The Power of Journaling

From psychologytoday.com

By David B. Feldman Ph.D.

The six months since the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic have been harrowing ones, to say the least. Against the backdrop of the disease and the economic impact it has brought, the world has witnessed ongoing racial injustice, natural disasters, and widespread wildfires, among other painful events.

For many people, it has been hard to stay emotionally afloat. Even the U.S. Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has published guidelines regarding how to cope, with suggestions running the gamut from engaging in leisure activities and taking media breaks to getting sufficient sleep and eating right. This article adds one additional idea to that list: journaling.

There’s a one-in-two chance you’ve kept a journal. Perhaps you needed an outlet for your thoughts, or maybe you were recording your experiences to revisit later in life. According to surveys, about half of us have written in a journal at some point in our lives, and somewhere in the neighbourhood of 1 in 6 people are active journalers right now. The number may be even higher for kids, with a 2014 survey showing that 21 percent of children and young people write in a diary at least once a month.

But considering the current need for additional coping practices, maybe more of us should.

Over the past couple of decades, dozens of studies have shown that certain journaling practices can positively impact a variety of outcomes, including happiness, goal attainment, and even some aspects of physical health. This research is often challenging to locate, given that the word “journaling” is not often used by investigators. Instead, they may label their interventions with names like “setting implementation intentions” or “engaging in expressive writing.”

Some of the effects of journaling are well-known. Most of us know, for instance, that keeping a gratitude journal can improve mood, an idea that first gained traction in a seminal paper published in 2003 by Robert Emmons and Michael McCullough in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

Although versions of this practice differ slightly, the basic idea is to write down a few good things that occur every day for anywhere from 2 to 10 weeks. They can be big things like “I just got a new job” or small things we might normally overlook, like “The flowers in the back yard were blooming today.” Given the turmoil in our world, it’s easy to overlook the little things that fill us with gratitude, instead focusing exclusively on the many negatives around us. Journaling may be a way of “hacking into” the brain, helping us be more mindful of the positive. 

But the effects of journaling can also be more dramatic. In a 2013 study published in the journal Psychosomatic Medicine, researchers found that a certain kind of journaling—sometimes known as expressive writing—may help in healing physical wounds, at least small ones. Investigators asked healthy adults ages 64 to 97 to journal for 20 minutes a day, three days in a row. But not everybody used the same journaling practice: Half were encouraged to write about things that upset them, honestly discussing their thoughts and feelings about those events. The other half wrote about a much dryer topic: how they manage time during the day.

Two weeks later, all participants had a tiny biopsy performed on their arms, creating a small wound. Researchers then tracked how that wound healed by taking a picture every day. By day 11, a full 76 percent of the group who wrote the more genuine journal about upsetting life events had healed, compared to just 42 percent of those that wrote about time management.

Something important to notice about this research is that not all journaling is equal. There’s little evidence that simply spilling our minds out onto a blank page does any good. In the study just mentioned, all the participants kept journals, but the effects were different depending on the particular journaling practices they employed. In other words, what we write about and how we write about it seem to matter.  

So, if you’re considering a writing practice, how should you begin? Like many things in life, it’s a personal choice, and it depends on what you feel would be the most helpful. However, a good place to start might be with a gratitude journal. Although writing about what we’re thankful for may not bring about dramatic changes in our lives, research consistently shows that it helps. Nobody’s pretending that keeping a journal will magically solve the many problems in our world. But during these troubling times, every little bit counts.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/supersurvivors/202009/the-power-journaling

The value of handwritten notes

From jamaica-gleaner.com

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Do you pick up any old notebook and pen when you need them, or do you have a thing for Moleskines or Montblancs?

Whether or not you are picky, know that tools for the hands are tools for the brain. Handwritten notes are a powerful tool for encrypting embodied cognition and, in turn, supporting the brain’s capacity for retrieval of information. And second, when you take notes by hand, your hands create a robust external memory storage: your notebook.

Taking notes by hand is a win-win and belongs in every student’s cognitive tool kit. Learning how to take notes by hand effectively and how to ingrain note-taking as a key learning and study tool can begin as early as grades 3 or 4, but it is never too late to begin.

We live in a digital age where daily functioning involves digital communication. Automaticity in keyboarding is an important skill, too, and the tools and applications for digital communication will continue to evolve and have their place. But keyboarding does not provide the tactile feedback to the brain that contact between pencil or pen and paper does – the key to creating the neurocircuitry in the hand-brain complex.

THE PROCESSING ADVANTAGE

While your laptop might seem faster and more efficient, there are good reasons for having a paper-bound notebook and pen – any kind you prefer – at the ready.

