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Adults and teens who keep a diary fall asleep more easily, are less nervous, and get sick less often. If you have not yet joined the ranks of these lucky ones, we tell you where to start.
James Pennebaker, professor of psychology at the University of Texas and author of The Healing Letter, conducted an experiment. Its participants, suffering from various chronic diseases, blogged daily for 15-20 minutes. Two months later, 90% of them felt much better – immunity increased, symptoms of asthma, chronic fatigue syndrome, post-traumatic disorders and even arthritis decreased.
Filling out a diary or creative notebook not only improves physical and mental health. This healthy habit makes you happier and more successful. By filling out a diary, you focus on the present moment and therefore worry less about the past and future, like a Zen practitioner. Making sense of emotions and exciting situations helps you gain awareness and even become smarter. Studies at the University of Victoria in Canada show that regular writing increases IQ. Finally, as the mind is cleared of debris, creativity is released. Those who often write about problems find constructive solutions easier and faster.
To make journaling more fun, choose journals and creative notebooks that suit your needs.
Relieve tension and stress
Creative notebooks are an invention for those who prefer to act and do not like to be bored. They are filled with original, daring and sometimes absurd tasks. For example, notepad» from Keri Smith invites its owner to make holes, tear and scratch pages, draw on photographs, stamp with elbows, make blots of coffee and throw out emotions in every possible way.
For a teenager, this is a safe zone where he can freely release rebellious energy, express anger and fear without fear of falling under the assessment of parents and society, explore and identify emotions. Transitional age is a very difficult period. For a teenager, processes that in adults are the consequences of stress are considered “normal”: menstrual cycle failure, fatigue, mood swings. Creative notebooks can be one of the available self-help methods that you can resort to at any time.
We develop creativity
The main condition for the development of creativity is to turn off the “internal controller”, the mental critic, whose remarks can plunge you into a stupor. Another condition is to hunt down and destroy your own stereotypes. Both are provided by Keri Smith’s notebook ““. Before the blink of an eye, you or your teenage child will begin to decisively and unconventionally solve life’s problems.
Notepad provokes what was forbidden by parents or teachers. For example, forget about literacy and distort words, stain the page with something sticky, sprinkle with cocoa and blow it off. Buy something that will mold over time, put it in a bag and attach it to the page. Lose your balance and take a photo. Smear the sheet with the remnants of lunch, and then finish the blots. Perform daily tasks with the wrong hand, etc.
Practicing positive thinking
The author of the book “Hormones of Happiness”, a professor at the University of California Loretta Graziano Breuning, believes that a person is able to reprogram himself from negative thinking to positive. When you focus on something good instead of gloomy thoughts or constant criticism, new synaptic connections are formed between active brain neurons. With persistent practice, these connections are strengthened and begin to be perceived as truth, Breuning writes.
The easiest way to start working on yourself is to keep a diary of intentions, accomplishments, and gratitude. For instance, “”, which is conveniently carried out according to the principle of morning pages. Every day you will find an inspirational quote and a few points to fill in: “I thank this day for…”, “What good awaits me today”, “Setting for the day”. Psychotherapist clients who suffer from depression show faster and more lasting results if they keep gratitude diaries.
Making a dream come true
Psychologists from the Dominican University found that students who write down goals achieve success much more often than those who do not. Their German colleagues proved that if you enter a plan for the next day in your diary, the probability of completion increases by 75%. The fact is that by keeping the goal on paper, we signal to the brain: “This is important!” The more detailed the goal, the more clearly the corresponding opportunities and tools for achieving it are visible.
The 100 days diary diary will help you get closer to your dreams. Choose a goal, divide it into small tasks and move towards its implementation within a hundred days. The main challenge is to do it every day. In parallel, you can work on habits, complete the proposed marathons “30 days of awareness”, “100 days of water balance” and clean up the closet. According to user reviews, the notebook meets all the requirements of visuals and perfectionists-procrastinators.
As a bonus, you get a piggy bank of personal achievements that will inevitably raise self-esteem and can become arguments for a salary increase. Well, if sadness and melancholy attacks, then a diary full of joy will take your ship aground and again send it on a happy voyage.