Diary (Photo credit: Barnaby)

I’ve returned to reasons for keeping a diary, then an online personal diary … which morphed into a blog and blogs many times in the last two decades.

Tips on keeping a journal

‘When people ask me how to keep a Diary, I refer them to Ira Progoff‘s Intensive Journal [method]….One cannot help being amazed by what emerges from this skilled inner journey. All the elements we attribute to the poet, the artist, become available to everyone, to all levels of society.’

Anais Nin

From wikipeadia I learn that:

Ira Progoff (August 2, 1921 – January 1, 1998)

Ira was an American psychotherapist, best known for his development of the Intensive Journal Method while at Drew University.[1] His main interest was in depth psychology and particularly the humanistic adaptation of Jungian ideas to the lives of ordinary people. He founded Dialogue House in New York City to help promote this method.

How to start your diary

In ‘The New Diary’ by Tristine Rainer, first published in 1974 with a for ward from Anais Nin recommends that you:

Begin with a self-portrait

Begin with a period

Begin with today

Each time I come back to this diary after an absence of weeks, months or years I approach it in one of these ways: I assess who I am, go over the previous period when I’ve been away from the diary, and count these musings as my first entry.

I’ve kept a diary, this week during my induction into a new job, this clearly has personal value and will be kept confidential.

I had me thinking of the value of having a ‘jumping off point,’ a reason to start, like New Year’s day. An answer would be to call start now and give the first entry the tag Day 100, or Day -100. Then urge yourself to keep going to 100 entries. With some parameters, a minimum of 250 words every day (though more are permitted). i.e. you ought to blog when you have something to say, in addition to the once a day.

Related articles

• Virginia Woolf on the Creative Benefits of Keeping a Diary (brainpickings.org)
• diaries, journals, and revelations (givemeadaisy.com)
• I Should Have Kept a Diary As a Child (write-2-be.com)
• 10 Famous Authors on the Importance of Keeping a Journal (flavorwire.com)
• Writings on the Diary I (madeofballoons.com)
• The value of keeping a diary is, for most people, entirely personal. (mymindbursts.com)