Michael Grothaus
Writer and freelance journalist. Founder and general manager SITU Scale.
I've been doing personal for years. Twelve, to be precise. When I tell people that I keep a diary, some begin to think that these are some kind of notes related to work. Others imagine a teenage version in the spirit of: “Dear diary! Now I feel ... ”And that's all.
When I first started keeping a diary, the first page was a real torment. But today, journaling is one of my favorite parts of my day: writing down my thoughts makes me feel better both physically and mentally.
Surprisingly, improving your wellbeing with journaling isn't just psychosomatics. This is the business of those who deal with it. According to Dr. James Pennebaker, a psychologist and leading expert in expressive writing, journaling helps strengthen immune cells, T lymphocytes. Thanks to this, mood improves, social activity increases. Also manifested beneficial influence on the quality of close relationships.
Most research on expressive writing is done with metrics. physical health that allows you to track changes. As a result of numerous scientific experiments it became known that due to keeping a diary begins to function better the immune system, is normalized blood pressure, improves, reduces stress. After several months of journaling, people begin to see fewer doctors. Other studies have found that this activity promotes faster wound healing and greater mobility among people with arthritis. And the list goes on.
So what is journaling? It is the amalgamation of factual personal accountability with the exploration of one's own, sometimes irrational, but always important.
giphy.com There are weeks when I take notes every day, and sometimes I don’t write a single word for a month. The point of journaling is not only to organize your thoughts - you can just think them over carefully, and this will also bring certain benefits. When keeping a diary, it is the act of writing down thoughts that yields the most results.
When you take notes, the left, rational hemisphere of your brain is at work. While it is busy, the right brain can do what it does best: create, anticipate, and feel. Keeping a diary removes all psychological blocks and allows us to use all the capabilities of our brain to better understand ourselves and the world around us.
Maud Purcell, Psychotherapist, Writing Expert
Intrigued already? I think yes. But maybe you are like me 12 years ago when I didn't know where to start. So here are 8 tips to help you master the art of journaling in no time.
1. Use a pen and paper
The modern world is keyboards and touch screens. But when it comes to journaling, there are more advantages to using a regular pen and paper.
I have found that most of my patients intuitively understand that writing down thoughts by hand is more effective than using a keyboard. And research confirms this. It turns out that during writing, the reticular activating system is stimulated - that area of the brain that filters and brings to the fore the information on which we focus.
Maud Purcell
There are additional benefits to handwriting. This keeps us from editing our own thoughts. Although many people in their 20s and 30s have already lost the muscle memory of handwriting and this activity may seem slow and inconvenient to you, it will not take long before you will feel comfortable writing by hand again.
When I manage to convince young people, especially 20-year-olds, to take notes in good old fashion, they are always amazed at the result, because this activity really calms and helps to cope with problems.
Maud Purcell
2. If you don't like writing with a pen, find the right tool for you.
Perhaps, having tried to write by hand, you will realize that this option is not for you. There is nothing wrong with that.
Fortunately, there is a huge variety of options today. Personally, I prefer to keep my diary by hand using a V5 Hi-Techpoint pen with a very thin nib. Yes, just that specific option. I think this is the perfect tool to help my thoughts flow from my head to the pages of a Moleskine notebook.
But, if paper and pen are not for you, turn to their technological counterparts. Standard editors (Word from Microsoft or Pages from Apple) and more minimalistic solutions like. Perhaps you prefer touch screens. In general, look for the most convenient solution for yourself.
3. Set a reasonable limit for yourself.
giphy.com Previously, people set themselves a limit on the amount of writing, for example, 3 pages every day. But experts agree that more effective solution there will be a time limit when keeping a diary.
Consider rationally how much time per day you can set aside for this activity in your busy schedule. Even if at first it is only 5 minutes.
The limited time frame helps people focus on a specific goal when they start journaling. See in front of you 3 blank pages it may not be easy, and it will end before it starts. And the time limit will not seem like an ordeal.
