During my school days, my dad used to get a black diary from his office that had a built-in calendar of the current year, last year, and for some reason, even the next 10 years. I started writing my everyday life events in the cramped-up spaces between the two lines. For me, that was #diary writing. It took many years to figure out if I liked writing between well-spaced lines or in no-agenda blank pages.
I remember stumping people by sharing small anecdotes that happened years before and then sharing my secret that I write everything in my Diary. Maybe it creeped out some people. Who knows? But, essentially, a diary is your canvas to express whatever you want to in no particular order or rhythm.
As per the definition on google, both Diary & #Journal are words that can be used interchangeably, which I respectfully (to google) disagree with.
A #Journal is a personal space to record experiences, ideas, reflections and is the most intimate thing a person can have.
Journal also means a newspaper or magazine that deals with a particular subject or professional activity. For this context, we are sticking to personal journals.
Any notebook can be turned into a diary, and you can start logging your daily life, events, plans, grocery list into it. Still, for me, Journal is an expansive space, and a key differentiator is the “Intention.”
Why are you writing, whatever you are writing? What are you looking to gain? Does writing help you? How?
It is my responsibility to tell you that it’s OK not to have a purpose when you write down about your life, but ask yourself this – Am I really writing down my thoughts for nothing, and it’s a passive way of expressing?
Many people start writing about their lives to explore themselves, their thought patterns, how deep they can go in a subject, increase their self-awareness, and are not afraid to confront their thoughts and emotions.
A journal gives a classification to that intention. An “idea journal” is a collection of ideas that would prompt the person to work on them, and they may bloom into actionable goals.
A “gratitude journal” is for setting your intentions on gratitude and being thankful for things and feelings present in your life.
I like to write down my dreams in my “dream journal,” as I experience some Hollywood-level dreams and want to relish them whenever I want.
You can write all the thoughts in a diary too, but you don’t keep your shoes, clothes, purses, makeup, and jewelry in one section of a wardrobe, so why would you want to do that to your thoughts?
For this love of classification, I started Mind Alcove that has nine different kinds of journals. It makes it so much easier to manage the big and entangled ball of thoughts we experience every day and experience the growth in perspective, ideas, and emotions.
Journaling & Mood Tracking
Ultimately, it’s your intention that matters when you decide to go along this journey with yourself. You can pick up a diary or a journal, whatever you do, enjoy the process of knowing yourself and deepen the bond with yourself.
To experience Mind Alcove, click here.
