What can you do to improve your foreign language?

From raillynews.com

Knowing a foreign language has become a very important plus value today. In fact, knowing not only English but two or three languages ​​is considered ideal. Because, with the development of technology and communication networks both in business life and social life, contact with people in different countries has increased. The company you work with may have a foreign partner or staff, or it may be necessary to know a foreign language in order to shop and establish social relations while traveling abroad.

In addition to all these obligations, people can only be interested in any culture. In order to get to know that culture, he may want to learn the language spoken by that geography. At this point, for whatever reason, those who want to improve their foreign language can start to explore various ways.

So, what can those who want to improve their foreign language do? Here are the essential tips when learning a foreign language:

What can you do to improve your foreign language?

1. Watching TV Series & Movies in the Language You Want to Learn

We think that the most fun way to learn a language is to watch foreign series and movies. As you follow foreign series and movies, an ear familiarity develops in the language you want to learn. In addition, you have the chance to learn new words since you follow the movie or series with subtitles in the beginning period. You can write the newly learned words on small papers and paste them where you can see them often.

2. Changing the Phone Language

One of the most practical exercises you can do to improve your foreign language is to change the language of your phone. In this way, we can use smartphones, which are one of the tools we use most frequently, in a more beneficial way. Using a different language on the first day may seem strange, but we're sure you'll get used to it over time.

3. Following the Lyrics While Listening to Foreign Language Songs

Do you like listening to music in a foreign language? If you like it, you are lucky. You can discover beautiful songs about the language you are interested in and try to understand them with the words you learn. For this, you can also benefit from mobile applications where you can follow the lyrics of the music.

4. Keeping a Journal in a Foreign Language

Everyone says that the best way to learn a foreign language is to think in a foreign language. They are not wrong about this either. Thinking of sentences directly in a different language instead of translating your mother tongue into a foreign language speeds up the learning process. Therefore, keeping a diary in the language you want to learn can help you think in a foreign language and express daily events more easily.​ ​

5. Utilizing Foreign Language Development Applications

Today, there are many mobile applications for those who want to learn a foreign language. With mobile applications that you can easily access from your smartphone, you can learn new words and sentences without delaying your learning request. Let's list a few of the mobile applications you can use to learn a foreign language:

• Memrise
• Duolingo
• Busuu
• HelloTalk
• HiNative

6. Attending Online Trainings

Of course, everyone's language learning capacity and ability is different. But if you spend a little time each day learning a language, we're sure you'll see the difference. With online trainings, it is much easier to spend time in a foreign language and attend courses wherever you are. In this regard, you can benefit from the programs of various foreign language courses or foreign language development applications such as Cambly or Skype Tutors, which have many foreign instructors.

7. Researching Language Schools in the Related Country

Of course, going to language school requires a sufficient budget. If you can allocate such a budget for language learning, you can quickly start researching a language school in a country where the language you want to learn is spoken. Because the easiest way to learn a foreign language is to be with people who speak that language as a mother tongue.

Getting Started with Level 8 Books

Reading a book is also a very important element that expands the vocabulary. And for those who want to read a foreign language book, there are various levels in this regard. In the periods when you are just trying to learn the language, you can start with the books with low difficulty level and gradually increase the level in the following periods. Thus, as you see that you understand what you read, you can be even more motivated.

9. Finding Online Dating

As we said before, the fastest way to learn a language is to talk to strangers on a daily basis and even make friends with them. For this reason, you can get language friends from different countries via the internet and mobile applications. In this regard, you can take a look at applications such as Tandem and italki.

10. Following Foreign Social Media Accounts

Have you ever wondered how many hours a day you spend on social media? Many people now spend a lot of time on social media. If you use social media very often, you can turn an area where you spend so much time into an educational platform. You can follow the social media accounts in the language you want to learn and try to understand the explanations under the posts. This method will also come in handy for learning new words and phrases.

https://raillynews.com/2021/06/yabanci-dilinizi-gelistirmek-icin-neler-yapabilirsiniz/

5 wise and wonderful tips for getting the most out of writing a diary

From stylist.co.uk

Keeping a diary is a brilliant way to look after your mental health and document your memories. Liz Beardsell, who has written over 10,000 diary entries in her lifetime, shares her advice on how to make writing a diary work for you.