4. You don't need to be Shakespeare
Most (regardless of what they write: diary notes, an article for popular magazine or a voluminous novel) are usually mistaken in the belief that everything they write should be deep and sensual. And when, with this delusion, you start keeping a journal, be sure that it will lead to failure. Such activity is directed outside, towards others, and you must keep a diary for yourself personally. True depth comes naturally, by itself, even by accident. Pretentiousness occurs when people deliberately try to appear smarter.
Shakespeare was a great writer because of his natural talent and careful study of human nature. But what's good for him doesn't have to be for you. You don't need to showcase your literary talent. You just need to write.
I advise my patients to forget about spelling, punctuation and just pour their stream of consciousness onto paper. Thus, journaling will help bring to the fore information that is stored a little deeper than consciousness. Let it pour out.
Maud Purcell
5. Don't edit
One of the goals of journaling is to explore areas of your consciousness that you may not want to venture into. Diary entries are not articles. No one will check your spelling, grammar, punctuation or content structure. When you are editing, you start to think and focus on the presentation, rather than on your thoughts.
The essence of journaling is to write without thinking. Thinking, we interfere with our intuition, and, therefore, the whole meaning of the diary is lost. A diary can help us explore paths that we cannot consciously discover. We can find extremely interesting topics if we stop thinking for a while.
6. Take your diary in the same place every day.
giphy.com You don't have to lock yourself in a secluded ivory tower to record your thoughts. However, if you have a specific place where you will lead The Diary, it will help you create better introspective notes.
I have a favorite cafe in London where I like to write. Even when it is noisy there with clinking cups and talking customers, I find the background noise soothing. He helps me immediately tune in to the right mood, and I dive into my diary. If a cafe isn't for you, try writing in a quiet room at home or on a park bench.
Let it be an inviting place, where it is cozy, where there are things that inspire you, where you can see them, touch them or smell them: flowers, sentimental things, memorabilia or pleasant drinks - your choice.
Maud Purcell
7. Leave room for content
When I buy a new Moleskine, I always skip the first two or three pages before starting a diary. When I fill out an entire notebook (usually a year), I wait a while and then re-read it.
As I reread, I highlight notes or thoughts that I think are important, mark the page numbers or date of writing, and then put them at the very beginning of the diary. This is how the content gradually develops, thanks to which I can easily find important entries. It helps me a lot when I face difficulties. I can watch myself run into problems in the past that seemed insurmountable to me, but which I was eventually able to cope with.
The experts disagree on whether a table of contents is needed in the diary or not.
“Some people like structure, some don't,” says Pennebaker. - Someone likes to re-read what has been written, someone does not. The key is to find a way that works for you. ”
Purcell has a different point of view: “I love this idea. Of course, some parts of the journal will feel more relevant to your life as a whole. And quick access to these notes will be useful, especially in confusing or life. It's great to be able to remind yourself of how you've dealt with seemingly desperate situations in the past. ”
8. Keep the journal away from prying eyes.
Find a safe and secure place for your journal. For this activity to be truly effective, you need to feel as free as possible and write things down that you cannot tell even your best friend.
A personal diary is not a letter to another person. This is not a document by which others should judge you. Want to ? Good. Write a book. The diary is just for you alone. If what you write might hurt the feelings of others or harm your reputation, destroy the diary or hide it in a safe place.
Remember that you are only writing for yourself.
Life goes away quickly. Today we are young and energetic, and waking up one day, we understand that the former "charge" is gone. Most important things are our experiences caused by certain events taking place in our life.
Don't let your life just go by like a flood of experiences that you won't remember. It's never too late to stop to grasp their meaning. Keeping a journal can help you with this.
Diary now so as not to forget later
Because life moves so fast, it is important to record how it goes. There are so many little things that happen to us every day that shape us as a person. Accounting for these experiences, how they occur, can show us how we arrived at important decisions in later life.
A diary for processing the senses
Another fun journaling practice is to process your emotions to help you move on in life. For example, if there is someone close who offended you, or it even happened that someone died, and you did not have a chance to tell them what you wanted. Writing in a journal a “letter” addressed to them instead of keeping the feelings inside of you can be a great thing to do to process your emotions.
