SOME PEOPLE keep them under lock and key; others hide them away from public view while some don't even acknowledge they have one.
We're talking about diaries. Not the daily planner/organiser/journal that the more schedule-oriented among us use. Journals are more likely to enumerate activities and events. We're talking about the one that you take down all the dreams, fantasies and emotions that you have no intention of sharing with the world; not even your best friend.
Historically, it was more common for women to keep diaries than men. Some women tend to do so only during periods of emotional stress, such as, times of war, when they moved away from family and friends, or when they were separated from their spouse.
Some men (and not necessarily those of the effeminate type) keep diaries because, quite simply, men have stuff to get off their chests too. Take Mikhail, for instance.
THOUGHTS
"I just needed an avenue to express my thoughts. I've tried writing poems, but sometimes you don't feel like writing because you feel it comes out as crap," he said. He tried keeping diaries before, but never kept it up. Who knows, this one probably won't last long either.
"So far I've written in it every day for about two months so I hope to keep it going," he said. He merely puts down a synopsis of the day's events and how he feels about them. Sometimes it takes him a few pages; sometimes just one.
Apart from being a great stress reliever for Amanda Cunningham, it's also a chance to remember some of the past accomplishments.
"Sometimes I go back and look at the things I've done, see what I was thinking at the time to remember what's happened in my life," she said. She is so secretive about her diary, that her boyfriend knows better than to go flipping through a few pages.
"Even if he saw anything in it, he could never ask me about it. He knows that's my private business and he's playing with his life," she said quite seriously.
BENEFITS
Experts believe that the benefits of keeping a diary go much farther than helping you keep track of the year's highs and lows. One of them, Professor James Pennebaker, from the University of Texas, at Austin, has done numerous experiments on the health benefits of writing expressively and has shown that regular writing can bolster the immune system, help you recover from traumatic events more successfully and ease stress and depression. In his research, people who had survived traumatic events who wrote about their experiences for 20 minutes per day, three to four times a week, visited the doctor half as much as those who didn't write.
DOWNSIDE
There are downsides to keeping a diary though. There is the potential that you will become addicted to it and if you don't get the chance to enter something, it might seem like you're missing an integral part of your day. Another negative is that there is always some secrecy between couples when one has a diary. Some guys especially are uneasy as to what their girl might be keeping from them.
Additional information gleaned from /www.genealogy.com and www.realbuzz.com
