/lounge/ - sushi social

>>12005
the only advice I can give is to not be a perfectionist about it.
I kept a diary without missing a day from the age of 14 to 17, ending it when I got to busy upon entering university.
If I didn't feel I needed to be perfectionist about it and not miss a day, I probably could've kept it going in a less regular fashion. But instead I felt like I needed an entry for every day, and I gave up when I fell too many days behind.

I once wrote a diary in a notepad file for a year with some small pauses in-between, then very irregularly after that. What I learned was that I'm a boring person who always follows a pattern of talking a lot about objectives and scheduling, getting half the results I set myself up for (if at all) and then some blabbering about excuses as to why I'm not sticking with the plan. On the other hand, I learned I'm more of an action-oriented person. Looking back, it reinforced my notion that I rarely have anything worthwhile to say and that I truly haven't changed as a person (which makes me happy to know. I take great pride in staying true to myself).

Having said that, it didn't stop me from wanting to write. I've been writing a new diary in (lousy) japanese right here on sushigirl, though I'm way overdue another entry.

I've been writing journals on and off for years now. Like the first sushi mentioned, I wasn't a perfectionist about it, so even if I had a gap of months, I would write in it again as if nothing happened.
It was my primary way of getting my thoughts in order, as I more often than not could not think straight. As well, it was how I really started getting my emotions under control. It's been a very useful tool for me in general, and also helps me concentrate for long periods of time.

If you want to start, my advice is just to start. May it be in a notepad file, or a book, write down whatever you're feeling at the moment, get some momentum so that you can keep going.

>>12010
that's p much what i'm trying to combat with it so i might stick to the things i plan or keep track of em at all, but we'll see how it turns out, maybe i'll come to the same conclusion as you, maybe i'll end up only writing down good stuff and not the excuses and end up with a happy moments book before i lose track of it and go back to the same non-action self wasting my time i just don't want to lose the momentum in motivation i have since coming back from sailing
i'm happy ur still writing and r contempt with urself, that's what's most important i'd say, i don't know any japanese but i think i saw u in some blogposting threads :3

>>12011
it's good to hear the nice things you got out of it as i can see in myself i lack those, i'll try not be perfectionist abt it but won't worry i will, i'll mirror this thread semi-regularly and i'm sure it'll motivate me to pick up again if i stop for a while ^-^

I started journaling 4 years ago and I've found it to be a really valuable introspective tool. Tracking your progress in school/work/hobbies, retrospectively seeing how your emotions fluctuate, it really sets you straight when you're in a rut. I'd recommend something beyond a basic text file, something where you can include images at the very least.

I've been keeping a diary for eleven years now. I just do it out of habit at this stage and wouldn't say that it's been beneficial or interesting. It's mainly something to pass the time, I guess. Maybe you need to have an interesting life to have a good diary, though.
My main advice would be to reread entries a lot when you're starting out and making sure you're writing something that you actually want to read ten years from now.

>>12010
I reread all my diary books a few months ago and came to the same realisation. Too many entries are just glorified to-do lists for me. My solution was to create a separate diary for anything related to productivity and restrict my main diary to only writing about my feelings along with anything noteworthy that happened that day.

I started a journal because of this thread but I've already forgotten about it. Maybe I'll update it on a "when I feel like it" basis.

>>12182
op here, i forgot too and only got the one entry from when i made the thread, i haven't done much to write abt, so maybe i'll write about the not doing anything interesting too to get the habit in and to note the feelings abt cleaning up as motivation for that kinda stuff, otherwise to have done something nice to write again i'll go to the cinema today :3

here sounds like a nice thread to hang out

I tried to have a diary many times, but what i ended up with after all those years were just a lot of txt files of moments i felt were important enough to point out how my life was going. When i record on diary too often it just becomes ramblings of random topics i have been thinking or to do lists too unhappily

I remember being impressed at how many diaries are at neocities blogs and i think i get it now that i have started blogging ( only for myself ) mostly as a diary too, blog templates are quite decent for that and pretty flexible. I wonder about how i would feel if i unprivated some entries.

>>12013
I love the tool potential of it!!

