More Than Memories: The Benefits of Journaling

By Alexandra Ramsdale

June 2011: that’s when I realised I had the autonomy to write whatever I wanted. I’d just been given one of those pink, sparkly, padlocked diaries for my 6th birthday. Barely legibly, I wrote my first line: ‘When I’m older, I’m going to marry [redacted]’...  

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I wish it had been an academic statement. Or perhaps a philosophical declaration so I could claim myself a child genius. But there it was, plain and simple - a 6-year-old girl with as little foresight as a brick wall. Can’t even really say that my forethinking skills have improved since I first put pen to paper all those years ago. Not to shatter little Alex’s hopes and dreams, but I haven’t interacted with my so-called ‘future husband’ in the last decade (nor do I wish to anytime in the future).  

But this is exactly the benefit of journaling - it allows me to learn all these little idiosyncrasies about myself. Time and time again, I’ve demonstrated within my diary entries that I’m neither fight nor flight- I’m freeze. Unfortunately for me, this is pretty impractical, and I hope for my sake I’m never being chased by an axe wielding maniac because I’ll be a goner. Yet having an awareness of this idiosyncrasy has helped me to navigate confrontational situations since. Without my diary, I’d probably be less aware of myself, and suffer a lot more in social settings.

Along similar lines, I want to make apologies to all the Type A enthusiasts out there, because my diary entries have repeatedly proven me a die-hard Type B personality. Journaling holds me accountable: yes, I once lost a bank card for over 18 months and relied solely on apple pay instead of just cancelling the card like any normal person. In fact, I also lost my birth certificate for an even longer period and was told - when trying to order a new one - that there was no record of me existing in any of the Government databases. And no, I have no idea about my future Husband, or basically anything concerning my future for that matter. But at least I have the awareness of this. And what do I owe this thanks to? The pink, sparkly diary that immortalises my past, present and future memories.   

Reading back my diary, I’ve established that common sense might not be my forte. However, at least my writing skills have improved since I wrote that overly cliché (not least, highly inaccurate) declaration back in 2011. Firstly, I don’t write in a fluffy pink book anymore - it’s now blue. Just kidding, but in all seriousness, I have been keeping an almost daily journal for the past 5 years. In doing this, I’ve found that the absence of a 0-20 scale quantifying the worth of my writing has encouraged me to experiment with the style in which I write. Personally, I’ve found that this has really helped me to consolidate my own narrative voice and nurture a specific artistic flair and creativity. In a world full of typing, google docs, and excel spreadsheets, handwriting in my journal has been exactly the break I needed.  

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Occasionally I allow myself the liberty of flicking to a random page and reading back my memories. It’s always quite a laugh when you have hindsight on your side. I always find myself so surprised about how much I’ve written that I’ve totally forgotten about. So, like a true academic - desperately trying to prove she no longer has the foresight of a brick wall - I got to doing some research on memory retention. The results were fascinating: an article published by the BBC in 2014 interestingly stated how psychologists had found that 'Of the unpleasant experiences nearly 60% were forgotten’ and ‘42% of the pleasant memories had faded’. In case these statistics aren’t evocative enough, just consider the scene in Disney’s Inside Out, where Riley’s memories fall into that massive, dark, irretrievable pit. It’s so sad that memories can just dissipate that easily- but not if you keep them alive in a journal!

So, journaling doesn’t magically make you wiser, more organised, or better at predicting the future. Trust me - if that were the case, I’d have found my bank card much sooner. But its real value lies in the way it helps you understand who you are and remember memories that would otherwise be forgotten. Unsure where to start? Here’s a link to buy a pink sparkly diary...