Benefits of keeping a diary. How to start and keep a personal diary for anyone

Today, due to the development of technology, many do not remember that there used to be personal diaries that kept the secrets, secrets and desires of the owner.

Today, many people blog on the Internet, but everyone understands that even a visited, popular blog cannot replace a treasured little book with a personal one.

Yes, personal diaries are a thing of the past for people. But there are people for whom keeping a personal diary is not a hobby or an interesting activity, but a way of life.

The most intimate is recorded in a personal diary, something that you do not want to disclose to the public, something that you want to keep forever in your memory and heart.

There are no boundaries in keeping a diary. This is a reflection of the feelings, desires and soul of a person. Such a book, after years, reminds of the most important events of life, keeps touching moments and experiences in memory.

In Western countries, psychologists advise to start such notebooks and little books that absorb the mood of a person.

Keeping a diary helps you understand your desires and aspirations, better understand your own ego and accept yourself as you are.

A personal diary can be safely called an encyclopedia of one's own life. By reading it, you will understand the mistakes and omissions, learn to do the right thing and not make mistakes in the future.

In order for the book to evoke such emotions in the future, it is worth keeping a personal diary correctly, reflecting in it the experiences, mood, details and subtleties of your life.

Note! The first step towards keeping a notebook with secrets is to choose the right notebook. Beginners are better off starting with books with a small number of pages.

Do not be afraid that you will not write them down. Life is diverse, joy is replaced by sadness, and a smile is replaced by tears, so you will always have something to tell your paper friend.

Table: rules for maintaining a "paper friend"

Appearance	In order to delight the book in the future, choose a beautiful notebook. It is worth paying attention to the density of the paper product. The diary is meant to accompany you throughout your life, so it is better to buy a good written book.
Registration	You need to design a book with your own hands based on the hobbies and character of the person.
Information	Write down all emotions and experiences in the book: from anger and unexpected outbursts of anger to unprecedented joy. This diversifies the diary and makes it thematically beautiful. Share your innermost with him, because then this information will be needed for introspection. Written visualization of emotions helps to find harmony, set priorities and goals in life correctly.
Storage	Keep your paper friend out of the reach of other family members. If you have a separate room, then it is better to put it under your pillow and refer to it as needed.
Reference frequency	Do not think that if you have such a notebook, you need to write something into it every day. The entered information must come from the soul. Leading is the desire to speak out and convey emotions, because many have no one to share joy or sorrow with. Therefore, for them, a personal notebook with experiences, fears and hobbies is just a godsend. Write down everything there that struck you, subdued, delighted or worried. It doesn't matter how often you write. The main thing is to pour out real emotions on paper, and not an artistic essay about your life.
What to write	You need to write down in the diary all the events that you want to keep in memory. Each person is different. Many write about love affairs, suffering and experiences. Others prefer to describe trips to the theater, express their admiration for the world around them.
Confidentiality	It is advisable to keep a diary alone. Only one on one with himself a person opens up and admits to himself what he was previously silent about. Don't tell anyone about keeping a book.

Ideas for a personal diary

What is the idea of keeping a personal diary? This is the theme to which this creation will be devoted.

There are many ideas for doing such things, but most often girls start diaries with the following goals:

Capturing important moments in life.
Write down the goals you want to achieve in the future.
Description of wishes.
Recording impressions from watching theatrical scenes or movies.
Capturing only joyful moments.
Description of a love story.
Write down your favorite recipes.
Describing emotions from travel.
Writing inspirational quotes.

Important! More often, people create personal notebooks for the purpose of taking notes of their feelings, which they do not show to other people.

After all, on the pages you can be weak and vulnerable, but in reality not everyone can allow themselves to do this.

Making a personal diary

As statistics show, girls are more likely to trust paper experiences than boys. Therefore, in this article we will consider ideas for designing a personal diary for the fair sex.

First page. On the main page, display:

Desires.
Aspirations.
Character description.
Goals.
Portrait.
temper.

Describe yourself, honestly tell your diary what you want from life and write it on the main page so you never forget about it.

First page layout:

If the secret wish pad is for a girl, then draw with your own hands pictures in the form of cupids, hearts, butterflies or your favorite prints.
You can cut printouts from magazines or print out pre-selected and liked drawings on the printer.
The design depends on the character and temperament of the girl. If it is calm, then design the book in soft pastel colors.
If a girl has an explosive character, then it does not hurt to add burgundy, red, gray or purple to the color scheme.
The book for girls is designed in a more gentle, calm and slightly childish style. It is recommended to draw sketches of your favorite cartoon characters or characters from a fairy tale or book.
A personal diary for a little girl should be full of beautiful and bright drawings.

