Gen Z is modernising the diary to improve their well-being

From countyenews.com

(ETX Daily Up) – On TikTok, more and more posts show Internet users keeping a diary. Internet users are arming themselves with their best fountain pens and fluorescent lights to show how a notebook can help overcome everyday problems and capture memories. Explanations of a trend that takes us back to the past.

On Tik Tok, the hashtag “journaling ideas” has over 400 million views. The diary, which was once stored safely out of sight, has become the new ritual of Generation Z on TikTok. This trend has a name, “journaling”, understanding the fact of writing down your thoughts and feelings on paper every day, at all times. It has become for many socionauts a new mental refuge. This return to paper is surprising with the advent of digital technology and smartphones. Sleek desk, fountain pen, outline notebook. A whole aesthetic was born on the social network around journaling, revealing to as many people as possible a hitherto intimate ritual.

When scrolling through the application, we see more and more posts showing, most often, young women at their desks writing lines from their diary. Advice is also given to guide the writing. For example, the user orendaduong, which brings together 170,000 subscribers on her account, has launched a month-long challenge during which she answers an existential question every day. For many, the diary is a free therapy where you can give yourself the right to be vulnerable. In the comments of a video Internet users share the positive effects of this ritual: “Journaling and crying got me through my first heartbreak and is currently getting me through my second.”

This return to basics is by no means trivial. As always, Tik Tok takes concepts as old as the world and tries to modernize them. This time, the diary has come back into vogue with the advent of self-care on social networks, where taking care of yourself takes precedence over everything else. The newspaper is sometimes basic in appearance, or otherwise adorned with stickers, photos, and innocuous things like tickets box. There are several ways to keep a diary. It can be a gratitude journal in which you write down all your accomplishments, your inspirations, your favorite foods. But also an expressive diary, where you write down your emotions, your traumas, and your personal problems. Even more unusual is the “dream diary”, which allows you to write down your dreams once you wake up.

In an interview for StylistNicky Clinch, maturation coach and well-being author, believes that journaling is an effective way to help people better understand their emotions: “We have thousands of thoughts running through our minds in 24 hours, and about 80% of them are negative. (…) We can use ‘journaling’ as a way to begin to see and gain a deeper awareness of what is going on in our mind.” According to medical experts from the University of Rochester, journaling can help, among other things, to manage stress, reduce anxiety, and cope with depression. He was also proven that keeping a daily gratitude journal can improve sleep quality and mood, strengthen relationships with others, and reduce symptoms of physical pain.

https://countyenews.com/gen-z-is-modernizing-the-diary-to-improve-their-well-being/ 

Prompts to help you start journaling

From thegauntlet.ca

By Harleen Mundi

When I was in junior high, I romanticized the idea of keeping a diary. A blue hardcover book that would hold the hottest playground drama, places I wanted to travel to, impromptu poems and updated lists regarding all my favourite things. Yet, however hard I tried, I struggled with consistency. I would revisit the said journal every five to six months, feeling like a vastly different girl than the one writing months ago. My stories would have plot holes that I was too lazy to fill in and all in all — between homework on fractions and Disney channel shows — I didn’t have time to waste. 

Eventually, enough ripped-out pages and crossed-out thoughts led me to give up and throw the failed project into a memory box pile. Then, cut to the summer of 2020 and I had enough free time to try again. I picked out a dainty journal, a couple of trusty pens, and a chair on the porch to sit and focus on. I started new entries by placing more attention on manifestations, affirmations, and gratitude lists to ease my anxieties. Eventually, journalling stuck with me. My journals every year since then have naturally had distinct themes, this year’s increasingly being about my day-to-day happenings and using a self-therapy kind of approach to life. Ultimately, this omnipotent way of dissecting your own thoughts and feelings is helpful in identifying the root cause of most of our emotions or behaviours, tracking our journey and the particular stage of life that we are in and healing from things that we might not be able to talk about otherwise. 

If journaling is of interest to you, the following are a couple of prompts that I have created and found that might help you get started! 

• Cancelling Out the White Noise

We are each our worst critics. Identify thoughts from your inner critic and provide a rebuttal to them. For example, why do you think you are not cut out for a certain task or opportunity that has been awarded to you? Present evidence and invalidate the initial thought. 

• My Body & Nature’s Equivalent

This prompt was inspired by a video by Nelly London (@_nelly_london) on Instagram who asked “what if our bodies are an integral part of nature?” She proceeds to compare stretch marks to the ocean’s waves and textured skin to the crates of the moon. Whether you have a good relationship with your body or not — hopefully the former — this exercise of finding similarities between your body and nature can boost confidence and self-compassion —  especially when you are struggling with a two-month-long eczema flare-up, speaking from experience. 

• Note to Self

The golden R’s of journaling include both reminders and reassurances. By reminders, I don’t mean drafting —although you could — to-do lists or outlining academic deadlines but more so, writing about things that you need to reinforce in your mind. The trick is to try to pair one reminder with a subsequent reassurance. 

Reminder: I have no way of knowing what people actually think about me. Reassurance: Even if their beliefs about me are negative, I don’t need to prove myself to anyone.

• I am not

We are used to telling ourselves or hearing others tell us who we are. But who are we not? This exercise, often best achieved in the form of a list, distances those ideas and fears from ourselves and thus, I like to think of it as wiping away all that which clouds our identity. As a result, even in our own minds, we begin to take control over the narrative surrounding ourselves. 

Example: I am not incapable. I am not any less than those around me.

• Little Victories

As the name of this prompt suggests, identify the little to big victories that you have had over the course of a week or month. In doing so, you begin to fight the voice in your head that convinces you that you are not doing enough or are stagnant in life. Every accomplishment counts. Every accomplishment signifies growth. 

• Energy Givers vs. Energy Drainers

Long ago, I saw an image on Pinterest that distinguished between things that can boost our energy versus things that will likely drain the same force. For instance, an energy giver is fresh air and being in nature but an energy drainer can be extensive amounts of screen time. I find that I feel most defeated mentally when I’m physically fatigued. So at the end of the day, when I separate my personal energy givers from my energy drainers, I feel better equipped on how to approach my days moving forward. 

Honourable Mentions:

• Weekly Highs and Lows
• Gratitude Lists
• I will vs. I will not. (I will drink more water. I will not stay in bed for two hours after I wake up to daydream and scroll through TikTok.)

https://thegauntlet.ca/2023/05/16/prompts-to-help-you-start-journaling/