Researchers have found that note-taking associated with keyboarding involves taking notes verbatim in a way that does not involve processing information and so have called this “non-generative” note-taking. By contrast, taking notes by hand involves cognitive engagement in summarising, paraphrasing, organising, concept and vocabulary mapping – in short, manipulating and transforming information that leads to deeper understanding.

Note-taking becomes note-making: an active involvement in making sense and meaning for later reflection, study or sharing of notes to compare understanding with lab partners or classmates. This becomes a potent study strategy as one’s own processing can be further consolidated through talk.

There are templates and formats that teach more effective ways of taking handwritten notes. A popular one is the Cornell style developed by education professor Walter Pauk. You can also explore other ways that can be adapted for different study needs such as compare-contrast charts or webs.

Taking good notes depends on fluency of hand, which means legibility and speed combined. This is best achieved with a clean, uncluttered and connected script, meaning cursive writing, that young learners can begin to learn in grade 2. Fluency of hand comes from instruction and practice in the early years of school and sustained opportunities for authentic, purposeful literacy engagements, in turn, allocating working memory space to the cognitive demands of note-taking.

The move from grades 3 to 4 is a big leap for young learners. Content curriculum in science, social studies, English language arts, and mathematics makes accelerated demands on children to shift into academic modes of literacy.

Each year of educational advancement makes increasing demands in reading and writing, understanding, and making sense of vast amounts of information in multimodal formats.

SKETCHING AND DRAWING BELONG, TOO

Leonardo da Vinci wrote: “… the more minutely you describe, the more you will confuse the mind of the reader and the more you will remove him from knowledge of the thing described. Therefore it is necessary to make a drawing … as well as to describe … .”

The artist’s notebooks reveal a creative, inquiring, inventive mind, and man of science and art unparalleled centuries ahead of his time. Fergus Craik and Robert Lockhart, pioneers in cognitive neuroscience research, noted three levels of information processing. Their theory lays bare the neuroscience behind da Vinci’s insights centuries ago. When people visually represent knowledge, they can deepen their comprehension of concepts such as cycles and relationships. As a result, some cognitive researchers advocate teaching different ways of representing knowledge from an early age.

Florence Nightingale is remembered for her contributions in reforming medicine through her detailed, meticulous observations, documentation, note-taking, and writing. She is credited with creating the pie chart to represent this information.

I assign my own students, preparing to become teachers, the task of sketching the layout of the class where they are working in a field placement. They also take observational handwritten notes recorded in a Cornell template. This assignment is about interpreting what is going on in the classroom. This process of documenting provides a good scaffold for later review or reflection and theorising the work of classroom teachers.

If writing is a requirement of your profession whether in journalism, teaching, architecture, engineering, fashion, and more, you already know the benefits and importance of note-taking and sketching.

ANALOGUE, DIGITAL, AND LEGACY FORMATS

When deep understanding and remembering, making personal connection, and sparking creative thought are important, handwritten notes matter and endure over time.

Interestingly, the art of keeping a paper diary, journal, or planner has generated scores of online communities. Many find pleasure in keeping calendars, daily organisers, cards and notes and lists of all kinds, and writing family stories for the next generation all by hand – and then sharing them digitally.

For serious students, note-taking is an indispensable cognitive tool and study technique. Creating neurocircuitry for memory and meaning through the hand-brain complex is the key to understanding the value of handwritten notes. Think twice before relying solely on your laptop this fall!

- Hetty Roessingh is a professor of education at the University of Calgary. This article originally appeared on The Conversation and is republished under a Creative Commons licence.

http://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/art-leisure/20200920/value-handwritten-notes

Diary keeping is enjoying a 2020 resurgence

From newsofthearea.com.au

WRITING and keeping a diary is making a comeback during the pandemic.

Dr Peta Murray, a Vice-Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Research Fellow at RMIT University, said diary-keeping is having a resurgence, as people find it helps them in troubled times and it could also help others.

“Diary-keeping was like turning to a trusted friend and pouring your heart out, although in a much more intimate way – there was only you, the pen and the paper.
“But now we’re realising it can be done more casually than that, simply as a way to connect with others by connecting with ourselves.”

For some, a daily post on social media is a modern diary.

Reflective writing also has therapeutic benefits, according to Dr Robyn Moffitt, a Lecturer in Psychology in the School of Health and Biomedical Sciences at RMIT University.
Moffitt’s research has found reflective writing can help women manage their body dissatisfaction.

After participants wrote a brief diary entry encouraging compassion towards themselves, they were found to be more appreciative of their bodies and motivated to improve themselves further.

Moffitt said from a psychological perspective, there’s evidence keeping a diary is a useful way to engage in healthy self-monitoring of our thoughts, feelings and behaviour.
“Reflecting on past events in our mind can often lead to self-critical and unhelpful thinking, or even rumination, which can exacerbate distress.”
“But keeping a diary and writing things down as they happen can provide perspective on the frequency and severity of different events.
“Think of it like discovering an old memory, forgotten clues from your past self that could help you through current challenges,” she said.