Cover. To make the diary cool, unique and beautiful, you need to make a cover for it.

Ideas for creating a cover:

Crochet a book cover with thread.
Wrap the notebook in thick colored paper.
Sew a fabric cover. This is the most practical option, because it can always be removed and washed if necessary.

Design of other pages. The answer to what to write in a notebook cannot be answered unambiguously.

But what can be drawn depends on the subject and idea of the conceived paper creation:

Edition to record love experiences. Fill the pages with heart designs, love arrows, and wedding rings.
A book designed to record joyful events and travels should be designed brightly and naturally. Draw the sun, sea, shells, mountains, smiles of people, funny faces, various thematic drawings.

Ideas for designing other pages:

Page with a secret inside. Cut out a small piece of paper and glue it to the pages with just one edge, imitating a door. In a secret place, write a secret or wish.
The book is an organizer. Cut out the side of the pages in the notebook by date so that it resembles a notebook with an alphabet. So you can always find an event by the desired date.

You can fill the diary with such design techniques as:

Scrapbooking. This is a technology for decorating with craft paper, twine, lace, satin ribbons, etc.
Application - a cut out element glued to paper with glue.
Dudling is a detailed painting on the cells of an abstraction page.
Photo collage. The book will preserve written memories of youth and photographs, where the owner of this diary looks at ease, young and happy.
Quilling - decorating with thin paper strips.
Gluing rhinestones, stickers.

People from the most ancient times keep various "diaries". Some of them are of real historical value, since they are almost the only sources of the chronicle of eyewitnesses of certain events.

We, of course, do not pretend to be "chroniclers" and historians. However, for your own development, emotional calm and self-improvement, keeping a diary is extremely useful.

How to keep a diary, in what form (handwritten or electronic) is solely your personal choice.

I will only tell you in this article at least about 9 types of diaries. And you can already take note of one of the ways. Or make your own combination of several proposed options. Or even come up with your own style and direction. That is why the title of the article is "9+ .." because you can add anything in the future

Option 1. "Morning Pages". Learn more about this method. I just want to note that this method is distinguished by nuances:

It helps to drain all accumulated and interfering emotions. This frees up space for new ideas and inspiration.
This type of diary must be kept in the morning, immediately after waking up.
This is a very suitable way to unleash creativity and break through in a stupor for creative people.

Option 2. "Diary of success." This way of keeping a diary is very well described in the books of Bodo Schaefer. Its essence lies in the fact that completing each day, you write down at least 5 of your successes. It can be more than 5, but not less.

Moreover, these successes can be, at first glance, very insignificant. For example, even an important insight or awareness of something can also be considered a success. Or a couple of kind words spoken to a stranger, or vice versa to the closest person.

The success diary will fit perfectly into your traditional diary. Daily celebration of even small merit will have a great effect on your self-esteem in the direction of its increase and adequacy.

Option 3. "Diary of gratitude." The one that is most often overlooked. How easy it is for us to focus on a mistake, problems, shortcomings, insufficiency of what has been done. And sometimes it's hard to see what you can be grateful for. Every day. But even in the darkest periods of life, you can find many reasons to thank the Almighty for the fact that we are alive, breathing, moving. Or our relatives, for the fact that they are next to us.

Find at least 5 things you can be thankful for today. And write them down in your diary.

Option 4. "Diary of books read." This idea is covered in great detail in the training. "Implementation Wizard" . Here I will summarize its main provisions:

Before reading a book, write down in your diary what you expect from reading it.
Write down 3-4 goals for which you want to read this book.
After reading, write down at least 10 implementation points from this book.

With the help of the Diary of books read, you can turn any information into practice. Thus, you will not only replenish your "baggage of knowledge", but also get results from the introduction of valuable information.

I liked this method. And some books, especially on marketing or creativity, I read just like that.

Option 5. "Diary of observations." You can observe in it whatever your heart desires: the dynamics of the development of your relationship, the development of your child, the development of your project (which, by the way, is also like a child for most), etc., etc. Here the scope of your imagination can fly anywhere.

The advantage of this type of diary is that, thanks to observations you will be able to track the result in a particular area of your life. And get an extra boost of motivation to keep moving towards your goals.

