Yo!

I have been writing a diary since I was seven and I have kept writing until this day. It has grown to be quite an important element in my life and I feel it has influenced me in many ways. I want to share with you what I have learnt from writing a diary for so long in this blogpost.

5 reasons why you should keep a diary

1. Memories are important for today's thoughts
My artistic practice revolves around the intangible concept of memory. Memories are known to be heavily distorted. Yet memories are so connected to self identity and ideas. What is a memory if you can't remember it anymore? Or what is a memory when it's false?

Writing a diary post and detailing whatevers going on in your internal and external world and anything that rings true to you at that specific moment is a geat way of capturing a memory. In some ways, the diary entry functions as the memory itself, rather then your thoughts about a past event.

In my little microworld, memories are important to me as they influence how I feel about ideas today and vice versa. By writing them and reading them (much) later, I have a much better understanding of how things have come about in my head and why I think the things I think.

2. It contributes to self-love
This might seem farfetched but not many practices in today's modern life are geared toward nurturing the self. I feel that spending time with yourself and listening to yourself are very important actions you could do that could lead toward a happier and more harmonious life. Writing a diary can make you feel more appreciative of your own thoughts and can help you embrace yourself for who you are.

3. You will gain awesome writing skills
Isn't it interesting that, here you have a bunch of physical signs that go together because a few folks invented a 'writing system' and before you know it you have 'read' the sentence and it has been visualised and understood in your head. It's magic! I have always been amazed my writing can express my deepest thoughts and feelings so condensly through combining a bunch of words. It's amazing.

4. It helps you structure your emotional life
The internal world is a mystery to me. I have often realised (especially when I was an upset teenager) that rereading my diary can give me so much clarity. For instance, I would often observe a pattern happening in my life I was previously unaware of. These new insights have always influenced my future actions. Even today, when I reread my diary over the last few months, I reread the moments I had felt intensely sad or happy and it gives me a better understanding of the elements that have moved me toward these emotional states over those months.

5. It makes you understand where you came from and where you want to go
We learn so much everyday. I feel that acknowledging development in life and that movement is a constant rather then anything else is a very powerful thing. It lets you go of painstaking and false ideas of permanence and makes you understand the necessity and inevitability of impertanence (anicca for those who are Buddhists!). Understanding that you are a resilient being and that you have overcome so many obstacles can give you a better sense of reality and a new feeling of self-appreciation. Often diary entries are interwoven with ideas and plans of the near or far future and by rereading them it can give you such a better picture of the direction you are moving in.

Do you keep a diary? If so, why do you do it? And if not, why not?

Thanks for reading, have a nice day!