The art of journaling (otherwise known by teenagers as “keeping a diary”) isn’t something new. There are many who choose to create and use diaries for various reasons. People keep diaries because they feel that there is something important enough in their lives to keep track of. However, one’s definition may differ from another’s perspective. Although many diaries are for personal satisfaction, others use it for business purposes, in order to maintain a historical record for posterity.
Why Keeping a Diary Is Good For You
Below is a list of reasons that people may choose to maintain a diary, and why you should too.
1. To record and recall events and issues
This is probably the primary reason that diaries are kept. The diary can be a valuable tool to determine many things about past circumstances and events. You can look at recorded history as a conglomeration of diaries recorded by historians. Past records are all that we have to go on when we want to know history. If they incorrect the results can be disastrous.
2. To honestly express your own thoughts and feelings
Many people are reflective and like to ponder past situations and events. Recording thoughts and feelings will help others to understand why you do what you do along with past experiences which may have been either pleasant or unpleasant.
3. To get therapeutic mental release
It often helps when we communicate our feelings and problems to others. A diary can offer an acceptable alternative to verbally venting your beliefs about people, places, or events which have happened in life. The act of writing is also therapeutic because penning problems on paper is an active practice. Whenever you write problems on paper or speak them aloud you are releasing frustration in a physical way.
4. To have better self-reflection
This is akin to meditation. You reflect on past mistakes in order to avoid repeating them in the future. I have found this type of reflection to be helpful in my personal life. I often reflect on the mistakes that I have made when dealing with circumstances, situations, and people. Sometimes people see journaling as an honest written self assessment of situations which you may have been involved in, problems that you encountered, and the steps that you took to solve them. It is often used in the workplace so that the incoming replacement will have an excellent idea of what to expect during performance of the job.
5. To gain a new perspective
Reflecting on old problems, situations, and circumstances will often help us to understand the viewpoints of others, and provide insight and knowledge that we otherwise would not receive.
6. To increase vocabulary and enhance writing skills
The only way to become more proficient at performing a task is by doing it. Practice makes perfect and keeping a diary will help you to hone your communication skills and writing proficiency. The more you write the better you become at writing.
How Diaries are Used
There are many different types of diaries along with methods of creating and maintaining them. Diaries can be used to record travel, recipes or foods, workouts, sleep, places, times and dates when fish are biting well, memoirs, prayers, and goals and achievements just to name a few.
Workout and travel logs are two examples of keeping track of historical data for future use. This type of diary is normally very valuable when it comes to improving personal performance, identifying trends and circumstances which affect performance, and keeping track of scheduled maintenance.
Modern Ways of Journaling
Modern technology has expanded the number of diary keeping options. In the not too recent past, pen and paper were the only way to write a diary but technology has given us a plethora of tools.
Some historians choose to maintain audio recordings of their activities, while many others will use social media such as facebook, while a number of people are switching to getting a full owned website. This has become easier and popular due to accessibility and many benefits of WordPress. Other people purchase their own camera, build a channel in Youtube, and tape themselves instead of writing it down. Any voice, digital, or electronic recording can be maintained indefinitely and will remain accurate and true.
Featured photo credit: Colton Sturgeon via unsplash.com
