A question a day keeps the memories alive

From thesundaily.my

Keeping a daily journal is a great way to keep track of events and reflect on all the changes that happened through the years

HAVE you ever found an old diary you wrote when you were 14 years old, stowed away in a dusty cupboard? The emotions written by the past you might feel so raw, open, and real, but sometimes, the incident might feel distant, like a dream that happened a long time ago. The way memory works is that the more memorable the images accompanying an event are, the more likely it will become a long-term memory.

The appeal of a journal or a diary is the way it creates and recreates an experience by allowing the author to jot down a story to be read and remembered across time and space. Like a time capsule, it is memories materialised, and coming across it again allows you to unlock a core memory long forgotten. It is to remember that yes, you existed, before, now, and then.

The premise of a question a day journal is exactly what it sounds like. You have 365 (plus an extra for a leap year) question prompts for you to answer every day for as long as you like. The idea is to see candidly what has changed, how you’ve changed, and maybe even what you missed and would like to revisit.

The topics of the questions range from ordinary everyday events like what you had for lunch, to contemplative questions like ‘what would you do for free?’. The longer you keep the daily journal habit, the longer you’ll be able to look back upon the time span.

There isn’t any format that you have to strictly adhere to because you can make it entirely yours by modifying the questions to suit whatever you’re interested in knowing about yourself. This allows you to have something to look forward to every day.

Most questions will only take a few seconds to a few minutes for you to answer depending on the type of questions.

You don’t necessarily have to start the journal on the first of January or stress out about missing a day. Just take it as something enjoyable, a little bit of present (pun intended) for your future self.

Firstly, you’ll need a notebook with at least 365 pages in it for the days in a year, but if you’re a person that gets to the point fast, you can also have fewer pages. Personally, I’ve used two notebooks, separating the year into two parts, so it isn’t too bulky to carry around.

If you’d like, you can even do it online and answer everything on your phone, but if you’re more of a pen-to-paper type of person, having a physical book can allow more creative prompts like attaching things inside or drawing things.

For anybody who has ever given up journaling or has been intimidated by a blank page, a question a day journaling makes journaling effortless and the beauty of it is that it enables the author to track their emotional growth as well as keep track of memories, including presenting an interesting walk down memory lane a few years later.

The point is to see that living is not just about goals or mere achievements.

Maybe to live is to be present at every moment, to enjoy every sip of coffee or every conversation with a friend. Maybe to live is about the little things, the ones we tend to forget about or do it on autopilot.

When we are mindful and present, I suppose that’s when we’re really living.

Here are some journaling prompts you can start with for your first month:

1. What’s something unexpected, that happened to you last year?

2. When do you feel most in tune with yourself?

3. If someone described you, what would they say?

4. What was the most exciting thing that happened today?

5. What was the best meal you had today?

6. What was the worst meal you had today?

7. Draw something about today.

8. Write a poem about something that happened today.

9. Keep the receipts of everything you bought today and stick them on this page.

10. What was the most boring thing you had to do today?

11. What did you wear today?

12. What did you have inside your bag today?

13. Who did you meet today?

14. What are you looking forward to next week?

15. When and what was the last workout you did?

16. When was the last time you got sick?

17. What’s the funniest thing you heard all day?

18. What’s your favourite song at the moment?

19. Write down a list of things you’d like to accomplish by the end of this year and check back next year.

20. What made you angry today?

21. What TV shows are you watching?

22. What’s a song that would be the perfect background music for what happened today?

23. What’s the last book you read?

24. What’s something you’ve been obsessed with lately?

25. Take a picture of yourself with your instant camera and paste it on this page.

26. What’s the last advice you were given? What did you think about it?

27. Where did you go today?

28. Who did you talk to today?

29. Who did you text today?

30. What made you sad today?

https://www.thesundaily.my/style-life/a-question-a-day-keeps-the-memories-alive-KK8639862