4 Reasons Why You Should Start a Journal
Journaling. What is it? We hear the word “journal” or “diary,” but what is it? I do find it interesting that we have two separate words for the same thing (is it because of gender norms, where it’s more “masculine” to call the writings a “journal?” A posting for another time I suppose.), but whatever floats our boat, right? Simply put, a journal/diary is a place where you jot down your experiences, ideas, thoughts, etc. Now I want to stress the following point for my male readers:
You are no less of a man should you decide to start writing a diary/journal. The whole notion of “only girls write diaries” is quite fallacious and unfounded. Many historical figures kept a diary and its through such thing that we get to see how they viewed unfolding history. You wouldn’t view them as less masculine or unmanly, would you? Besides, who cares what people (aka externals) think? If it helps you with your peace of mind — more on that later — then start one.
There are many benefits to writing a journal; history shows us this — more on that later — and so does science. The following studies show some of the benefits of journaling.
Scientific Benefits of Journaling
Decreasing Stress
In 2014, the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships published “Finding the Silver Lining: The Relative Roles of Redemptive Narratives and Cognitive Reappraisal in Individual’s Emotional Distress After the End of a Romantic Relationship.” Therein, the study found that writing focusing on positive outcomes in negative situations decreased emotional distress.
Improvements to the Mind and Body
Cambridge University published a 2018 study titled “Emotional and Physical Health Benefits of Expressive Writing, participants wrote about traumatic and stressful events for fifteen to twenty minutes. The study found that the group had significantly better physical and psychological outcomes compared to those who wrote about neutral topics.
Calming Effects and Improving Sleep
The Journal of Experimental Psychology found in 2018 that journaling before bed helped to calm cognitive stimulus and shorten the time it takes to fall asleep.
So what does all of this mean? According to science, the act of journaling can improve one’s mental and physical health. With journaling, we can better our minds and allow our body the chance to calm itself and focus, finding solutions to problems we may experience. We see this history too, and to display this, I’ll use two figures from history, both millennia apart: Marcus Aurelius; and Anne Frank.
Journaling in History
Marcus Aurelius
Just under 2000 years ago, on the front lines of Germania (now modern-day Germany), the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius would sit down and write his thoughts and reminders of Stoic lessons taught to him. He would write about how he should live, who and what he should be grateful for, how to approach adversity; he wrote it all down in his journal.
And he was better off doing so; Italian diplomat and political philosopher Niccolò Machiavelli cites Aurelius’ rule as “the golden time” and coined him the last of the “Five Good Emperors” (the other four being Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, and Antoninus Pius). Aurelius was a man who fought wars to secure the Germanic borders and subsequently the Empire, held Rome together during a devastating pandemic, and in the midst of all the chaos, never became corrupted.
Though his journal was never meant for public viewing (Aurelius titled his work in Greek Ta Eis Heuton, literally meaning “Things to One’s Self”), future historians discovered and kept it together, later translating it and producing it in their languages. Today, we know his journal as the book Meditations, one that continues to inspire, guide, and improve the lives of many around the world.
Anne Frank
On her thirteenth birthday, a young German-Dutch girl was given a small red-and-white autograph book by her parents. Although it was originally designed for collecting signatures and the memories of friends, it became used as a diary, one that, unknowingly, would captivate future readers and the world alive. The girl was Anne Frank. On June 12, 1942, she wrote the following as her first entry into her diary.
I hope I will be able to confide everything to you, as I have never been able to confide in anyone, and I hope you will be a great source of comfort and support.
Twenty-four days after her first entry, Anne and the rest of her Jewish family were forced into hiding, where they would spend the next two years hiding in an attic before being caught and sent to a Nazi concentration camp. Only Otto Frank, Anne’s Father, would survive the horrors of the Nazi camps.
According to Otto, Anne didn’t write in her diary everyday, but rather when she was confused, upset, or dealing with a problem. Her writing became a source of therapy for her, so as to not unload her troubled thoughts on her family and compatriots with whom she shared the attic. Her diary guided her through unimaginable adversity, and therein, we can learn so much: we hear the plight of the refugee; we see the humanity of an individual; we witness the hate people can towards others; we view the world through the eyes of an innocent child; most of all, however, we behold the perseverance of a child through suffering few of us can begin to imagine.
So we see in history examples of how having a journal/diary benefited the mind and body. But the benefits don’t stop there. At this point of this post, you might be asking yourself, “why should I start a journal? I mean, it’s cool journaling helped these people in history, but why should I start a journal?” In answering this question, there are three reasons why people should start journaling: (1) you can lay out your problems and find a solution; (2) you can healthily funnel any destructive thoughts; (3) you can take pride in how you are leaving a legacy; and (4) you can keep track of your growth.
Reasons for Starting a Journal
Reason 1 — Laying Out Your Problems
Sometimes, we may be in a place in our lives where we cannot talk to anyone about our problems; we may have no one close to share our mind with or be in the presence of people we don’t trust on that level. When writing down our problems and frustrations in a journal, however, we are giving our brain time to process all the things that are going on, which can help us arrive at a more optimal solution, should that be what we want. Journaling our frustrations can help us make sense of all the stimuli that could overwhelm us. If we’re looking at this from a Stoic perspective, writing in a journal is the physical form of the virtue of Wisdom; we are taking the time to analyze what is happening and allowing ourselves the space to ensure that we are making the right decision.