Anyone else feel like diaries just make you focus in too hard on negative aspects of yourself, and therefore rumination? Overthinking? I've kept diaries on and off for near 20 years now, they always contained primarily troubled thoughts, which then continue to live in my head and nag at me even louder despite the conclusions and deeper look into these notions and patterns that keeping a journal offers me. I have done formats where I list, without any emotion, events that have happened. But then it only seems necessary to follow up on what's happening in my mind, and the cycle continues. For example, pointing out and writing about how my lack of confidence is causing me problems and error, causes the issue to live in my head more after dissecting it as opposed to solving it, thus continuing the problem of 0 confidence on a larger scale.

Then I'll quit the journal, and feel saner. If I have a serious problem, tackling it in a conversation with someone close to me yields much better results than being on a negative loop in the diary. Then I'll get a wild hair to start keeping it again and the same pattern continues, and my head seems to be darker than usual.

Don't get me wrong, writing is a good exercise and I do write other projects, but it is frustrating that diaries in particular seem to always blow up in my face (or brain)

>>12230
I've got the opposite experience, I'm very neurotic so letting past events ruminate in my head is more distressing than presenting it as text. It's cathartic to put ambiguous feelings into hard words.

>tackling it in a conversation with someone close to me yields much better results than being on a negative loop in the diary
Talking to people about your problems is great, especially when they can offer alternative ways of thinking. Stewing alone in the same emotions, the same reactions, the same reasoning, is what I find incredibly harmful.

How do you feel when you read previous entries? Are there instances where you're able to retrospectively laugh at yourself and your past reasoning?

>>12230
> Anyone else feel like diaries just make you focus in too hard on negative aspects of yourself, and therefore rumination?
I tend to do that anyway when I'm not writing. Thoughts stay in my head and spin around, degrading and becoming darker with time until I find something to distract myself. With a diary, I can actually express those thoughts and arrange them in a less negative way, so its been helpful for me.

That said, I agree that talking those issues out is very good too. It's just that I don't have many opportunities to do that. I don't have very many people I can spill my heart out to. I've been experimenting with recording myself, and that helps as well. It's very fortunate that smartphones come with voice recording software.

>>12237
Yeah, there have been several times I dug up something old and had to laugh at my past self or want to go back in time to kick my own ass for being such a tard. It's even nostalgic or interesting, because in our early 20s is a huge time of flux and change. I don't have everything figured out now, but there's certainly more stability and consistency compared to then, noticeable thanks to diaries, but overall it causes a special type of overthinking on my end that I'm better off without these days. Mulling over it a bit, I used to approach writing the angst with humor, which I haven't done in a long time. Guess I got too boring and serious, lol.

>>12239
Different strokes for different folks. I think they did work the same for me during a point of isolation "arranging the negative in a less negative way" had it's value and did help find the source of said negativity, which in turn is needed to resolve some of it. Honestly imageboards can really be a good quick way to get something off your chest too, as I did in this thread trying to connect with you guys on this matter, cause nobody in my life really writes at all. So when it comes down to it, I guess you can still talk places like this, sushi roll! You will find people in life too.

Since my biggest demon right now is confidence, I've found that (over)analyzing it just causes the problem to exist at a larger scale and become a self-fulfilling prophecy. In my case it's better to just not even think I have this problem at all and fake it til I make it as I enter and learn a new career. Believe it or not it does work, it's really a clear your mind zen kind of thing. If diaries get you to that kind of headspace, power to you honestly, it's a great practice. And talking with you guys made me realize that maybe I've been too flat and serious in my diaries and that's contributing to this weird dilemma. So thank you!

>>12229
Ishii-san really looks like Mai-chan here.

Keep on writing. As long as you write, the journal still works.

>>17143
>egg on top
Aesthetics over function….

>>17145
for when you can't decide if you want an open sandwich or regular sandwich.

Dear Diary,

It rained today and never really stopped. Also the buses came late today twice in a consecutive days.

I hate the wet…

you’re doing fine just stop saying “u” instead of “you” it‘s very irritating.

Terrible week at work; issues and problems all the time. Argh.

Today when parking my car I managed to drive 5 cm into an unmarked driveway with 50cm tall grass. What I did not expect after returning from work was the owner running towards me calling me a stupid useless roll while waving an axe around because he was chopping wood to start a fire.

Ended up driving away. It's never a good idea to engage in violence with bare hands against somebody with an axe.