Option 6. "Diary of psychological exercises." I periodically read different books on psychology. You, perhaps, too. Or you are taking various personal development courses, which also include a psychological workshop. For example, you can play the "I AM WORTHIN" game, work through resentments, write out wish lists, and so on. Then you should do it regularly: either take a place in the main diary, or start a separate notebook.

Option 7. "Diary of positive statements." Someone may attribute this to the variant with psychology (see above). However, I single out this area separately. Because psychology is both self-digging, and revealing some of your deepest limiting beliefs, and working with various blocks. Positive affirmations are something worth doing, in my opinion, always. Regardless of your current state. Good for you, or terrible. And even vice versa, the worse your psychological state, the more it is worth writing down in your diary "anti-statements" on your current negativity.

However, I am a realist. And I do not urge you to "fill" your negative emotions with positive statements. On the contrary, with the help of the Morning Pages and Psychological Exercises diaries, you can accept and live these emotions. And then complete them in the best possible way: emptying the emotional vessel, fill it again. Only now with positive statements that are closest to you.

Option 8. "Diary of goals and desired emotions". who read my book "Fly of butterfly" can guess what I mean. It's about writing down your goals every day. And not just goals, as they say "in the bottom line", but the desired emotions that you want to experience at the same time. In the evening, you can, for example, write down your “emotional plans”.

For example: I want to be inspired for the day, so I plan to get up at 5 am, write my morning pages, and play the I AM GOOD game.

The next day you analyze how and what happened. Or it didn't work out. And your feelings about it all.

This version of the diary is very well suited for creative people. And especially women. Because it helps to reconnect with yourself, with your emotions and feelings, and not just with your head.

Option 9. "Diary of ideas." Personally, many types of diaries are suitable for this purpose for me: and morning pages, as a fountain of ideas often “breaks through” on them. And the usual diary of goals and emotions. But I also have such a small book-notebook, which is convenient to always carry with you.

As they say, "ideas are in the air", and most often they visit when you do not expect them at all. Therefore, you need to have time to catch such a “bird-idea” by the tail so that it does not fly away far and for good.

This is how ideas for articles, posts, projects, etc. come out of the blue. It is worth writing them down in your mini-diary, so that later in a more relaxed atmosphere you can analyze and make a plan.

What kind of diary do you use? And how does it help you in your daily life, at work and in personal relationships?

What associations arise in your head when you hear the word "diary"?

I'm sure it's either something to do with school or romantic girls furtively writing poetry in a notebook under their pillows. Meanwhile, keeping a personal diary can be useful not only for schoolchildren and writers, but also for you. What's more, it can really. Below you will find six reasons why you should start making daily records of your life.

In our digital age, when information recording tools are experiencing a real revolution, the forms of keeping a diary can be very different and largely depend on your preferences. Someone may want to record video or sound clips for this, others will prefer to use one of the many special programs or, others will remain faithful to a good paper diary and pen.

No matter what tools you use, the main thing is strict adherence to two principles that have remained unchanged since the days of candles and goose feathers. Firstly, the diary must be personal, that is, inaccessible to a wide range of people, and secondly, you must be extremely honest with yourself, otherwise it all loses all meaning.

So what are the benefits of journaling?

What do you really feel?

A diary can help you become aware and articulate your feelings, which are usually hidden deep inside. Modern life often has such a pace that a person races like a horse at the races, ignoring his emotions and feelings. As a result, we have constant stress and mental breakdowns. Now you will have a legitimate time for introspection, which will give you a deeper and more realistic view of yourself, your life and work.

Point of view

We are bombarded from all sides with a flurry of information that contains dozens of very different opinions on various topics. The only trouble is that these are all other people's opinions. What do you personally think? Do you have time to formulate your point of view on the important topics of the day?

Let a couple out

Sometimes there are really difficult days. You are frustrated, embarrassed, defeated, angry, bewildered. It is even possible that you cannot talk to someone close about it. Keeping everything inside will drive you crazy. Get your emotions out on paper. Then read and smile.

Life is a great thing!

We read and hear many fascinating stories about different people. Why not write a bestseller called The Story of My Life? Imagine that your diary will be published after ... well, sometime later, and try to fill it with such events so that future readers cannot tear themselves away. This is a great way to make your life more interesting and deep.

Hello my Name Is…

Yes, do you really know who you are? Are you sure about your desires and goals? Get to know the real you. Many people are so entangled in job and family obligations that for them, filing an annual report and buying a fur coat for their wife can overshadow their real dreams. It's time to sit down and think about (and be sure to write down) your real aspirations. And a lot, a lot, carefully, but strictly, to delete from your life.