             Port Stephens Citizen of the Year, Alicia Cameron often ponders before journaling

Local coach Alicia Cameron told News Of The Area, “The best thing is it is an exchange of energy and takes things out of your head and puts it onto paper.
“You can ponder or write a gratitude journal.
“Most people know what they don’t want, but only a few take time to find what they do: journaling takes the time to think about what you do want to bring clarity and changes your brain waves, taking you into an inspirational and aspirational mind.
“Putting your goals on paper makes you five times more likely to achieve them – it creates accountability,” she said.

Fiona Brown of Youtopia said, “Journaling is such a valuable tool and one that I use regularly with my clients.
“It is a wonderful tool for making clear what is otherwise a random mess of thoughts swimming around in your head.
“Journaling can only be done in the present moment which allows you to tap into what is real for you right now, bringing a much clearer perspective rather than trying to recall the past which naturally changes as over time through the filters of our mind.
“It is the perfect tool for reducing overwhelm and helping create a positive future,” she said.

So if you are looking to de-stress, create clarity or feel better about your situation perhaps trying using a diary or journal is a step in the right direction for you.

https://www.newsofthearea.com.au/diary-keeping-enjoying-a-2020-resurgence-58394

Dear diary! Covid-19 pandemic leads to resurgence in diary-keeping

From startsat60.com

Starts at 60 bloggers Sue Leighton and Susan Gabriel-Clarke might live on different continents but that doesn’t stop them from staying up to date with one another through their routine daily emails. The pair discusses everything from what they’ve done during the day to their ailments and even their past loves – just like a modern day dairy.

Diary-keeping – whether it’s to record a special moment in your life, keep track of where you are or simply to get your thoughts down on paper – is one of the best habits to pick up, and these days you’d be hard pressed to find someone who hasn’t kept a diary at one point in their lives.

And as the lucky generation to properly see technology make its way into the world, many Baby Boomers have since moved their writing style from old-fashioned handwriting to suit the age of the computer. New diary entries now come in the form of emails between friends, blog posts and social media updates.

For Sue and Susan, their daily emails recount every moment of their lives and making the move online has only made their diary-keeping habits more prolific than ever before. Being able to share their inner thoughts with one another despite one living in Queensland and the other in France has been incredibly reassuring, particularly at this point in time.

                                        Diary-keeping is back and better than ever. Source: Getty

“In truth, there isn’t anything we don’t discuss with each other,” Sue said. “It’s just like writing a daily diary. Particularly, throughout this pandemic, doing so is an incredible source of comfort and connection for both of us.”

Experts from RMIT University are now saying that the age-old hobby is experiencing a resurgence during the pandemic as people are quickly finding it helpful to put pen to paper or fingers to keyboard during these troubling times. Dr Peta Murray from RMIT said that while keeping a regular record is helpful on an individual level, it can also be a great help to others.

“We keep hearing these are unprecedented times but it’s largely because none of us on this earth today have a true understanding of what it’s like to live through a pandemic,” she said. “And why would we? We have already seen how vastly different the experience is depending on where one lives and their personal circumstances.”

Murray said that sharing diary entries helps to paint a picture in history of how the world is currently coping in a crisis. Gone are the days of hiding your diary under your bed as modern day diaries are much more open – especially through things like social media where the world now has much easier access to the experiences of others.

Starts at 60 blogger Lyn Fletcher reflected this fairly well in her routine diary-keeping in which she said started at beginning of the pandemic as a form of self-governed contact tracing.

“Before the Covid App was available, I thought it would be a good idea to record each day – what we did, where we went (if we went out), who we saw/met, and how our lives were changing (e.g. new things we were cooking/doing). Fortunately, we haven’t had to refer to it for contact tracing, but it’s been an interesting journey so far.”

But diary-keeping doesn’t have to just be about the woes of the pandemic, as is true for fellow blogger Colin Blane who says he’s been keeping a diary everyday for almost 50 years, recording everything from phone calls to doctors appointments to where he wines and dines.

“My records have been invaluable on many occasions to prove important details about who I spoke to following disputes with Telstra, insurance companies and other organisations (I always keep a record of date, time, and who I spoke to),” he said. “Recording daily activities for me is therapeutic and fulfilling. Just as I start my day with a short prayer of thanks, I sign off with a sense of satisfaction.

On a more personal note, my wife suffers from stroke induced aphasia, so the memories I jot down each day are consistently resurrected to paint word pictures for her to recollect.”

https://startsat60.com/media/lifestyle/entertainment/dear-diary-covid-19-pandemic-leads-to-resurgence-in-diary-keeping

Note to self: a pandemic is a great time to keep a diary, plus 4 tips for success

From theconversation.com

A search for “Coronavirus Diary” on Google yields 910,000 results. News outlets like the Guardian, The Atlantic and The New York Times have chronicled an increase in personal record-keeping.
Whether for future historians, self-care or to relieve feelings of isolation, we are in the middle of a diarological moment.

