during therapy the person would rely on his own resources and be guided by his own assessments.
What is a method
Progoff and why he is needed
Progoff found nothing like this, so he had to invent his own system. Over the years of practice and teaching, he realized what personal diaries were missing in order not only to smooth out momentary emotions, but also to become the core of therapy (predecessors considered the diary only an auxiliary tool). According to Progoff, a personal diary is often just a platform for recording what happened, and not a way of self-knowledge. “When a diary is associated only with a specific goal (finding a new job, for example), it loses its meaning after achieving it. With him you can comfortably go through a specific period, but not explore your personality,” the therapist explained. The method of intensive structured journaling helps to examine a person's life as a single story, understand your past experiences and evaluate future prospects. In other words, to understand relationships and work problems, cope with stress and understand how to live on - after a traumatic situation and in general.
Progoff's method is to regularly keep a diary, thematically divided into four parts (by the way, the notebook should not be sewn, but on rings, so that pages can be added where necessary at any time). If you relax well before writing and don’t get distracted, you will be able to capture not only rational reasoning, but also “twilight” observations - that is, those that come to the mind of any person when he is engaged in monotonous activities like running or knitting. Progoff considered "twilight perception" a very important part of therapy, allowing one to gain a more complete understanding of the past and present. In its original form, the method required the participation of a qualified facilitator to regulate group writing practices. Facilitators are still trained to this day in journal therapy centers (The Center of Journal Therapy, Therapeutic Writing Institute for example), but thanks to the fact that Progoff eventually published the manual “At a Journal Workshop”, today anyone can keep a structured journal without resorting to for help from the center. True, in this case you need to be especially vigilant and monitor your psychological state yourself: it’s quite normal to be sad for a couple of hours after writing, but if it gets worse with each immersion in yourself, you should consult a psychotherapist (this rule is general for any writing practice) .
What is the difference
writing practices
Most writing practices are aimed not at analyzing the whole life, but at solving pressing problems. In other words, if your plans do not include disciplined self-knowledge, but you need to understand emotions or understand why an old trauma stirs your soul, Progoff’s method will not work, but you can turn to the ideas of other psychotherapists.
Near-therapeutic services that offer writing from 280 characters to 750 words per day deserve special attention. In essence, they are no different from a regular personal diary, except for a slightly more complex motivation system. But 750 words is three pages of text and a large enough volume for the writer to dive too deeply into own experiences. Therapists warn that unstructured, time-bound, and topic-based writing is dangerous for the most traumatized people: They usually fail to recognize when to stop and not delve further into a painful topic. Psychotherapist Caitlin Adams noticed this and suggested this to some of her clients. simple diagram: For writing practice, they only had to complete a sentence like “Right now I want to...”, “My greatest fear is...”, “Today I feel...”. If the writers had a desire to reveal a thought, Caitlin measured out 5 minutes - just enough, in her opinion, for the notes to have a therapeutic effect without putting the psyche at risk. This rule can be adopted by anyone who wants to get into the habit of keeping a diary, but is afraid of its depressive effect. A diary is not the place to squeeze more or “better” out of yourself, and even short, regular entries will be useful for character analysis.
Does it replace
diary psychotherapy
A diary can be either a central or an auxiliary element of psychotherapy. The usefulness of expressing thoughts on paper (or in a word processor) is unlikely to be denied by at least one psychotherapist, but not everyone will build all their work around it. In any case, for those who really need the help of a specialist, even the most structured diary will not be enough (but perhaps it will show that something is wrong and encourage you to make an appointment with a doctor). Ideally, any person should turn to psychologists and psychotherapists from time to time, at least to make sure that everything is fine, but if this is not possible, you can try to study yourself on your own - subject to all necessary safety precautions.
How to choose a technique
and how not to harm yourself
mind mapping can also be used for a diary (in situations where a cool solution or an uncluttered look is required, such cards are just the thing). When searching on your own, you should approach with caution only those sources that recommend free writing: the absence of any instructions on the topic or time can be unsafe in cases where the diary author is trying to work through a traumatic situation or is in a depressed state .
Recommendations for keeping diaries are more or less the same everywhere. It's important to remember that journaling is only there to make you feel better—that is, any long-term deterioration in your mood will be reason enough to stop writing (at least for a while) or choose a different technique. You need to write in a calm state, in a place where you will not be disturbed, and at a time when you will not worry about unfinished business. One of the most important requirements of any diary technique is honesty with yourself, so it would be a good idea to make sure that no one ever finds your diary. Another important thing comes from the requirement of honesty: personal text does not have to be ideal from a stylistic point of view; it may contain errors, missing punctuation marks and foreign words, the main thing is that it conveys as accurately as possible what you would like to record.