Message

Imagine that you were digging through the rubbish in the attic and found your father's personal diary. You drop everything and, unable to tear yourself away, leaf through page after page until the evening. Here he meets your mother... here is your birth... here he is worried about work... complains about his health... Have you imagined?

So why are you depriving your children of these sensations? They need to learn about you and what you really were.

Do you keep a diary?

The classic notes in the notebook have not completely lost their relevance, they are still popular with both schoolgirls and adults of different sex and status. At the same time, many people are not going to start writing down their thoughts, whether in a notebook or in an electronic document, although the benefits of this process are tangible.

This process is not in vain called a personal diary. This is something deeply personal - emotions, dreams, plans. Often entries in a notebook become witnesses of stormy tears of schoolgirls in love and the first business combinations of young entrepreneurs. From this follows the first reason for keeping a personal diary - it helps to express emotions and structure thoughts.

Interesting! Psychologists advise emotional people to keep records in order to later evaluate themselves from the outside and learn to manage feelings.

Another reason is the possibility keep memories of the situation with the emotions that the writer experienced then. A few years later, many people read their notes with pleasure, recalling funny and sad moments from life, plans and dreams.

The third reason for keeping a personal diary is the opportunity to express all secret feelings, indecent thoughts and pent-up anger. Sometimes it is impossible to yell at an unfair boss, take revenge on an offender, or have an affair with someone. Entries in a notebook or an electronic document allow you to do anything on your pages with your boss, with the offender, and with other people. Thus, it relieves tension, while at the same time allowing you to assess the situation from the outside.

How to start journaling

For some teenagers and adults, the question does not arise how to start keeping a personal diary. This happens spontaneously during a period of love or life troubles. Sometimes mothers try to start keeping personal records about their children or schoolchildren themselves at the request of doctors and teachers.

Another group of people are elementary and middle school girls. For them, this is a hobby or a mass phenomenon when distributed at school. There are also people who understand the need to keep a diary or experience loneliness. All this divides the persons keeping records into two groups:

Spontaneous.
Conscious.

People from the first category are not interested in the rules and fictitious conventions for maintaining personal records. They just write where they want and how they want. The result is the most sincere and emotional diaries, but difficult for subsequent reading by the owners themselves.

The second group is interested in how to keep a diary according to the rules, what requirements should be made to it and what it should contain. It is unlikely that anyone will be able to give such precise recommendations, they are too individual, although you can roughly learn how to keep personal records.

How to keep records

Filling out the paper version with your thoughts or electronic is an individual choice. The same can be said about the rules for filling out the diary. It is important to understand one thing - it should be comfortable.

Some people are more suited to quickly write down their thoughts in transport, others need silence and a lot of colored pens, markers and all kinds of stickers, photographs, newspaper clippings. You just need to understand that there are no specific rules for keeping records. A personal diary is an untouchable space of each individual person, he can do whatever he wants in it and as he pleases.

What will be inside the diary is highly dependent on who will keep it. The personal records of a student programmer will be filled with tags and ideas, a housewife can complain there about poor-quality household chemicals or rudeness in a store, and a businessman will write down modernization plans or thoughts on restructuring loans there.

The frequency and volume of filling will also be individual for different people, although it is worth highlighting schoolgirls separately. For them, a personal diary is something special, colorful and tender, and sometimes gloomy and incredibly rude. At the same time, all people need to know only a few of the same principles by which the diary is kept.

The main requirements for a personal diary

To keep a diary, you do not need to try to do it like others, although no one forbids using other people's ideas for the design of personal records. Observing just a few requirements, anyone who wants to learn how to keep a personal diary:

Appearance, electronic or paper format, pen color, recording density and other criteria do not need rules. It will be right for each person to write in the way that is convenient for him, sharing his innermost thoughts.

Carefully! It is worth separating a personal diary from work, school, medical, sports and other things. They can be combined into one, but then the teacher, doctor or trainer will want to get acquainted with it. This will prevent the author from writing his innermost thoughts there sincerely, without looking back.

If a girl keeps a collection of newspaper clippings, photographs and biography facts of an actor or singer, then this does not prevent her from letting her girlfriends read the records. At the same time, if thoughts about feelings in relation to the star are written there, then the girl is unlikely to want someone to read them.

