Answer: I keep a personal diary to keep me humble.
I Keep A Personal Diary To Keep Me Humble
Have you gone back and read some of your previous old diaries? How mortified were you? Did you immediately slam it shut with horror on your face? That’s usually what most people do, but sometimes you end up being surprised.
I found my high school personal diary and realized that I had always struggled with my weight. Every single page was me talking about my weight and then when I realized that it was a serious problem it prompted me into taking serious steps to fix the issues with my weight.
In fact, in this post, I will go over the difference between a journal vs diary.
Why I continue to keep a personal diary and prefer it over journaling (even though I still keep a journal), the different types of journaling, and why I prefer to write in a personal diary instead of typing in an online diary.
Let’s begin.
Journal vs Diary, What’s The Difference?
I know many of us love to say we journal, but what we are really doing is writing in our diaries.
Personal Diary
Typically with a diary you are writing your daily thoughts, events, memories, and emotions. All of these are your personal thoughts and are usually intimate details specific to your life only.
There isn’t a theme within a diary as it is a collection of everything and anything you want to write about.
Journal
Journals tend to have a theme. Some examples are dream journals, tarot journals, work journals, gratitude journals, and so on.
Writing vs Typing
The Benefits Of Writing
Numerous studies have demonstrated the brain-boosting advantages of penning notes, letters, journals, or essays by hand. This is a form of connection to words that enables your brain to take notice, understand and learn from them.
Further, writing longhand is considered to be a good form of mental exercise by certain physicians, as outlined in the Wall Street Journal article.
The physical activity of writing engages one’s motor skills, memory, and other aspects, thus aiding in the retention of memory and aiding in keeping the mind agile as we age.
Little Things claims that writing by hand invigorates more parts of the brain than typing since it needs the usage of more motor skills and the involvement of the “reading circuit”, a collection of links in the brain.
The rhythmic, therapeutic, and calming act of writing by hand also leads to creativity. As for me, writing longhand serves as an effective means of processing information, inspiring creativity, and reflecting on things.
The Benefits Of Journal
For me keeping a journal with a theme is beneficial when you need to look back on things you did or for noticing patterns.
My Personal Reasons For Keeping A Personal Diary
If you haven’t seen Pamela Anderson, A Love Story, which is a documentary about Pamela Anderson I highly suggest you check it out.
In the documentary, it was really cool to see her on-screen flipping through all of the diaries she has kept throughout her life along with all of the home video footage.
Honestly, her consistency is admirable and became a goal of my own.
I loved watching her go through her diaries and recall memories that no one knew about. I think that is the fun part about writing in a diary.
Writing down everything that happened and the emotions associated with it and then looking back and realizing how stupid it all was or being like wow I can’t believe that happened.
Imagine if you have kids and they find those diaries. How touching would that be? How sweet.
I always like to choose journals with inspirational or motivational quotes on the cover because it lights a small little fire within me right before striking the pages with my favorite pens.
Spending time with my diary is a little therapy session for me. I get to sit down and break out all my favorite pens, markers, highlighters, stickers, etc. Of course, I write in the diary, but I enjoy adding flourishes to the pages of my diary.
Doodles. Pictures. Calligraphy. The sky is the limit since it is mine and this is my time to just be alone within myself.
Do You Keep A Journal Or Do You Keep A Diary?
If you read this post then you know that I keep a daily personal diary and a couple of journals.
What do you do? Journal? Diary? Nothing at all? I would love to hear your thoughts!
Leave a comment below or feel free to contact me directly.