Every day a person has to wear masks: a strict teacher, but a kind father; an insecure middle manager by day, but a great stand-up comedian by night. It is very easy to get confused in your personalities. Self-knowledge is considered an excellent way of psychotherapy, and one of its powerful tools is a personal diary. Conducting it will help you recognize your strengths and weaknesses, avoid repeating past mistakes, and learn to express your thoughts.
What is a personal diary
A personal diary is a way of expressing one’s thoughts, helping to convey events occurring in a person’s life, giving them an emotional overtones, analyzing them, and drawing conclusions. It is created on paper or electronically. Some psychologists recommend conducting it by hand, but in the age of electronic technology this does not matter, the main thing is that the person is comfortable.
It is not necessary to make notes every day, but it is advisable to write down all important events, triumphs and defeats, experiences and joys, even minor ones. Keeping a personal diary is at the same time a confession, a psychotherapy session, and planning.
Why do you need a personal diary?
Memory games
Memory is arranged in a very interesting way. A person experiences some events and it seems to him that he remembers them thoroughly. But over time, the picture becomes cloudy and the brain fills in the gaps in its own way. This is often observed when breaking up with a loved one. In the first days, only good memories come to mind, how wonderful it was together, what great emotions were felt at that time.
But once you look into the diary, it may turn out that everything was completely different. Resentments, suspicions, premonitions recorded in the diary will help you survive the breakup and understand that this is the right step to which you have been moving from page to page.
It also happens the other way around: resentment clouds the mind, and a person refuses to remember the good. And then the diary will become a wonderful reminder of ancient times. It will help you cope with anger and see everything in real light.
Dump for negative emotions
There is a useful psychological technique. You need to write by hand everything that makes you angry, upset, ruins your mood, or prevents you from moving forward. And then tear, crumple, throw away, burn or destroy the sheet in any other way. This is how a person frees himself from negativity. The diary has almost the same function, with only one difference: you shouldn’t destroy it.
Most often, after throwing out emotions on paper, even electronic, relief comes. It is not always appropriate to express your point of view to the offenders’ faces. This most often happens during a conflict with superiors, partners, or clients. The diary will bear everything.
Getting to know yourself
Sometimes a person does not fully know himself. It’s not for nothing that Fyodor Dostoevsky wrote: “The main thing is, don’t lie to yourself.” On the pages of a diary you can be yourself – weak, nasty, angry, cynical. The more honest the better. At first it will be difficult, because this can lead to disappointment in yourself, your goodness, your correctness. What is written can be scary.
For example, hatred of parents, envy of your best friend. But you absolutely must do this, because this is the only way to see your shortcomings and correct them. You also need to praise yourself! This helps to discover hidden abilities.
My own psychologist
They go to psychologists to sort out their problems. But the therapist never gives answers, he helps the person ask himself the right questions and answer them yourself. The diary does the same thing, only the person himself acts as a psychologist.
Having dealt with the previous point and getting to know yourself, you can begin to analyze. What exactly causes anger, why does it happen, at what moments, what becomes the catalyst? This will allow you to get to the bottom of the true source of the negativity.
It is also worth looking at the positive aspects. What does victory taste like, what feelings does it evoke, what does it push you towards? What causes a good mood, what brings happiness? Sources of positivity need to be nurtured and maintained in “working” condition.
Goal achiever
It is especially useful to set yourself goals for the year or month. For example, on December 31, you can make a list of goals in your diary for which you have been given 365 days. For those who are especially undisciplined, it is better to start with goals for a month or even a week, so it will be better to see what is constantly being put off until later.
At the end of the specified period, you should analyze what has already been done and what it led to. The analysis can also be carried out during the period, for example, to remind yourself that the jog never started, and no one looked at the advertisements for a new job.
By the way, the recorded goal is put on autopilot. This makes it easier for the brain to perceive it as a real intention. You can even go further and come up with a plan to achieve it. Moreover, the more detailed everything is described, the better.
For example, you need to renovate the bathroom. The chain of achieving this goal could be something like this: look at the tiles on the Internet, go to the store and compare prices, call a specialist, meet with a plumber. And continue on the same principle. It is necessary to write what exactly has been done from the list.
