Diary Medium

• Traditionally, a diary is a book that you use to record your thoughts. Use a notebook as a diary or buy a book designed to be a diary from a stationery store. In modern times, additional methods to record your thoughts include electronic media like creating an audio diary or an online diary at website site like Live Journal. Electronic media gives you more ways to use and write in your diary. Make individual diary entries public, friends only or private. Write private entries regularly. Use the same diary to record public or friends only entries to communicate with the world or friends.
  
  

Where and When to Write

• Write any time and any place. There are no rules for when and where you write. If you need a more structured writing schedule, appoint a regular time and place to write. Choose to write daily, every other day or once a week. If you meditate or pray, recording your thoughts after this activity is often a time when you are most open and in touch with your feelings. Writing at the end of the day and reflecting on your activities is also an ideal time. Another option is to carry your diary with you everywhere and write whenever you feel the urge to. Write down thoughts you would rather not speak. Use your diary to vent frustrations as they happen or soon after.
  
  

What to Write About

• The way you choose to write in your journal and what you choose to write are personal decision. You may choose to write about your experiences, insights, opinions, fears, hopes, plans, problems, self reflections, reactions, feelings, actions and life events. Write about a past emotional trauma with the specific goal of healing the emotional trauma by understanding it through your writing. Write in a free-form style where you write down anything that comes into your head once you sit down to write. Write in your diary with an objective, such as understanding an emotion, or write for the sake of writing.
  
  

Benefits of a Diary

• When you keep a diary, you have a chronological record of your life or thoughts as your life progresses. Reading past entries can reveal ways in which you have matured and evolved as a person. A diary can also reveal areas where you still need work. Keeping a diary can be a stress reliever if you use it to write out pent up frustrations and anger. A diary allows you to discover things about yourself. Use it to work through problems to a solution. You do not have to share your diary with anyone. The best way to maximize the benefits of a diary is to be honest with yourself in its pages.