It is not at all necessary to store such works. Some people write them for the sake of transferring their feelings from their heads to paper, in order to burn or destroy.
Diary of your successes
Another great thing to write in your journal is all of your progress. In the event of setbacks, it is nice to go back in time with notes and see that you are not a complete failure and that you have something to offer humanity. We can be very hard on ourselves, especially if we fail at something, feel that we are not understood by others, or do not live up to our own expectations. Having a detailed account of our successes helps to get out of the negative rut and move forward in life.
Diary to understand your mistakes
Keeping a diary of failure is just as important as keeping a diary of success. First, we can learn from our failures. It is insane to do the same and hope for a different result. Writing down your failures and learning from them is extremely important. This will prevent us from going crazy and making the same mistakes over and over.
Secondly, it is important to understand that we cannot all be amazing and amazing every second of every day. Understanding what you can and can't keep you balanced and realistic. It also gives permission to make mistakes sometimes without being extremely hard on yourself.
How to keep a diary
Now that you know the benefits of journaling, here are some tips on how to keep a journal.
Write at least once a week. Ideal, of course, if you take notes on a daily basis. You can even take a few small notes throughout the day. But if you write once a week, every week, then that's great.
In order to take notes, you can use special programs such as Day One, the usual text file or just a pen and paper. The classic option, of course, is a diary in the form of a beautiful notebook. If you don't want to write, you can make audio or video recordings. The cost of storage is getting cheaper and cheaper, so keeping your life story in audio or visual form is now more doable than ever. There is something special about getting your thoughts out loud. It may seem crazy to talk to yourself, but before giving up the idea, please at least is worth a try, especially if you don't like to sit and “creak” over text.
What associations arise in your head when you hear the word "diary"?
I’m sure it’s either something to do with school, or with romantic girls who secretly write poetry in a notebook under their pillow. Meanwhile, keeping a personal diary can be useful not only for schoolchildren and writers, but also for you. Moreover, it can really. Below you will find six reasons to start doing daily entries own life.
In our digital time, when the tools for recording information are undergoing a real revolution, the forms of journaling can be very different and largely depend on your preferences. Someone may want to record a video or sound clips for this, others will prefer to use one of the many special programs or, still others will stay true to a good paper diary and pen.
It doesn't matter what tools you use, the main thing is to strictly adhere to two principles that have remained unchanged since the days of candles and goose feathers. Firstly, the diary must be personal, that is, inaccessible to a wide range of people, and secondly, you must be extremely honest with yourself, otherwise it all loses all meaning.
So how can you benefit from journaling?
How do you really feel?
A diary can help you understand and articulate your feelings, usually buried deep within. Modern life often has such a pace that a person rushes like a horse in a race, ignoring his emotions and sensations. As a result, we have constant stress and mental breakdowns. You will now have a legitimate time for introspection, which will give you a deeper and more realistic view of yourself, your life and work.
Point of view
A flurry of information is falling on us from all sides, which contains dozens of the most diverse opinions on different topics... The only trouble is that these are all other people's opinions. What do you personally think? You have time to formulate your point of view on important topics days?
Give a steam out
Sometimes there are really tough days. You are annoyed, confused, defeated, angry, confused. It is even possible that you cannot talk to someone close about it. Keeping everything inside will drive you crazy. Express your emotions on paper. Then read it and smile.
Life is cool!
We read and hear many fascinating stories about different people. Why not write a bestseller called My Life Story? Imagine that your diary will be published after ... well, sometime later, and try to fill it with such events so that future readers cannot come off. This is a great way to make your life more interesting and deep.
Hello my Name Is…
Yes, do you really know who you are? Are you sure about your desires and goals? Get to know yourself in the present. Many people are so intertwined with job and family responsibilities that for them the delivery of the annual report and the purchase of a fur coat for their wife can overshadow their actual dreams. It's time to sit down and think (and be sure to write down) your real aspirations. And a lot, a lot, carefully, but strictly, erase from your life.
Message
Imagine that you were digging through the trash in the attic and found your father's personal diary. Throwing everything and not being able to tear yourself away, flipping page after page until the evening. Here he meets your mother ... here is your birth ... here he is worried about work ... complains about his health ... Can you imagine?
