Do you keep a diary / journal

[MrsBooks]

Just that really? I often feel like I need an outlet for thoughts other than on SM / Internet. I would be horrified if I vented about DH or the kids and they found it and read it though...

So, do you keep one, and if so where, or on what platform? Do you find it helps with your mental health?

Thanks!

I keep one. It's a good old fashioned book that I physically write in. It helps my hugely. Just for those things you cannot say to anyone. Sometimes I don't want advice or solutions, I just want to get the words out of my head to try and make sense of them for myself.

It has been a huge help this year especially when I lost my DSIS to cancer. I have a lot of shit about that I can't say to anyone else.

I've kept one the entire time I've been with DH. If he reads it, I don't know. I tend not to write about him much anyway. I move it regularly so if he did go snooping he'd be disappointed probably.

@Xmasdinnervwpolo thanks for your reply. I'm sorry to hear about your sister but glad you have an outlet for your grief.

What do you do with your previous journals, out of interest? X

I do but less about my thoughts and feelings and more about my diet, food and fitness. I find there is a direct correlation between times when I write in my journal daily and times when I am 'on track', so I do think it's part of the bigger picture of being in a good place and in control of it. Some would no doubt argue entirely the opposite. I do keep them, in a box in the loft, but I think I'd cringe if anyone found them and read them as they are most likely incredibly dull, with the occasional half marathon victory thrown in!

I did as a teen and recently found it. Its so interesting to look back at my own attitudes to things at the time. I've been meaning to start one again to keep track of TTC, moving house and other life events- not so much for mental health.

My mother has written in one, even day for 50+yrs. She has volumes and volumes in her home.

I used to but haven't done so for years and years. Thinking about it, I think it's because I've been emotionally relatively stable so haven't felt the need.

I've got complete diaries from 1974. I write one every night. Every day.
I am thinking of asking them to be destroyed when I die. I don't really want them to be read. They are interesting to me but not really for anyone else.

Only when I split with my ex.

Reading it back made me want to shake myself but I could see over the weeks I was feeling better and getting over it.

I burnt it when I was fully over him.

@nancybotwinbloom I bet that was very cathartic!!

I need to get my diet & fitness back under control but hadn't thought whether this would help, thanks @thenewaveragebear1983

Next step, choosing a notebook. Possibly what I'm most excited about 📔😉

I have a diary that I write in every day and have since 1993, when my sister bought me one for Christmas. Most of it is just mundane daily stuff but I sometimes have a rant in it!

It’s useful if we need to remember something date wise from a few years ago as I can look it up, it’s also useful if I need to remember appointments a few months in advance as I can write them in and I know I will see them, whereas if I write it on the calendar I might not see it.

I do, but its sporadic when I write in it. I either email myself my thoughts or write them on some scrap paper then I write them up later on, but make sure its word for word as that's how I was feeling at the time. I'm not a very neat writer and want to make sure I can read it back, not that I ever do.

As far as I'm aware DH nor the DCs know about it let alone would read it.

It helps me to get stuff out and off my chest. I have a nice notebook.

I've written a diary every day since I was 15. I'm 59 now. I have them in boxes in my attic. I have had several conversations with my children about what they should do with them when I die. I always used to think I would want them destroyed but now I'm not so sure. When I watched 'The Bridges of Madison County' I thought it was lovely how reading their mum's diary changed the children's view of their mum. And I'm going to be dead so what does it matter?

Great thread. I do. I have done since April, I started it in the first lockdown and just kept going. I’m in the process of typing it up for the Great Diary Project. Happy diary writing OP!