Why You Should Seriously Consider Keeping a Diary
By: Carl Vincent Florano
Tags: Self, Mindfulness, Diary, Mental Health, Writing

Why is it important to keep a diary?

Insofar as I’ve written, I utilized my diary to vent my feelings. Still being in a pandemic, I find it necessary to have an outlet for things we fear to speak about. Rarely, we get to discuss our feelings with another person, and even after the discussion, there leaves an impression on us that we might not have been totally understood by our confidant. A diary gives you a sense of security that what you write is not given unfair judgement, or no judgement at all.

Actress Jennifer Aniston, or what her ‘friends’ call her, Jen, has had six separate diaries from when she was thirteen to now in her fifties. Her friends described her relationship with her diaries as therapy sessions.

The beautiful Emma Watson owns 10 diaries of her own!

“I keep a dream diary. I keep a yoga diary. I keep diaries on people that I’ve met, and things that they’ve said to me; advice that they’ve given me. I keep an acting journal. I keep collage books,” she listed. Below are the advantages granted by keeping a diary.

Understand your thoughts more clearly

The mind is the body’s fascinating centerpiece. It carries out body functions, like metabolism, digestion, and involuntary functions, such as breathing. To add, it is able to generate, and release chemicals, or hormones that influence how we think; furthermore, it can conjure imaginary scenarios, or what-ifs that raises one’s anxiety levels to the point of a panic spiral.

Exhaustion of the mind occurs very often in people who are suffering from a mental health disorder. These occurrences are often left unresolved. In coping with my anxiety, and depression, I find comfort in writing. For me, my fears and sadness are somehow validated when they are put into paper. When I write on my diary, a day of suffering is concluded with a period (.) signaling a resolved, or a done deal. The simple dot somehow tricks me in believing that I can be brand-new again for a new day.

Additionally, committing to a diary will keep track of how you feel generally, and in due time, there will emerge a pattern that can explain what makes you miserable, or what causes you elation.

2. Stress Reliever

Scientific studies have shown that writing about stressful, or traumatic events bridges people towards acceptance, and to make peace of such. In a research article published by the American Psychological Association (APA), expressive writing, that includes the likes of journaling, was revealed to reduce denial of negative events.

Co-author Adriel Boals writes,

“At least for fairly minor life problems, something as simple as writing about the problem for 20 minutes can yield important effects not only in terms of physical health and mental health, but also in terms of cognitive abilities.”

In a similar note, we sentimentalize our writing to express anger, and frustration, at least I do. When it happens, we feel even more spiteful than prior, and that combustion somehow alleviates how we feel towards the other person, and in time, we find ourselves calm, and over that hill.

The next day, we open our diaries to revisit what we wrote. In the rearview, we understand that we were enslaved by our own red-hot anger that we thought unfairly of the person, and as much as we hate to admit it, we put the accused under a very bad light. Now, we think we owe the person an apology. This is when the fog that blinded us before is lifted.

This realization can also intercept us while writing. For other people, transcribing emotions into words is enough to make them rethink of their resentments. This is what I’d like to call ‘reflection in real time.’

To add, a diary is very personal; hence, very private. It is very unethical to squirrel a glance in someone else’s diary. Worst of all, to use their words against them.

3. It houses memories

The highlights in a person’s life are documented in a diary, and because there’s no one to impress with it, mundane events, and unsound ambitions are easily accessible to one’s self when writing. It can be about an uneventful pancake flip that makes you feel cool, or grimly, how devastated you felt about the death of a family dog who you’ve treated rottenly before. Whatever memory you decide to store in your diary, it will live in there, perhaps, forever.

Treat it like a vault, or a treasure chest that only you can open. Years from now, when you’re burned out because of work, or undecided for a life-changing decision, you can reenter the days that you were happy, or facing the same struggles, and you’ll see that, just like before, you can move pass, and overcome the predicament you’re in.