So why are you depriving your children of these sensations? They need to learn about you and who you really were.
Do you keep a diary?
Classic notes in a notebook have not lost their relevance to the end; they are still popular among school girls and adults of different sex and status. At the same time, many people are not going to start writing down their thoughts, no matter whether in a notebook or in an electronic document, although the benefits of this process are tangible.
This process is not in vain called the personal diary. This is something deeply personal - emotions, dreams, plans. Often entries in a notebook become witnesses to the stormy tears of schoolgirls in love and the first business combinations of young entrepreneurs. This leads to the first reason for keeping a personal diary - it helps to express emotions and structure thoughts.
Interesting! Emotional people psychologists advise keeping records in order to subsequently evaluate yourself from the outside and learn to manage feelings.
Another reason is the possibility retain memories of the situation with those emotions that the writer experienced then... Several years later, many people read their notes with pleasure, remembering funny and sad moments from life, plans and dreams.
The third reason for keeping a personal journal is the ability to express all secret feelings, indecent thoughts and pent-up anger... Sometimes it’s impossible to yell at an unjust boss, take revenge on an offender, or have an affair with someone. Notes in a notebook or electronic document they allow on their pages to do whatever they want with the boss, with the offender, and with other people. Thus, it relieves tension, while at the same time allowing to assess the situation from the outside.
How to start journaling
For some adolescents and adults, the question of how to start keeping a personal diary does not arise. This happens spontaneously during the period of falling in love or life troubles. Sometimes mothers try to start keeping personal records about their children or schoolchildren themselves at the request of doctors and teachers.
Another group of persons are junior and middle school girls... For them, it is a hobby or a mass phenomenon when disseminated at school. There are also people who understand the need to keep a diary or feel lonely. All of this divides the recordkeepers into two groups:
- Spontaneous.
- Conscious.
People in the first category are not interested in the rules and fictitious conventions for keeping personal records. They just write where they want and the way they want. The result is the most sincere and emotional diaries, but difficult for later reading by the owners themselves.
The second group is interested in how to keep a diary according to the rules, what requirements should be presented to it and what it should contain. Hardly anyone can give such precise recommendations, they are too individual, although you can roughly learn how to keep personal records.
How to keep records correctly
Filling in a paper version with your thoughts or an electronic one is an individual choice. The same can be said about the rules for filling out the diary. It is important to learn one thing - it should be convenient.
Some people are more suited to quickly write down their thoughts in transport, others need silence and a lot of colored pens, markers and all kinds of stickers, photographs, newspaper clippings. You just need to understand that there are no specific rules for keeping records. A personal diary is everyone's untouchable space a specific person, he can do in it what he wants and as he pleases.
What will be inside the diary greatly depends on who will keep it. Personal records of a student-programmer will be filled with tags and ideas, a housewife may complain there about poor quality household chemicals or rudeness in a store, and a businessman will write down plans for modernization or thoughts on restructuring loans.
The frequency and volume of filling will also be individual. for different people, although schoolgirls should be singled out separately. For them, a personal diary is something special, colorful and gentle, and sometimes gloomy and incredibly rude. At the same time, all people need to know only a few of the same principles by which a diary is kept.
The main requirements for a personal diary
To keep a diary, you do not need to try to do it like others, although no one forbids using other people's ideas for the design of personal records. Observing just a few requirements, anyone who wants to learn how to keep a personal diary:
Appearance, electronic or paper format, pen color, recording density and other criteria do not need rules. For each person, it will be correct to write in the way that suits him, sharing his innermost thoughts.
Carefully! It is worth separating a personal diary from a worker, school, medical, sports and other. They can be combined into one, but then the teacher, doctor or trainer will want to familiarize themselves with it. This will prevent the author from writing his innermost thoughts there sincerely, without looking back.
If a girl keeps a selection of newspaper clippings, photographs and facts of the biography of an actor or singer, then this does not prevent her from giving notes to her friends to read. At the same time, if thoughts about feelings in relation to the star are recorded there, then the girl is unlikely to want someone to read them.