Writing about yourself is probably something you did as a child, scribbling down lists of your friends and filling notebooks with adolescent dramas. Thanks to the recent renaissance of journaling, adults are starting to write about their thoughts and feelings again, with many people starting a journal to help manage their mental health. 

Research is clear that writing about your inner thoughts recreationally can be extremely beneficial. One study led by The Royal College of Psychiatrists found writing expressively for 15 to 20 minutes a day over a four-month period lowered blood pressure and resulted in better liver functionality.

Sitting down to write about your feelings might seem intimidating, especially if you’re struggling with your mental health. That’s why the traditional act of diary writing, where you recount events that have happened in your day, can be an easier, more accessible way to create an account of your life that you can look back on. 

One woman who knows a thing or two about writing a diary is podcaster Liz Beardsell. She has kept a diary since she was 12 years old and, at the age of 39, has written over 10,000 diary entries over her lifetime.

“I was quite a shy child so writing a diary was a way for me to express myself,” says Liz. “I can’t remember life without it.”

Liz makes the most of her extensive diary collections in her podcast Diary, She Wrote, where she reads out her diary entries, telling stories about her relationships, friendships and her health. “My diary is like a secret story I’m telling to myself – it’s a real release,” Liz says.

 “Writing a diary has really benefited my mental health because it means I process everything as it happens,” Liz says, adding that another key benefit of writing a diary is that “it gives you a time capsule of your life.”

Now lockdown is starting to lift and we can make new memories out in the world again, it feels more important than ever to document them. Here’s Liz’s advice on how to get the most out of using a diary and becoming consistent with it.

Liz’s advice for getting the most out of keeping a diary

Handwrite your diary, if you can 

The way you write your diary is totally down to you. You could type up your entries in a word doc or use an online diary tool like Penzu. Or, use the old fashioned method of handwriting your entries like Liz, who says that buying herself a new notebook and pen feels like a form of self-care.

“Handwriting slows your brain down more than tapping away at a keyboard,” Liz adds. “When you hit the letters on your keyboard, you’re not necessarily thinking the words through, so handwriting allows me to connect with what I’m writing more.” 

Zoom in on details in your day 

If you’ve spent the day working from home with minimal plans, you might feel like you have nothing to note down in your diary. But, Liz says you should still try and write something every day because you never know where your thoughts might lead. 

“What I’ve found through my podcast, is that capturing tiny details throughout my day is actually what helps differentiate one day from another when I’m looking back,” says Liz, advising that there’s no detail too small to explore.

Liz recommends beginning your diary entry from the very start of your day, but there’s no pressure to track your day from beginning to end. You can zoom in on particular details and events if they feel more interesting to you and explore how they made you feel.

Liz Beardsel has written over 10,000 diary entries over the past 27 years

Try to write a little every day 

While you’re getting into the routine of writing a diary, Liz says you only need to set aside as little as five minutes a day to write your entries. 

“You can even bullet point thoughts and descriptions of your day if this feels more manageable,” she says, explaining that once you’re in the routine of writing, you can work your way up to writing for longer periods.

Liz uses A5 notebooks for her diaries and usually writes for about 15 minutes at a time, filling a page per day. “There are days where something really exciting has happened and I look forward to writing in my diary, so I’ll go to bed an extra hour early to do it,” Liz says. “But there are also more boring days and I never feel the pressure to fill a page. Sometimes, it’s just a couple of sentences.”

“Don’t put too much pressure on yourself,” is her advice. “If you haven’t got a lot to write, it doesn’t matter. There are going to be so many more interesting days in the future that you’ll be dying to write about.” 

