A diary saves you the therapist (and religion)
Interestingly Sigmund Freud claimed that “everybody needs therapy”, including all therapists. He believed that all of our problems come from things that happened to us/that we did in our past. In order to release our troubles he proposed that one should have a therapists, in a similar way that we nowadays know psychotherapy.
A similar idea comes from buddhism: Your goal in life is to reach enlightenment by dissolving all your karmas. Karmas not being some future things as many in the west believe, but just like Freud: relics of the past. Every time you acted or reacted to anything you build up new karmas. All those karmas at some point will come back to you – so, in order to diminish your karmas you are supposed to meditate to witness them (notice the thought or sensation in the body) but not react in any way, not even with another thought.
Both these and many other traditions, especially Hinduism but also Islam and Christianity with their believes in a judging god have similar ideas, which all result in just one thing: By your own actions or by outside influences something happened and in order to fix your life (or death) you will have to make sure that it disappears.
So, Freud’s solution is the therapist. But contrary to the depictions in movies and the like, where the therapist asks questions the actual idea is a different one: The therapist is supposed to be like a canvas, on which the patient can project his or her feelings, thoughts, memories and ideas. For that reason he sits out of the patient’s view! – So the patient can e.g. project a trusted person onto him and solve his problems with this help. Also, the therapist is not supposed to say much, only occasionally noting things that the patient might have missed himself (e.g. body language) and supporting and encouraging him in the task to unravel his past.
But there is a cheaper, more flexible and easier way to achieve a similar result. The canvas does not need to be human! Obviously it’s easier if you occasionally can get another person’s perspective on your memories, but writing them down will already enable you to read them again and be your “other perspective” yourself!
Most people think a diary ought to contain notes like “Dear diary, today I ate breakfast, then went shopping, then met…” – but despite maybe helping you to remember what you did all day (which is good memory training!) there is not much of a purpose in them. That’s why we all laugh about the poor little fellow that feels like noting his every action in a book. But there is another aspect in our lives that we forget far easier: our thoughts. Also, as Heinrich von Kleist noted in an essay titled “Über die allmähliche Verfertigung der Gedanken beim Sprechen” (free pdf, German; “On the gradual development of thoughts in the process of speaking” Wiki abstract, English translation (Amazon)) we often tend to lose our track of thought or don’t think it until the end. He realised that when he was telling his sister (who was uneducated) about his scientific or literary thoughts he would immediately be able to sort them better.
So, I propose a simple concept that helped me a lot in the past: Regularly write down your thoughts. Get a good notebook, e.g. a Moleskine – I prefer squared ones – and put a very slim pen or just the refill of a ballpoint pen inside and always carry it with you, no matter where you go. This for once enables you to always write down random, small thoughts that just came up and evaluate them further when you have time, and also this makes you feel safe! One of my main concerns always was that my notebook contained very private thoughts that would surely harm my reputation if all my friends got to know them. So, not willing to tell these thoughts anybody I wrote them down, carefully labeled with date and time. And as they were never to be seen again by anybody but me, a friend labeled the book “Guantanamo of thoughts“, as the inmates that were originally brought to Guantanamo rarely got out at the time. But, if you always have your book with you you don’t need to be scared – nobody can read it without you being nearby! And, well, you can lock old ones safely away… – so you can be 100% honest and say even those things that you are even scared to acknowledge to yourself (and I bet there are a lot of them for everybody!).
I am very convinced that starting my “thought diary” as I label it was a major contribution to shaping my character in the direction I want. Total honesty and freedom in expression is the only way to really get to your inner core, and I believe there are many things you wouldn’t even tell a therapist! So, use the cheaper, easier, more flexible and maybe even better way to dissolve your karmas, overcome your childhood traumas, avoid eternal punishment or stop the cycle of rebirth or whatever you intend.
You will soon realise, that with your thought diary you discover your true inner self, increase charisma, willpower and inner strength. You feel better, more secure and as negative states of the mind also influence our body, get healthier. I guess that’s worth a shot, huh?
K
P.S.: I really recommend the Moleskine series (that apparently a lot of now-famous persons used), as they are of really good quality and will stay in good shape forever but still “feel” good. Don’t go for cheap as the book will contain your deepest secrets!! My personal favorites are the squared large and the squared “pocket” versions, but you might prefer the ruled large or ruled “pocket” versions. I personally totally mess the blank ones up, so I think you should buy one of the above!
P.P.S.: Check out my twitter-quote-feed and the according amazon store for wisdom (or here)
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