Protector from old rakes
Not all people are able to learn from mistakes. But if it does, it will be much easier. Life is designed in such a way that events repeat themselves. We can say that this is how the Universe checks how much a person has learned a lesson in the past, and how he will behave now.
For example, a girl complains that she constantly comes across guys of the same type. If she already has experience with them, she knows what to expect from them. Yes, and besides, she was smart and kept a diary all this time; it wouldn’t be difficult for her to analyze the recorded experience and do everything differently in a new relationship. First, it may turn out that it is not always about the “bad guy.” Secondly, it will help you not to get involved in an initially failed relationship.
Future memoirs
It doesn’t matter at all whether the recordings become public or remain a hidden secret forever. Writing a diary will help you learn to structure your thoughts and express them correctly. To do this, you need to periodically re-read the diary, you can even make editorial changes to it, the main thing is not to change the essence of what was written, because the value of thoughts lies in their relevance at the time of writing.
Back to the past
Sometimes it’s very nice to plunge into memories and read old entries with a smile. You may be surprised to notice dramatic changes in your personality, and simply feel nostalgic, re-experiencing the emotions that you experienced in the past.
A personal diary will become an assistant, friend, psychologist. This is a secret door to the world of the subconscious. It must be carried out consciously, only in this case it will be beneficial.
Do you want your life to change for the better? Just start keeping a journal. Find out 7 real reasons for keeping a regular diary and why you should do it.
Those who have never kept a diary themselves usually have a rather stereotypical idea of this subject: a kind of colorful notebook with little frills, where a girl of puberty writes down all sorts of girlish stuff, generously flavored with various stickers, drawings, dried flowers and butterflies.
I dare to assure you that this is far from the case. The diaries were kept very respectable and famous people. For example, Leonardo da Vinci, Einstein, Leo Tolstoy, Napoleon, etc.
It is clear that they did not write down all the banal things there, such as: what did I eat for breakfast today, or what a stupid cow this is..., and then they did not post this nonsense on Facebook or Instagram. They kept diaries, first of all, to identify their strengths and weaknesses, that is, for self-development and self-improvement.
Freewriting or diary?
Now it has become fashionable to get carried away freewriting. This is the so-called free letter. Something that spontaneously spills out of your head onto paper. Free flow of thoughts. And not necessarily coherent or intelligible at all. Frank gibberish in the spirit of "Alice in Wonderland" is also suitable.
A typical option is morning pages, proposed as a psychological exercise by the bestselling author of The Artist's Way, Julia Cameron. Here's what she writes:
“What are morning pages? In the very general view they can be defined as a stream of consciousness, placed on three sheets of handwritten text: “Eh, here it is morning again... There is absolutely nothing to write about. It would be nice to wash the curtains. And yesterday I took the clothes out of the washing machine? La-la-la...” More down-to-earth, they can be called “brain drains,” because this is precisely their intended purpose...”
Diary- something more substantial. Its main feature is conscious, thoughtful writing of the text.
Freewriting is more of a meditative practice, unloading the brain and releasing emotional charges. Which in itself is not only useful, but also stimulates creativity, because it removes some psychological blocks. But that's all.
You can do much more useful things in a diary, including these, of course.
According to Julia:
“Such “writing” is simply a means, a tool. Nothing more is required from you - just move your hand over the paper and write down everything that comes to mind. And don’t be afraid to say something too stupid, pathetic, senseless or wonderful - everything will work.
Morning pages don't have to be clever, although sometimes they are. But, most likely, this will not happen, which no one will ever know - except you. No one else is allowed to read them, and neither should you, at least for the first two months...”
As you can see, the differences are quite significant. However, I highly recommend reading Julia Cameron's book. And if you are very interested in the topic of writing, then her book “The Right to Write” is simply a must-have!
What are the benefits of keeping a diary?
1. Self-analysis. Keeping a diary helps you understand yourself, your thoughts, ideas, aspirations, preferences, desires/dislikes, etc.
Even the above definitions already a lot. Can you imagine how much of this “good” is spinning in your head every day?
They say that on average we have about 60,000 thoughts per day. A diary allows us not only to organize them, but also, over time, to show us in dynamics who we are and where we are going.
2. Memory development. Even simply remembering the events of the past day already helps us push back dementia that is emerging in the future, or even avoid it altogether.