Write alone and avoid distractions 

Because writing a diary is time you’re taking for yourself, Liz recommends being alone when you write. “Around 95% of the time I write my diary entries from bed on my own at the end of the day,” she says. She’s also written them from cafes and the beach when she’s been travelling.

The key thing is not where you are, but that you feel relaxed and comfortable. “It’s similar to meditation – you want to avoid any distractions to ensure it’s your own solo time,” Liz says.

Liz finds it best to write her diary entries at the end of the day because she can remember more clearly what has happened. But, if you’re more of a morning person, you could write your diary entry for the previous day in the mornings.

Another important thing when it comes to diary writing is not to put pressure on yourself to make your writing creative and impressive. “You just need to get thoughts out of your head and capture the moment, so don’t worry about your writing style,” says Liz. 

Read back your old entries 

Like most things, diary writing will come most naturally to you when it becomes a habit, so do try and keep up with it, even if you’re struggling to find the time or it’s not quite what you expected it to be just yet.

“I’ve been doing it so long that writing a diary is like brushing my teeth,” Liz continues. “If I stopped diary writing, I know I would feel anxious.”

One of the things that motivates Liz to be so consistent in keeping her diary entries up to date is that, if she doesn’t, her memories become blurred and she is keen to portray them as accurately as possible.

Liz recommends reading back your diary entries if you ever feel like giving it up. You’ll probably realise just how enjoyable it is to have them there and how much you can learn from them. “Reading back over my diary entries allows me to realise which people in my life make me feel my best and which people make me feel insecure,” Liz says. “You don’t necessarily tap into that in the moment.”

Writing about yourself on a daily basis isn’t for everyone, so Liz recommends trying it out for a month and then reading back your entries to reflect on how you’ve been feeling. You’ll also be able to see the effect writing a diary has had on your month. At this point, if it’s something that works for you, you’ll probably be able to see tangible benefits and be more motivated to continue.

https://www.stylist.co.uk/life/how-to-write-diary/533453

Money Diaries: A warehouse worker on €22K living and working in Dublin

From thejournal.ie

This week, our reader is working late shifts and managing health and wellbeing

WELCOME TO HOW I Spend My Money, a series on TheJournal.ie that looks at how people in Ireland really handle their finances.

We’re asking readers to keep a record of how much they earn, what they save if anything, and what they’re spending their money on over the course of one week.

Are you a spender, a saver or a splurger? We’re looking for readers who will keep a money diary for a week. If you’re interested send a mail to money@thejournal.ie. We would love to hear from you.

Each money diary is submitted by readers just like you. When reading and commenting, bear in mind that their situation will not be relatable for everyone, it is simply an account of a week in their shoes, so let’s be kind.

Last time around, we heard from a finance company employee on €24K in Kildare. This week, a warehouse worker living in Dublin on €22K.

I’m a warehouse operative living in a studio apartment rented with my fiancee, am currently living and working in northwest Dublin city, arriving in Ireland just two years ago found myself having to focus away from a career and properly focusing on settling down in Ireland first.

I started working in distribution services about one and a half years ago, unfortunately, Covid hit Ireland and found myself having to postpone my university studies, and since then have focused on managing my expenses and investing as much as I can.

I get paid weekly, my expenses are primarily limited to basic necessities, such as rent and electricity, I try to avoid spending on things I do not need, used to be a member of a gym however due to the current restrictions resigned myself to exercising at home.

Occupation: Warehouse worker
Age: 28
Location: Dublin
Salary: €22,040
Monthly pay (net): €1,680

Monthly expenses

Transport: €0.00 (On the occasion that I have to travel by bus I would spend on average €10.00)
Rent: €450.00 (my share of the rent, as it is split between me and my fiancee)
Household bills: €35.00
Phone bill: €20.00
Health insurance: €0.00
Groceries: €180.00
Subscriptions: Netflix subscription €12.99 per month. Playstation Network €8.99 per month.