Reason 2 — Funneling Destructive Thoughts
Similar to the first reason, through this physical practice of Wisdom, we are lessening the chance that we act on any destructive thoughts. We all carry the burden of destructive thoughts: the things that went wrong on a date; the memory of the people who have hurt us; the things we are embarrassed by; the promises that were made to us but were instead broken, and so much more; it all adds up. It keeps building, slowly burning us on the inside until we are nothing but smoke and ash. If we act on these thoughts, not only does this fire burn us, but those too who our choices affect.
Much like how boxing or exercise is a method of physically pushing out the anger and emotions we have, journaling gives a person a place where they can funnel these thoughts, allowing them to flow in a safe manner. We can see such an example in that of Abraham Lincoln. He wrote documents he termed “hot letters.” Essentially, whenever he felt a sense of anger toward someone, he would grab a pen and paper and release his pent-up anger onto the page. Then he would write “never sent, never signed” before burning what we wrote down. This allowed him to remain calm and focus on what was extremely important — unifying the Union amidst a civil war.
Reason 3 — Leaving a Legacy
Whenever I’m not studying or writing postings, I have a chance to work at an archive organization, one that receives collections from various collections from families across the city and neighboring counties. When I get a chance to read the letters and journal entries from those who were alive in the 1880s and beyond and see how they perceived the world we only know from books, documentaries, television, and movies, I am filled with a sense of awe and wonder. I get to see their mindset, where they were in their life, and how they were feeling in a given moment. Even though they weren’t writing with me in mind, seeing their writing inspires me in so many ways.
It’s human instinct to avoid death and subsequently find ways that we will continue to live on. Even when we die, our legacies and what we leave behind will help us stick around for as long as people can read or remember us. American philosopher B. Blanshard notes this concept when he says the following about Marcus Aurelius.
Few care now about the marches and countermarches of the Roman commanders. What the centuries have clung to is a notebook of thoughts by a man whose real life was largely unknown, who put down in the midnight dimness not the events of the day or the plans of the morrow, but something of far more permanent interest — the ideals and aspirations that a rare spirit lived by.
I was told one day that after we die, we are the stories told by others and the effects of the actions we made. Why not tell a story about your life from your perspective and the way you experienced it? One day, you will not be here to answer the questions your descendants may have about you and your life, but what is left behind will serve the answers to those inquiries.
Reason 4 — Growth Tracking
Let us say that you do not care much about legacy and that you just want to write for yourself. Journaling can be a way to track your growth and see how you have improved over the years. By writing down information, you are giving your future self material that they can review and learn from. Derek Silvers notes this in the following from his article, “Benefits of a Daily Diary and Topic Journals.”
We so often make big decisions in life based on predictions of how we think we’ll feel in the future, or what we’ll want. Your past self is your best indicator of how you actually felt in similar situations. So it helps to have an accurate picture of your past. You can’t trust distant memories, but you can trust your daily diary. It’s the best indicator to your future self (and maybe descendants) of what was really going on in your life at this time.
When I look back at the journal entries I have written over the years, I see myself growing and transforming into who I am today. I see the areas where I have improved the most, and areas I can still work on. It is like a living graph that I get to see and continuously add data to. If I didn’t have my journal, I could still self reflect, but it would be much harder to pinpoint certain aspects of myself that have improved or still need improvements.
Now there are, of course, more reasons that one should start a journal/diary; these are just the main ones (in my opinion) as to why someone should start journaling. But all of this raises the following question: how does one start journaling?
Starting a Journal
When starting a journal/diary, we need to do something first. We have to throw out all the rules and preconceptions we have about journaling. Because journaling is a personal endeavor and for your eyes only while you are living, how you design and write in your journal should come from your mind and heart.
At this point, you may ask, “if I throw out all the rules, how and where do I begin?” Like any form of change you want to make in your life, you have to start small. Find a spiral notebook, a piece of paper, a notecard — even a sticky-note — and write something down. Write about what you’re doing that day, how your day is going, or what goals you have. From there, you can personalize your writing into the way that suits you best. There is no right way to journal. There is no wrong way to journal. There is only your way to journal, and that is what matters.
Next, try and find a time that you are comfortable with maintaining a journal. Right now, I try to write once or twice a month. For some, it might be a everyday. For others, it may be every other month. What matters is that you find an interval that works for you. You are occasionally going to forget to write, and that is okay; we all fall out of the habit every now and then. The key, however, is to keep writing.
Journaling is a healthy way that one can write down their thoughts, aspirations, goals, and it can even be a source of therapy for some. It is an art, one that anyone can do. The greatest leaders and thinkers in history kept one, and no one is less of a person if they decide to start writing. It is a method in which we can practice the virtue of Wisdom, the art of reflection, and our ability to be self-aware. It does not matter where or how you start, but that you start and keep going. Early Twentieth Century writer Mark Twain said it clearly:
Keeping a journal is the veriest pastime in the world, and the pleasantest. Only those rare natures that are made up of pluck, endurance, devotion to duty for duty’s sake, and invincible determination, may hope to venture upon so tremendous an enterprise as the keeping of a journal.
Journaling has many benefits, and even if it seems not cool or trendy, we can use it to work on ourselves and see the evolution of ourselves. Even if no one else reads it after we pass on, we can take pride in how we kept one and how it helped us become better people.