Can you easily remember what happened yesterday right now? And three days ago? What about a week? I'm sure most will have a hard time remembering this morning, let alone yesterday.
Keeping a diary allows you to retrain your memory and even begin to remember things that you forgot about a long time ago.
3. Finding new ideas. When you keep a diary, you automatically enter a kind of trance-like meditative state in which everything is possible. This is where they open Creative skills, and new ideas are generated on the fly.
These can be either flashes of insight or the result of logical reasoning, when you consistently write down your thoughts and begin to see the picture more clearly and consciously.
I always immediately write down such ideas in a separate file, because if this is not done, then the ideas just as quickly disappear from memory.
4. Setting goals. In the most general form, these are, first of all, plans for the current day. I always write in the morning what I intend to do today. I’m writing it down without much detail, just outlines. But, of course, you can also write down global, far-reaching plans and goals in your diary. There are no restrictions here.
5. Clarifying Emotions. This is a very useful practice. Sometimes we ourselves cannot really figure out what we feel in relation to events, people, relationships, etc. Thousands of scraps of thoughts and feelings are spinning in our heads, like a broken record.
In your diary, you write it all down, and it somehow begins to organize itself into some kind of intelligible picture, which then allows you to see the situation as a whole, as if from the outside. And then decide how to live with all this further.
6. Getting inspired. When you write down all your victories, achievements and simply joyful events, then you accumulate them. In the future, this “piggy bank” will become your constant source of inspiration in terms of inspiration, and in life in general. Especially in times of blues or loss of strength. Rereading our achievements and positive events will constantly return us to a good mood and stimulate us to new victories.
7. Thinking skill training. Today, few people know how to think consistently. This is an inevitable consequence of modern clip thinking and information overload. Thoughts are jumping around like fleas, try to hold them back! We have forgotten how to think about one thing for a long time, preferring to jump around and not delve into the topic. Some thought flies in, and we are already happy with it, without going into details. By the way, the entire advertising industry is built on this.
The man stopped thinking. They showed him the “candy” and he immediately swallowed it. Have you noticed how often now you forget literally in a minute what you were thinking about earlier? A interesting ideas, if you don’t write them down, they immediately disappear without a trace, so you can’t even remember them even if you wanted to.
This didn't happen before. This is what it is - clip thinking, and not early sclerosis at all. Most people living in large cities are now infected with clip thinking.
Keeping a diary allows you to learn to develop your ideas and thoughts, re-introduces the skill of thoughtful thinking, building logical chains and conclusions.
Interesting ideas, if you don’t write them down, immediately disappear without a trace, so you can’t even remember them even if you try.
8. Preserving Memories. Often people don't value their memories very much. Well, there was something. Something is already remembered too well, and what is not necessary is forgotten.
In fact, memories are a very useful thing.
Firstly, these are the keys to our inner “cockroaches”. We don't forget anything, to be honest. Everything we see, hear and feel is stored in our subconscious. Sometimes it is memories that help to reveal what was hidden many years ago and, thereby, solve some current problems.
Secondly, our memory has characteristic feature- forget the bad and remember mostly the good. That is why sometimes I am so drawn to return to school, college, or the army.
We know, in general, that sometimes there were not the most rosy events: someone offended or insulted us, we were afraid of something, we were apprehensive, we were nervous, and even, perhaps, we fought with someone. But we prefer not to remember this, and remember only pleasant things.
But this is precisely what often clouds our minds and does not allow us to soberly evaluate the lessons of the past. And because of this, we may continue to act recklessly or unwisely.
Therefore, entries in the diary allow us to see the whole picture and, most importantly, remember what we felt and thought about then.
Thirdly, this is memory. About Us. Yes, a diary is a purely personal thing, not for prying eyes. But those who have already had the practice of keeping diaries will agree: you still thought that someday, when you are most likely no longer around, your descendants or friends will still read your diary.
It is even possible that at such moments you immediately began to think about what is worth writing and what is better to hide, especially if it is something that makes you ashamed or puts you in an unfavorable light.
Or maybe, on the contrary, you secretly thought that future readers would appreciate you in a new way, and finally understand that you were at least a genius and a visionary, only unrevealed and misunderstood by other people. Let them regret later that they didn’t appreciate you :) Psychologically, this is a kind of immortality, if you like.
“Some moments in life are wonderful, some are even more wonderful, and some are worth writing about.”