Savings Monthly

€ 200.00 allocated into a low volatile Index Fund for hedging
€ 200.00 allocated into cryptocurrency assets (left staked whenever a coin shows promise, some left in more stablecoins)
€ 200.00 allocated into blue-chip stocks
€ 100.00 (set aside monthly for emergencies)

***

Monday

9:00 am: I am the first one awake, I have a quick breakfast (usually the same every day unless it’s close to grocery shopping days), have some nice coffee, put on my music on headphones, take my sports supplements and begin my workout routine.

10:30 am: After finishing exercising I go on with a computer science course I’m taking for about an hour.

11:30 am: Cooldown time, relax for about 30 minutes reading a bit of the Book of Five Rings.

12:00 am: Around noon I start to get ready for work, set up my clothes, and have a little snack of nuts and a Protein and Vitamin Smoothie, and pack my lunch of rice, breaded steak, a salad, and a sandwich for my second break. (I normally cook lunch for the next two days of work to save time and pack it on the day).

1:00 pm: I leave the house for work. It’s a 6km cycle to the distribution centre, takes me about half an hour at a stable pace (I have done this commute every day since I worked there save for a couple of times when my bicycle had issues), I get to work quite early though, it’s a holiday so there was no traffic, gives me time to change in the locker room and drink some tea before starting my shift.

2:00 pm: From 2:00 pm until 10 pm I am at work, it’s a calm day and all the routes get done quick and effectively. 

10:30 pm: I get home from work. I get a quick half-hour workout and stretch done, grabbed a bite to eat, and then watched Netflix until midnight.

                             Today’s total: €0.00

Tuesday

10:30 am: It’s my day off so I sleep a little more, checked my emails and brokerage accounts. I have my usual breakfast before starting my workout routine. Have a shower and get my grocery list finally ready.

1:30 pm: We head off for a walk, the weather seems to be a bit more agreeable today after all so why not? After that we go grocery shopping, this time spending €21.79. On the way home I grab a kebab meal costing me €9.20. Once home I proceed to study until around 8 pm.

8:30 pm: I start prepping my meals for the next days, cooking dinner while I’m at it as well, after that, I sit down to have some dinner with my fiancee.

10:30 pm: I watch a few episodes on Netflix until around 11:30, then play some games before bedtime, at 1:30 am.

                                   Today’s total: €30.99

Wednesday

9:30 am: Wake up, feeling a little sleepy due to my blocked nose, proceed to have breakfast and morning exercise and lifting, it had helped me breathe better. 

10:30 am: I listen to a podcast as I try some coding exercises. Keeping a routine feels right to me especially during such difficult times when most people find themselves feeling trapped. Oftentimes it’s difficult to stick with it but good habits tend to build up.

12:00 am: Head out for some fresh air, the weather is mixed but it is oh so nice to feel the sun, I then pack my lunch and get ready for work, I have my smoothie, eat a cereal bar, take my vitamins and I’m out the door by 1 pm.

10:30 pm: Get home from work, the day was not that busy but it felt like a long shift, get home, have a nice shower, then prepare some vegetable fried rice, after dinner, I get ready for bed and cosy up reading some Seneca before bed.

                              Today’s total: €0.00

Thursday

10:00 am: I get up after having a rather poor night of sleep, but after having a morning tea and getting some fresh air I am starting to liven up, get my headphones, blast some jams and get a good workout, at which point my fiancee wakes up, prepare her a nice tea, and it’s dancing time! We have tried different types of dancing over time, it feels nice to have more balance and control overall, and dancing helps with it.

12:20 am: I head off to work, on my break I fall into temptation and buy some chocolate and crisps from Centra and Coke too for €4.30 because well, why not!  On my second break, I take the time to do some financial research.

10:30 pm: Back home from love my fiancee cooked a nice chicken roast, then we watch Benidorm until what turned out to be only a couple of episodes spiralled well into midnight, I then head off to bed.

