5 Ways Keeping A Journal Can Help You De-Stress
From The Huffington Post:
Even with the popularity of blogs, Tumblrs and social media, it seems that the death of the pen-and-paper diary isn’t to be expected anytime soon. Generations of adolescents and adults have turned to journals to organization their thoughts and seek meaning in their experiences, and millennials are keeping the tradition going strong.
The therapeutic benefits of keeping a diary are many, from sparking creativity to reducing stress to promoting self-knowledge. Even if Tumblr is your medium of choice, here are five reasons to shut your laptop, sit down with a cup of tea, open a notebook and get writing. Even 20 minutes per day could result in the following benefits:
1. It forces you to unplug and recharge.
Although surfing the Web and connecting with friends on social media sites can sometimes have a relaxing impact, sometimes there’s nothing better to quiet a busy mind than to unplug your phone and computer for an hour and sit alone with your thoughts. Recent studies have found that even with the advent of social media, increasing number of teen girls are choosing to unplug and enjoy the benefits of keeping traditional diaries.
. . . .
4. Journaling can help you to “throw away” negative thoughts.
According to a study published last year in the journal Psychological Science, writing thoughts down and physically throwing them in the garbage can be an effective way to clear your mind. The study, conducted on high school students in Spain, found that in the case of the teens who wrote down negative body-image thoughts and threw them away, the negative thoughts did not later impact their body image.
“Of course, even if you throw the thoughts in a garbage can or put them in the recycle bin on the computer, they are not really gone — you can regenerate them,”Richard Petty, one of the researchers behind the study, said in a statement. “But the representations of those thoughts are gone, at least temporarily, and it seems to make it easier to not think about them.”
Link to the rest at The Huffington Post
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I’ve written in a journal for decades. Not always every day, but most days. It does help me de-stress, but especially it helps me sort out my thoughts. What do I really think about X? Is that really true, or am I following falsehood? What is really bothering me? Can I let go of it? Should I try a different tack? What else can I do?
These days, I also do a lot of story brainstorming and note-taking in my journal. I considered starting a separate fiction journal, but that would never work. Nearly every day I’ll be journaling along and have a great idea for WIP or for a new tale. Switching blank books would derail the creative flow, so I forge ahead in the one book.
One thing I’ve learned: ALWAYS LABEL THE TOP OF THE PAGE and put a box around the label once I’ve got the idea down. This is the only way I will be able to find it again. And go back before too much time elapses and type it into the idea file I keep on my computer. I lost my notes (and the story) a few times by NOT doing this.
I’d guess I’ve got at least 2 million words in my journals, but that may be a serious underestimation.
I like to write in a journal was well. It’s a good place to organize thoughts and it is a good destresser.
“ALWAYS LABEL THE TOP OF THE PAGE”
J.M.N-G,
Do you always tell the truth?
Not just about what happened, but the truth as you saw it?
I’m asking, not because I want to put *you* on the spot. It is because I have a problem with the issue of truth in journaling.
For instance, yesterday, I was pretty down on her indoors because she can be selfish over some things.
If you presented my marriage to any scale, her side of the scale contains a lot of solid gold, comfortably weighing down my efforts. So, I know I’m a lucky bloke.
Still, having a bitch about it to my journal, kinda lances the boil and stops me bringing it up later.
I prefer to live life honestly and openly, and I don’t keep secrets from her. She has the passwords to all my computer doings and she could access if she chose. (She doesn’t.)
So, whatcher all do? Blunt truth, or nicknames for the evil one who is the subject of the days skewering?
brendan
Oh, great question, Brendan! Very thought-provoking.
Do I always tell the truth as I see it, feel it, in my journal? Wow! Do I?
I’m pondering the question. I think I’d have to say no. Generally, I’m aiming for the truth. But sometimes my emotions ran so high during whatever it was that I don’t have a clear memory of what really happened, what words were actually said.
In those circumstances, I’m approximating. And I can tell that I’m approximating in my own favor.
The funny thing is that I often feel guilty after the fact.
Usually something that high on the scale of upset (doesn’t happen very often, thank goodness!) will appear in more journal entries as I work through my feelings. A few more impassioned writings, then a few calmer ones. And then a few cropping up here and there.
Case in point: a super close friend ditched me when I indie published. He’s going traditional, pitching to big NY publishers, except he hasn’t yet. Just has a drawer full of manuscripts at this point. I wish him very well with it.
BUT…it was hard to be ditched! I even understand why he did it. Sympathize, even. BUT…still painful to lose a close friend! And I wish he’d been stronger, that he’d been able to make a different choice.
So my journal entries at the time were impassioned. And likely weighted toward my side of the picture. I even attributed motives to my friend that I knew weren’t true.
But, eventually, I felt guilty and then needed to journal about my false accusations. (Just in the journal, you understand. Never made any such accusations outside of it.) I wasn’t doing it to set the record straight. But a more balanced statement does exist.
Guess I was thinking “aloud” here. So…
I think that it’s fine to write whatever you need to in your journal. It’s PRIVATE for a reason. Of course, if someone ever gets a hold of it…well, even if you weren’t lying, the truth can often be even more hurtful!
Thanks for making me think, Brendan!
(BTW, I don’t label the straight journal entries. Just the story ideas.)
My journal has a subtitle – ‘where the shite stuff lives’ – all the stuff that gets you down and gets in the way of creativity. Getting it out of my head and onto the page is what keeps me sane in an insane world. It’s the only form of therapy that costs nothing!
“aiming for the truth.”
J.M.Ney-Grimm,
Probably ain’t no more one kin do.
“painful to lose a close friend”
Terrible. I understand that one only too well. I don’t have many fiends, but they tend to be long term, and I value them as Shakespeare/Polonius said we should.
“It’s PRIVATE for a reason.”
See, that’s the bit. I can be a right berk, and get the terrible hump with someone. Then, being a Gemini, I forget about the whole thing tomorrow. But while La Rage is on, nasty thoughts whip through the tornado. Writing ‘em out is good therapy, but I wonder how much good discipline one learns in NOT writing them.
Life has taught me, mostly, to keep the temper of my early childhood in check. Truth is, temper is not effective. So, I’m invariably good natured and easy going in speech. I wondered at the correlation of the mind/body and truth in private.
Your post certainly provoked my thinking, and while I am trying to be more honest in the journal. The looking back portion is a bit of a howler. Perhaps caution is no bad thing:)
Thanks, your words really helped me knurdle this.
brendan
I wondered at the correlation of the mind/body and truth in private.
Interesting possibility. My own view: as long as I (the journal writer) know when I’m lying (or shading the truth in rage or whatever) and when I aiming square at the truth…then I’m good.
Your point about aim is good too. Even when I aim for utter truth…all human truth bears opinion within its heart.
…I value them as Shakespeare/Polonius said we should.
I’m a Taurus. Loyalty beyond loyalty. Mere hurt doesn’t shake me.