Charles Bukowski
There is another very useful factor in keeping a diary, directly related to such a popular concept today as "Here and now". The fact is that even when describing events of the past and your thoughts about the future in your diary, you are doing it in present tense and analyze them exactly in present.
Thus, you turn off the barrel organ in your head, which scrolls through all these thoughts endlessly, and begin to reason. This is strikingly different from the usual mental chewing gum, when thoughts simply spin without a way out.
Rules for keeping a diary
There is only one rule for keeping a diary - no rules!
For example, he himself kept his diaries exclusively in expensive notebooks, explaining that his ideas worth millions of dollars should not gather dust in cheap notebooks for a few cents.
And yet, there are several useful tips How to keep a diary effectively.
- Truthfulness. You keep a diary for yourself, not for the public. Hiding something from yourself, and even more so lying to yourself, is the last thing. If you do this, then what is the point of your writing?
- Safety. From point one comes the requirement for the safe storage of your diary. If it is a paper medium, then you should not leave it anywhere in visible places, but if it is electronic, then make sure that only you personally have access to the files.
- Detail. You should record all important events, feelings and thoughts, in all possible detail. If you write down only key points, deliberately omitting details, then you can lose sight of seemingly insignificant details. But later it may turn out that these details are not enough to clarify the whole picture. Of course, here you need to know when to stop and not go overboard with the little things.
- Time to take notes. It is usually recommended to write everything down in the evening before going to bed. Consistently recall the events of the day and carefully record everything in your diary. But this is a general recommendation. Some people find it more convenient to write early in the morning, remembering yesterday and making plans for the current day. Someone will want to keep notes intermittently, throughout the day, as events occur. This is all at your own discretion. Whichever is more convenient for you. Personally, I open my diary every morning, re-read my entries from yesterday, then write out a plan for today. And then I return to the diary in the evening and write down everything else.
- date and time. It is necessary! No, you must agree, what good are notes if you don’t remember when they were made? Therefore, strict accounting! Just don't forget to put the date. You don’t even have to specify the time, it’s not that important.
- Re-reading the diary. Of course, you can keep a diary without rereading it. There will still be some benefit from this. But it is much more effective to work with a diary, constantly re-reading old entries. It's better to do it in this order:
- Every morning we re-read the entries from the previous day (trains memory);
- Every week we re-read the entries for the week;
- Every month we re-read the entries for the month;
- Every quarter we re-read the records for the quarter (it’s convenient to tie them to the seasons);
- And finally, at the end of the year, we re-read the entries for the entire year.
Moreover, if you don’t need to analyze yesterday’s entries (too little time has passed), then all other rereadings should be combined with analysis of what you read. You can even make special notes in the margins for this or add a postscript.
And finally, one more note. There is an opinion that records must be kept manually on paper. They say that this is due to the synchronous work of the writing hand and the brain and their somehow complex interaction that develops your creativity.
I won’t argue, perhaps there is something in this. As “British scientists” say:))) I’ll just note that I personally don’t mind writing by hand.
At my previous job I had to write a lot by hand. Sooooo much! So much that after a decade and a half, my beautiful handwriting turned into some kind of barely legible ugliness. And at the same time my hand was terribly tired.
Nowadays I prefer to type on my laptop. It is not only modern, but also very convenient. Moreover, I note that both hands are involved, and not just the leading one. So consider that the brain and hands interact twice as efficiently as when using only one hand. Isn't that right?
In addition, records in electronic form allow you not only to quickly find the necessary information, but also to conveniently link it together with hyperlinks, add various media materials, etc.
Well, storing and editing such records is much more convenient than a mountain of paper notebooks. One small flash drive is enough.
At the same time, you can and should save copies on various media. Just in case. Try making copies from paper notebooks. That's the same thing. And in general, take care of the forest!
How to keep a diary constantly?
Consistency in keeping a diary is the main condition for its effectiveness. If you return to it only occasionally, it will be of little use.
Keeping a diary should be turned into a healthy habit, like brushing your teeth in the morning. At first, simple enthusiasm can serve as motivation. It won't last long, though. But over time, you yourself will notice improvements in your own life that will occur thanks to keeping a diary.
And then the awareness of these positive changes will become motivation. And you will want their continuation and development. This will become your new good habit. Go for it!
“A diary is an opportunity to write for a truly ideal reader—your future self.”
Do you keep diaries? And if so, in what form - paper or electronic? Write in the comments.
