The Diary of Thomas Edison on Vacation (1885)

> For the first time in my life I have bought a pair of premeditatively tight shoes. These shoes are small and look nice. My No 2 mind (acquired mind) has succeeded in convincing my No 1 mind (primal mind or heart) that it is pure vanity, conceit and folly to suffer bodily pains that ones person may have graces the outcome of secret agony.

It can work different ways at different times in different circumstances. I've kept a diary for 40 years since I was a teenager, and tried a number of ways.

When I've wanted to change my own behaviour, for example, to be less critical of others, or less socially awkward, I'd document episodes of my own thoughts and behaviour that I didn't like, and read them back so I could see myself better, recognise patterns, and learn to avoid them.

That method works for some kinds of change better than others. For something like changing my diet, for example, by eating less sugar, I found documentation and review useful. I'd document episodes, then read them back, and write notes to myself about what to do next time. It's a good way to see the lead up to an unwanted behaviour e.g. didn't pack a lunch for the football game or a road trip, so ended up buying junk food.

It's important to record positive experiences. e.g. "ate a beautiful salad and loved the balsamic vinaigrette recipe from Tony." Or, "Alan said something unwise again, but I shut up this time and let it pass, which felt much better the next day." These make a big difference when reading back compared to self-criticism.

At times, reading the diary back has sort of backfired by entrenching behaviour. This for me was particularly true of social and romantic situations. I'd document episodes too self-critically, which made it painful to re-read, and the more I'd re-read these writings, the more I'd dislike myself and assume a negative self-image.

I switched to just writing positive versions of my own history. That was interesting. Writing affirmatively enabled me to develop a new inner voice. Once it was established, I could rely on it. I think that's a key thing about diaries - the opinions and meta observations become voices that you carry around in your head. If you treat it like a lucid dream, I think you can use those voices constructively by deliberately writing them in a persona you like.

Eventually, like after decades, I stopped re-reading my diaries, except on rare occasions when I needed to find out a fact such as where I was on a particular date. I deliberately stopped reading my reflections on myself, to spare myself from meta-dislike. That was a good move. I still get the benefit of writing things down, which bring them to my attention, but that's enough. I don't need to re-read what I've written to know what is in my diary. I just concentrate on making new episodes that will be more pleasurable to have in future pages.

As for facts such as names, dates, places and things - diaries are great. I still pause every now and then to just jot down key markers for each date in a text file, and store it away in a folder called journal. Just the key facts are extremely useful for recall of all kinds of associations.

For aspiring journalers, always write the full date, including year. Probably write the time of day and maybe day of week to help give context to future readers. Do not worry about backtracking if you skip a day or decades. Just write starting now, otherwise the backlog will paralyze you.

That reminds me I haven't written about today yet.

https://www.robnugen.com/journal/

https://www.robnugen.com/journal/2020/11/30/japanese-work-hn...

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