Starting and keeping a diary
It was said above that the recording of the events taking place begins to be kept in 2 ways. Spontaneous keeping of personal notes does not require comments, the diary is already there and it is being filled in, such people do not need to be taught how to start keeping it.
A conscious desire to keep records makes it possible to initially foresee the nuances of the future diary, choosing the format, style and method of filling.
You should start recording with the following steps:
These are the main points of starting a diary with the exception of 2 nuances. These are not requirements, but rather guidelines for convenience. One of them concerns the paper version of the records, the other electronic. In the first case, when buying, it is advisable to purchase hardcover notebook or notebook, this will allow the diary to keep good appearance and do not wrinkle. When choosing electronic version it is necessary to determine in advance where and when the records will be made, and already starting from this, it is necessary to select the format - an online program or an inconspicuous document on a stationary computer.
For those who do not know how to spontaneously share their thoughts you can try this writing algorithm:
This structure is suitable both for the diary of a junior schoolgirl and for the records of the head of the department. large enterprise... The only difference is that events and objects will be different, as well as conclusions, descriptions of emotions, and so on. Also, do not forget that this structure is optional - items in it can be changed, rearranged, removed or added. The understanding of more convenient notes will come with time, and for this you just need to keep a diary.
Important! The main rule of journaling-it needs to be filled in! How to start it, what to write or draw in it does not matter.
Keeping a diary correctly means only making entries in a convenient format and with a comfortable frequency. You can think in advance about the number of entries per day, week, month, or simply carry it with you and share your thoughts with the diary at the first desire.
Several entries per day, if desired, are the ideal way to keep a journal. This allows you to both dump excessive emotions and immediately write down the necessary thoughts or good ideas... Not everyone can afford to keep records in this mode, someone understands the need for a diary, but cannot devote so much time to it.
For organized people, the method of filling out the diary in the evening is suitable, while the volume of the entry does not matter. You can divide the entries into morning, afternoon and evening, detailing the events of the day, or arrange everything in one text. You can also highlight what is happening at work or school, separately describing love or life experiences. There is only one rule of journaling, everything else is very individual. Over time, everyone chooses a way to fill it out in a more convenient form for him, all that remains is to start leading it.
Right now in different corners the world great amount people write something in their personal diaries. Someone, perhaps, is crying and with a trembling hand writes about an unfulfilled dream, while someone smiles and with a slight blush on their cheeks talks about a successful first date. Someone is trying to remember every second of the past day, every completed task, and someone, tired and sleepy, last strength puts in a couple of lines about a sweet girl who brought a letter to the office today. But why are they all doing this? Why keep a personal diary? What's the point of this?
Secondly, a personal diary - the best psychologist... Even if we cannot write everything, we will definitely think about it. Even the most difficult situations you can find a way out, and the diary is very helpful in this. Thinking over everything that happens, having told everything to the diary, in the end we are able to make some kind of decision. We do not always have the opportunity to speak out, and this is very important. If you keep everything only to yourself, in the end, you can bring yourself to nervous breakdown and acquire several types of psychological disorders at once. Do we need it? We should never forget that "all that we are is the result of our thoughts."
And finally, fourthly, a personal diary - our tears. It is not in vain that this reason for the existence of personal diaries was singled out by me separately from the diary of a psychologist. How much suffering, how many emotions we sometimes experience while writing a personal diary. All our tears remain on the pages of a notebook or small notebook, remain in absolutely all words, in every letter, in every comma or point. These are tears of joy, sadness, fear, resentment, happiness, anger and many other feelings. You should not be afraid of something, because if a person is honest with himself, he can be honest and open with other people. And this is my last answer to the question of why keep a personal diary.
Thus, I came to the conclusion that a personal diary can be different, its content and appearance depend only on its owner. I have said a lot, so, for sure, someone perceived it as reality, someone as naive stupidity, someone even considered it empty nonsense. And all the conclusions will be partly correct. After all, we are different, everyone has their own thoughts and their own worldview. This means that keeping a personal diary will be interesting and important not for everyone.