                          Today’s total: €4.30

Friday

9:00 am: I’m up early to get myself some me time, have my yoghurt and grains and meditate for a bit of headspace, organise the room and get a cup of coffee. I had to take the day off to head to the bank, I needed to update my key – deciding whether to cycle or not felt like rolling a dice! One just can’t predict the weather so I just cycle anyways.

2:00 pm: I deal with the bank issue and treat myself to some subway €8.00, since I already know I will have to cycle back under hail, yikes! After getting home I do a workout routine while I’m still on that fast pace, check my assets in crypto and double-check whether I should short some coins and what the sentiment is around staking pools. I then proceed to work on my project for my computer science course for the rest of the day.

10:00 pm: After work is done it’s puzzle time! My fiancee and I grab an old puzzle box we had and have some fun trying to crack these two puzzles we’ve been trying to solve for a while. I then play some strategy pc games until a bit after midnight.

                   Today’s total: €8.00

Saturday

7:30 am: Even though I’m off woke up quite early, had trouble sleeping soundly, rise and get myself a glass of water, it’s pleasant to stay in silence sometimes in the morning, so just enjoy this half-sleep moment to reminisce about whatever I was dreaming, get some fresh air, and grab some tea before doing some stretches, after my fiancee wakes up we make some pancakes with jam and try and figure what’s the game plan for the next week.

1:00 pm: We are ready and head off to the market, usually we typically have two shopping days a week, it’s good to separate the basics and the extras, helps save money too, we get some veggies, fruits, carbs (rice, potatoes) and some milk €19.00. She then reminds me we have to go buy some essential toiletries for the month, ended up going to Boots and getting a nasal spray and something for myself too €14,40 After arriving home she devotes the rest of the day to her work, I go through a lecture from my course and then play some old-school video-games until nighttime.

9:00 pm: I start preparing my meals for the next two days, I try to keep the basics covered so rice is always on my lunchboxes! I prepare some vegetables, some slow-cooked chicken in the oven, and manage to get a few sets while passively watching some Snowpiercer, I always had a thing for dystopian sci/fi flicks! I go to sleep at half-past midnight.

                         Today’s total: €33.40

Sunday

10:00 am: Wake up to the sound of the neighbour’s dog. I am the only one awake so I pray for a bit in silence, have a nice cup of coffee and since there was still some time before work booted up my console to play some Hitman before work, time flies by and around 11:30 get in a quick workout before getting ready to work.

1:15 pm: I leave for work a bit later than usual, no bother though, as Sundays are a breeze to cycle, change between a couple of different tasks at work, Sunday is not as busy so once one route is consolidated I move on to something else, keeps work from being boring,  after everything is done I manage to go home earlier than I expected (thankfully!). 

8:30 pm: I get home and get to work on greek style wraps with pork, vegetables, yoghurt and garlic sauce, a decision that I would come to regret later! After dinner we watch some Netflix, my stomach starts to feel a bit disagreeable so I just drink some tea and head off to bed, do a couple of exercises for my course and then fall asleep.

                          Today’s total: €0.00

Weekly subtotal:  €76.70

***

What I learned –

• Your best asset is yourself, so it’s important to make yourself employable with valuable skills. This exercise made me realise how much extra time have been spending on entertainment and how to better manage my free time. Because as the saying goes, time is money.

• Reading about other people’s stories and looking back on my own week made me realise that it’s important to also spend time on yourself and your own wellbeing, health is wealth. As well as keeping my compounding consistent.

• Often whenever I am not engrossed in my routine and focused it gets easier to be distracted by all the noise and be financially inconsequential. This exercise helped me shed light on those occasions.

https://www.thejournal.ie/readme/spending-money-finances-broke-5462835-Jun2021/

How keeping a diary can help adults learn a foreign language

From theconversation.com

Most of us assume that learning another language is very difficult. You need special skills to remember both vocabulary and grammar rules and, at the same time, must be able to converse fluently with a native speaker. So how do we actually learn a language? What is the best way? And how can teachers help learners to remember the sometimes complex elements and characteristics of another language?

