Learning Archives - Page 6 of 7 - How to Live a Meaningful Life

Journals are sometimes seen as childish, but they are a great tool to work out our thoughts. Keeping a diary or journal is not weird or strange; instead, it is powerful tool that will keep you sane during difficult times. There is nothing weird about keeping a journal or diary unless you are afraid of being different from the people around you. Most people don't keep journals because they haven't been shown how valuable and beneficial they are. There are many benefits to keeping a journal, one is that you might stand out, but standing out isn't a bad thing in this situation. Keeping a journal might be one of the best habits you can deveolp; let's look at why that is. It is Not Weird To Keep a Diary, Keeping One is Helpful As a young person, it may be challenging to do things that other people don't. We are used to not wanting to stand out, we are often told to try and fit in. But if you look back at history, some of the most interesting and insightful people of all time have kept diaries or journals. Were Charles Darwin or Marie Curie weird? Probably, but as history has shown us, their weirdness was what made them famous and served as a benefit rather than a problem. Darwin is known around the world for making the idea of evolution popular. While Marie Curie won the Nobel Prize in chemistry for teaching the world about radioactive elements. These two people might have been weird, but they were also important figures who have changed the course of history. In some ways, being weird means, you fall outside the standards of what most people consider normal. But not being normal also means you have different ideas and a unique way of seeing the world. That said, even if you aren't a famous scientist, you make observations and have inspirational thoughts every day that are worth recording. So this is where a diary can be a helpful tool to keep track of your thoughts and ideas. Keeping a journal is a great way to record your thoughts and observations; once you have them recorded, you can later reflect on them. It might seem weird at first cause you aren't used to doing it, but as you get more practice, it will stop feeling strange, and you will get to benefit from the act of writing daily. People are more likely to have negative thoughts about things they don't understand or aren't familiar with. When it comes to keeping a journal or a diary, people usually haven't put much thought into it. This may be because they haven't needed on or cause it is often something they associated with teenagers. But we shouldn't write things off simply because of who we think does them, instead, it is better to look at the pros and cons of doing something before making a choice. You Have a Lot to Gain By Keeping a Journal For myself, keeping a journal has been very helpful for dealing with stress or difficulties in my life. Any time something is bothering me, it bounces around inside my head. Over the years, I've found that there are two ways to get the thoughts out of my head, 1) talk to someone about it, or 2) writing it down in my journal. It is always helpful to talk to someone, but sometimes there isn't anyone around, or we want to keep our secrets. In these situations, keeping a journal isn't weird, instead, it is a solution to some of our problems. Often, we don't know much about what our true thoughts about things are, but a journal can help. Because of this, a journal or diary is a great way to get our thoughts out so that we can better understand how we think about things. Put another way, if something is bothering us, or you are having trouble with something, writing it out in a journal or diary will help you work it out. As we discussed earlier, this can help with stress, but it can also help with school and work-related problems. When you first start to keep a journal, it will feel weird because you might not be used to taking yourself seriously, but it will feel more natural with practice. Once you are into the habit of writing every day and it no longer feels strange, you will notice that what you write about changes over time. What you record today, might turn out to be helpful in the future. For myself, a lot of what I wrote about in my journal in the past was things that bother me. If anything, those older journals are a record of my internal thoughts and feelings. This is satisfying cause it helps me see my progress over time, in the past, I felt one way, but now I feel differently. If anything, a journal is helpful in helping us get a sense of our evolution. It is Easy to Keep a Diary For many people, keeping a diary seems weird because they haven't done it before or they don't have a positive example in someone else. I first got into keeping a journal when I was at college, at the time, we needed to keep track of our notes. Classmates found it easier to keep notes on their computers, but for me, that added too many distractions and made it more difficult to study. In the second semester, I kept all my notes in one large journal, this made it easier to keep track of everything because it was all in one place. I keep up the habit, and it turned out to be very helpful in making sure I got all my work done and never lost any of my notes. One day in class, a classmate pulled a journal out of his backpack and started to write in it. I asked him about it, and he told me, "at first, I thought it was weird to keep a journal, but then I saw how well you were doing and decided to get one myself." Get Started With A Journal or Diary Although the above story might have too much detail, the point remains, if you want to keep a journal, the first thing you need to do is get one. Once you have a journal, you need to keep it with you all the time. If you have it with you, it will be easier to make sure you write in it every day. If it makes it easier to keep track, you can set a specific time to write, that way you won't forget, and it will be easier to make a habit out of it. What you write in your journal is also up to you, if you were like me and going to school, keeping your school notes in the same place will be helpful. But if you have a job, you could also keep track of what is happening during your day. Your records in your journal will help you with accountability, but it will also help you feel better about what you got done. The type of diary you keep will also affect who you share it with. If you are writing personal stuff, it might only be for you. But if you are keeping track of your work or class notes, it might be something you want to share with other people. The key here is to be consistent and remember the purpose you have for your diary. Where You Keep Your Diary Matters When I think about a diary, the first thing that comes to mind is a pink heart covered book with a clasp and a little lock and key. This isn't the kind of diary that I keep, but people would undoubtedly think it was weird if I did. From my personal experience, keeping a paper journal has been the most helpful way to keep track of my thoughts. Any time I turn on the computer or look at my phone with the intention of taking a note, I get distracted and forget what I am looking for. For this reason, keeping a paper journal beside your workspace is going to be the most efficient and effective approach. But if you are looking for convenience, keeping an online diary on your phone is going to be much easier as you will likely always have your phone with you. When choosing what type of journal you want to keep, think about what you are using it for when you will use it, it is also important to consider your privacy. If you make a habit of writing before bed, you want to keep it beside your bed, so a paper journal would work best. However, if you are going to be writing while riding the bus, your phone might be a better choice. If your privacy matters to you; keep your diary beside the bed, this way, no one else is going to see it or even know it exists. But if you want to keep it online, know that you are opening yourself up to risks like get hacked or other people someday being able to read what you wrote. Right now you might think it is weird to keep a diary, but that is not the case, diaries are an incredibly useful tool, and you will gain a lot by buying one and starting to use it. Why do you keep a journal? Has it been helpful for you? If so for what reasons?