Starting and keeping a diary

It was said above that records of ongoing events begin to be kept in 2 ways. Spontaneous keeping of personal records does not require comments, the diary is already there and it is being filled in, such people do not need to be taught how to start keeping it.

The conscious desire to keep records makes it possible to initially foresee the nuances of the future diary by choosing the format, style and method of filling.

Start recording with the following steps:

These are the main points of starting a diary with the exception of 2 nuances. These are not requirements, but rather recommendations for convenience. One of them concerns the paper version of the records, the other electronic. In the first case, when buying, it is advisable to purchase hardcover notebook or notepad, this will allow the diary to keep a good appearance longer and not wrinkle. When choosing an electronic version, you need to determine in advance where and when entries will be made, and starting from this, you need to select the format - an online program or an inconspicuous document on a stationary computer.

For those who do not know how to spontaneously share their thoughts You can try the following algorithm:

Such a structure is suitable for the diary of a younger schoolgirl, and for the records of the head of a department of a large enterprise. The only difference is that events and objects will be different, as well as conclusions, descriptions of emotions, and so on. Also, do not forget that this structure is optional - the items in it can be changed, rearranged, removed or added. Understanding more convenient records will come with time, and for this you just need to keep a diary.

Important! The main rule of keeping a diary-it needs to be filled! How to start it, what to write or draw in it does not matter.

Properly keeping a diary means only making entries in a convenient format and with a comfortable frequency. You can think in advance about the number of entries per day, week, month, or just carry it with you and share your thoughts with the diary whenever you want.

A few entries a day, if desired, are the ideal way to keep a diary. This allows you to release excessive emotions, and immediately write down the right thoughts or good ideas. Not everyone can afford to keep records in this mode, someone understands the need for a diary, but is unable to devote so much time to it.

For organized people, the method of filling out the diary in the evening is suitable, while the volume of the entry does not play a role. You can divide the entries into morning, afternoon and evening, detailing the events of the day, or arrange everything in one text. You can also highlight what is happening at work or school, separately describing love or life experiences. There is only one rule for keeping a diary, everything else is very individual. Over time, everyone chooses a way to fill it out in a form that is more convenient for him, it remains only to start leading it.

Personal diaries. To write or not to write? To store or not to store? Have you ever asked these questions?

I have been keeping a diary since I was 10 years old and still do. How did this idea come to me? It's hard to say... I don't remember. But it completely fit into my life at that time.

Love for beautiful notebooks, notebooks, pens..., the desire to achieve something, to make yourself and your life better - all this was already in 1996. There are now.

I remember how my friend and I wrote thick notebooks, where everything was about healthy lifestyle. How I enjoyed creating my own questionnaires and filling out others. How she wrote poetry. How to write down the lyrics of your favorite songs.

It also contains a description of the first relationship with a young man. Relationships similar to adults. Experiences, joys, difficulties, happy moments together - all this remained there ... in that diary, which now does not exist and never will. And he is right in front of my eyes.

student diaries

3. It also has a lot of pleasant memories, meeting new people. Including with Lyosha, about whom I already wrote on Alimero ("Love at first sight").

And even though I myself decided to part with him and quite quickly, but I really like this story of acquaintance, it's nice to remember it. And in general, I have the best human feelings for Lesha, despite the fact that I refused further communication.

I also wanted to burn another diary, for 2007 - the year that was the happiest and most painful for me at the same time. I decided to pre-read it and then ... they turned off the light for the whole night. I thought it was a sign. Now, a month later, I am extremely glad that I left it!

Keep or not? Psychological aspects

If you use diaries only as a way of psychological relief, then keeping them is not necessary at all. And if those memories are dear to the heart, if these records mean a lot - you need to leave them! Now, after burning most of my records, I am 100% sure of this!

I write a diary exclusively for myself. Therefore, there is no window dressing, everything is extremely sincere. And when I write, I don't expect anyone else to read them.

However, the thought that I will have children and they will want to read my notes has come up more than once. Would I be happy about it? I don’t know… Probably, at first I would have looked at them myself, and then I would have decided whether to give them or not. Although, who should read them then (if you read them at all), except for the closest people who are an extension of you?

There is one more aspect. By reading your thoughts from the past, you can understand a lot. To understand the circumstances of life, the actions of the people around... In the end, to understand yourself! After all, sometimes it can be very difficult! To understand who you were and how you have changed ...

I will end again with lines from my poem:

There is no person to
So listen to me.
Oh my diary, you helped me
Don't lose yourself!

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