Adults learn explicitly. That means they want clear explanations, and they also need to clarify things they are uncertain about. Adult learners analyse elements of a new language and make links using their own existing language knowledge. Everyone has, and uses, these highly developed explicit learning processes which have often taken a lot of time and effort to develop.

But students need techniques to overcome learning challenges, including those presented by COVID, which ended face-to-face teaching, and Brexit which has made trips abroad and training placements much more difficult.

Through our research, we found that keeping a diary turns good teaching and learning practice into something more concrete and immediate by allowing students to replay their learning steps in their written entries.

A teaching toolkit

Our study examined a group of language learners studying Spanish as a foreign language in evening classes at a Scottish university. We wanted to find out how they explained and clarified the new language they were learning using their existing language (English). What did they focus on as they were learning Spanish? What language characteristics drew their attention? How did they explain what they were learning to themselves and others, and what links did they make with their mother tongue?

Working with three classes made up of 38 learners, we introduced learning diaries to the classroom as a task for the end of each language lesson. Students had to answer two questions: what they had learned in the lesson, and what differences and similarities had they noticed between their mother tongue and Spanish.

The questions remained the same for all their entries. Students were free to comment, analyse and reflect on the substance of the lessons. It was up to them to choose what to discuss in their diary – there was no effort on the part of the teacher to draw attention to specific linguistic or cultural elements of the language.

After using the learning diaries for a set period, a focus group interview was arranged to quiz students about the impact of these diaries. Chiefly we were interested in whether they felt using the diary had altered their performance and improved their confidence in speaking the new language.

Using a diary after each lesson helped students consolidate what they had learned in class and reflect on the new language connections they had made

rawpixel.coml/Shutterstock

How was it for you?

Students’ learning diaries revealed how they used their analytic language ability. They identified common language errors that (mainly) English speakers make in Spanish. They described how the language worked in Spanish, as well as in English. They also noted and translated grammatical rules that apply in both languages, and also how things differed between the two:

In Spanish ‘me gusta/n’ means ‘it is pleasing to me/they are pleasing to me’. Or literally, ‘to me it is pleasing’, the it/them being the object of the sentence. This is quite a difficult concept to understand.

Students seemed keen on writing a diary about their learning and understanding; they enjoyed learning by making connections with their mother tongue. According to their accounts, these connections helped them memorise what they were learning. The content of their diary entries was good for sparking discussions in the classroom and talking about how they learned things:

The diary … helped me memorise colours in Spanish and improved my chances of getting a Spanish reply when I [repeatedly] asked myself, ‘what colour is that?’

But we were surprised to find that students did not reflect on cultural matters in their diaries. Lessons had purposefully contained cultural elements from all over the Spanish speaking world, from the Mexican Day of the Dead to Easter celebrations in Madrid.

The students’ reflections seemed to cover only the linguistic spectrum, focusing on distinctions between languages, such as the existence of genders in Spanish, and how you could guess the correct gender of a word. It appeared that the diaries were used specifically as a simple tool for tightening the nuts and bolts of language learning.

Their answers to the first question (about what they had learned in that day’s lesson) revealed very few similar answers across the three groups, which we were not expecting because each lesson had specific learning objectives. These were shared at the beginning of each session as a matter of good teaching practice. This result alone made us think about how personalised language learning becomes as students progress. Learners, it seems, take away a range of different elements from each lesson, which are simply not predictable.

Using these findings about how students analysed and reflected on language could help shape teaching and learning in future. Specifically, we can see that learning diaries allowed students to explore their own analytic skills, become aware of what particularly drew their interest, and illuminate how they reflected on their own knowledge to advance their comprehension and learning.

By the end, the students were keen to continue keeping a diary. They found it a really helpful way to make sense of language connections and memorise new Spanish words as they progressed. For the teachers involved, the diaries provided an excellent starting point for class discussions, and offered a practical toolkit for language teaching.

https://theconversation.com/how-keeping-a-diary-can-help-adults-learn-a-foreign-language-154597

How Journaling Can Help You Sleep

From psychologytoday.com

By Michael J Breus Ph.D.