And today’s diaries aren’t just handwritten reflections in bound notebooks. They might be social media posts, video entries or visual collages – so long as they are regularly updated over an extended period and personal in nature, they fit the bill. The secret is in the repetition, and the pledge that drives it.

On the look out

The word diary entered the English language in the late 16th century, via the Latin word, diarium, which comes from dies, meaning day. The diary asks us to attend to this day.

Diary-keeping sharpens observational skills, so it is no wonder then that cultural institutions have begun projects to crowd-source details of what otherwise might be quite banal aspects of our lives.
The State Library of Victoria has a Facebook group, Memory Bank, where posts of shopping lists and sourdough recipes have given way to more melancholy images of closed shops and empty streets in the CBD – a collective chronicle both hyperlocal and universal.

The State Library of New South Wales subtitles its Diary Files an “online community diary”, and currently contains nearly a thousand entries, searchable by keywords. School, time, home and COVID are among the most commonly written words, and the greatest number of contributions come from Sydneysiders between 10 and 15 years of age.

Video “lockdown” diaries can also be viewed online, via BBC Reel, or listened to through Corona Diaries, the interactive open source project which collects audio stories from around the world.
Social researchers have identified the diary as a tool to capture the impact of the pandemic on daily life. UK sociologist Michael Ward began his research through CoronaDiaries, where 164 participants ranging in age from 11 to 87 submit entries in a variety of forms. Ward suggests:

These entries are able to highlight the multiple different lives behind the dreaded numbers we hear announced each day.

Famous diary keepers

Most of us can name some famous literary diarists of history – Samuel Pepys, Virginia Woolf, Adrian Mole. When we stray far beyond this list, it is often the times, rather than the writer, that make the diary notable.

There is Lena Mukhina’s perspective on the Siege of Leningrad, 13-year-old Anne Frank’s account of the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands and the poignant scratchings of Sir Robert Scott’s on the day he perished: “For god’s sake, look after our people”.

Nelson Mandela’s desk-calendar notes, kept in prison, speak to extraordinary experiences under extreme conditions.

Diaries from the 1918 influenza pandemic came into their own as more than ephemera for both historians and scientists in 2020.

For a book length account, we can look to Daniel Defoe’s A Journal of the Plague Year, about life in London in 1665 – bearing in mind the author was only five years old at the height of the epidemic, so it is likely a factual-meets-fictional rendering.

Diary-writing serves broader society, and can help individuals make sense of difficult times.
Interviewed for this story, psychologist Robyn Moffitt told us:

From a psychological perspective, keeping a diary is a really useful (and evidence-based) way to engage in healthy self-monitoring of thoughts, feelings, and behaviour … writing things down as they happen can provide some objective evidence and perspective on the frequency and severity of different events, and we can use this to correct distorted thinking.
The process of writing itself can also be quite therapeutic. It can allow us to process and reconstruct past events, problem-solve, and create new meanings, and in some ways this makes it similar to psychotherapy. Psychotherapy is often referred to as the “talking cure”, and writing can provide similar therapeutic benefits (the “writing cure” perhaps)?

What makes it a diary?

The turn of the 21st century saw a resurgence of the diary in public reading events such as Mortified, Salon of Shame and our own experiments with The Symphony of Awkward.

It might be argued that social media has since overtaken the diary as a means to chronicle one’s life. Indeed, there is crossover in the ways lives are shared and curated across different media, from the handwritten diary to blogs.

The ritualistic structure offered by the personal diary can be repurposed in digital spaces. The notion of publicly committing to post something – an image, a video, a song – every day offers another way of marking out time when every day is Blursday the fortyteenth of Aprilay.

We have experimented with each recording a sound a day, collected from the few spaces we were still able to inhabit.

A diaristic practice, whether written or not, supports us to stay in the moment, as psychotherapists and life coaches exhort us to do.

And it’s never too late to start diarising. Here are some tips:

1. Decide on your platform

Digital or analogue? Decide on your medium. The written or spoken word? A photo? A sound? A song? Choose something that pleases you (a special pen, a fancy notebook) to heighten the experience.

2. Make a vow

Make an entry every day, or on a set number of days for four weeks. 28 days is said to be a good target if aiming to break or start a habit – though it may take longer.

3. Make time

Set aside time at the same hour each day to capture your experience.

4. Rinse and repeat

Carpe diem. Seize the day!

https://theconversation.com/note-to-self-a-pandemic-is-a-great-time-to-keep-a-diary-plus-4-tips-for-success-144063