Writing your thoughts in a journal can be effective for processing feelings

As a kid, did you ever keep a journal or a diary? Well, sleep journaling is something a little different.

During childhood, we may have used journaling to write about our everyday lives and experiences, including our dreams, goals, and worries. Perhaps it gave you some peace of mind to internalize what you were thinking and helped you make sense of things as you grew older.

Even beyond our childhoods we often grapple with anxiety, worry, and racing thoughts. These thoughts can be overwhelming and may inhibit our day-to-day lives as well as negatively impact our sleep. But they don’t have to.

Writing your thoughts in a journal can be a very effective way of processing your feelings. Not only that, but journaling can help you recognize unproductive or negative thoughts and behaviours, and help you respond to these behaviours in a more constructive way. And when you can handle life’s stresses in a positive way, it’s much easier to sleep well at night.

Source: deposit photos

What Is Sleep Journaling?

Sleep journaling is simply the act of recording your thoughts and feelings a few hours before you fall asleep each night. It may sound similar to keeping a sleep diary, sleep log, or dream journal, but there are key differences between them.

Sleep diaries and sleep logs are intended to keep track of your sleep habits rather than your thoughts. A dream journal is exactly what it sounds like: a written account of your dreams or nightmares. All these activities serve their own purposes and can be very helpful for better sleep depending on your needs.

There is no right or wrong way to approach bedtime writing — as long as you’re able to practice mindfulness and write what you feel, you’re off to a great start. But if you’re not sure where to begin, there are easy ways to help yourself get into the habit of writing.

What Do You Write in a Sleep Journal?

Each person’s circumstances are unique, so it’s important to centre your writing around your specific experiences and be as open and thorough as possible. Even with this in mind, you may still be wondering how to organize your thoughts on paper. Following a writing prompt can be a very helpful way to do this — writing prompts encourage you to think critically and really ponder your thoughts, rather than just idly jotting them onto a page.

If you’re not sure what to write, try some of these suggestions.

1. Vent Your Day’s Worries and Frustrations. Anger, worry, and frustration are natural and healthy responses to life’s stresses, but it’s important to release them in a healthy way. Journaling is an excellent way to blow off steam and let go of some of the anger you may be feeling. Writing down your angry or unpleasant thoughts can help you make sense of them as well as provide a sense of catharsis you can’t get from bottling up your emotions.

It’s also worth documenting troubling experiences here so that you can examine why they’re affecting you, and how you can respond to or move past them.

2. Keep a Gratitude Journal. On the opposite side of the coin, you can keep track of things that make you happy. Reflecting on what brings you joy can help put you in a more positive mood, which can also benefit your physical health, your mental health and lead to better sleep.

Consider a positive experience or event that has happened recently, and be sure to note why it brings you happiness. Some extra positivity in your life can really go a long way in helping you get a better night’s sleep.

3. Make a To-Do List. Writing out a to-do list may seem overwhelming if you’ve got a lot on your plate, but it really is helpful for quieting anxious thoughts and helping you clear your head each night.

THE BASICS

Begin by compiling the unfinished tasks you need to address tomorrow, big or small. Not only does this provide you a clear list of intentions for the following day, but it also helps you keep track of your progress and removes the anxiety of pondering all these tasks as you’re trying to wind down for bed.

You can follow these prompts as much or as little as you want — the important thing is that you are writing.

Note: If you are making a list of things to remember or a gratitude list, you can do that in bed or right before bed. But if you practice journaling as described above, try to do it right after dinner or two to three hours before going to bed so you have plenty of time to process.

It may not always be an easy habit to get into, but journaling before bed can really make a difference if you’re struggling to get a good night’s sleep. If you’re preoccupied with night-time worries, give it a try. Good sleep and renewed peace of mind could be just a few minutes away.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/sleep-newzzz/202106/how-journaling-can-help-you-sleep