Do You Record Your Life Memories ?

How exciting is to record the cherished memories of my life and may be many years later, I would flip through those pages to view the precious moments I spent with my friends and family, and all those who came and walked through my life.

The day I jumped out with joy. The day when I went exhausted. The day when I felt emotionally lost. Cried because of the unexpected. A wonderful way to play my life back as a movie and see all the silly and crazy things I did in my life. All the wonderful people I met in my life. All the excitement I went through in this great journey called "life".

We video record or take photographs of important occasions of our life. How about recording every detail of our life day by day in some kind of storage medium? How many of us have the habit of spending a few minutes daily to "diarize" our day.

I started this habit when I was studying in tenth grade. The thing which started just as a fun later became a passion for me. Now I keep record of how I did well in my life. What things I did which I shouldn’t have done. All the glorious memories and events in my life are being recorded.

If you have not yet started, then you are probably missing all those fun and excitement of recording your life. It gives us a chance to record the days you felt extremely delighted and happy. It gives chance to retrospect our own life.

He held the book towards his chest. He knew it is the most precious possession he has in the whole world. "Tom, Today is your daughters marriage and I see tears in your eyes." Nothing John. I am alright." "No. I am sure there is something. Can I look at that book you are holding to your heart". "Sure John, here it is". "John, I cant believe my eyes Tom."

"You are right John, today is my daughters marriage. The book you hold in your hand is a witness to my life. I just had a flash back on my life and I really felt those missing moments. It has the day when I first went to school holding my fathers fingers. My mom looked at me and I could see the tears of happiness in her eyes. I never knew I was opening a new chapter in my life, but I don't know john, I just cried. I came back to my house eyes reddened with tears. How can I forget my first day at school? This book will never make me forget it.

It has the day when new friends came to my life giving me new meaning to friendship and love. Days of happiness and days of sorrow one after another creating new entry to my book as the day passed. I joined college and moved to another city. I left most of my belonging behind, but took this book with me, giving it a chance to witness my yet another phase of my life. The fun filled days in college was sometime disturbed by the sour memories I had to go through in the campus. Exams, assignments and other academic works, not to mention the games and fun filled activities. All the daily events and memories took a place in this book.

My graduation from college, a workaholic life in search of a successful career, then my marriage, our first daughter Lisa, and now her marriage. All those life memories were recording as it is in this book and I can replay them life a video.
Today I completed 50 years of my life john. The glorious 50 years. All my life is written down in this book. I really miss everyone john. I don’t know. Replaying my precious moments of my life gave me an intense feel of happiness and the tears you saw in my eyes is the result of that.


How much time you spend, how often you write, the medium of the journal are all personal choice. One method may be perfectly applicable to one but may not be applicable to another. We can allocate a minimum of 2-5 minutes (i.e. 0.2% of time we have in a day) every day, any time, preferably early morning to record the previous day/ or at night to record current day.

There are a few important things to be considered in order to effectively cultivate this habit.

One, we need to religiously allow our-self regular writing times. Many people like to write in the morning when they first awaken. For someone who keeps a dream journal or a creative journal, this is a wonderful idea as it starts out your day by awakening your mind. A few others like to write at the evening before going to bed,
and this time, you reflect your day in one page.

Two, Write because you want to write and not because you have to. Don’t allow diary writing to become an obligation or chore. Let the need to write naturally flow from your heart. If you miss a day, accept that. In my case, if I miss a day because of some pending works or schedules, I write it together with my next day journal or decide to leave that day altogether (especially if nothing worth full or important happened that day).

Three, your journal listen to you what ever you say to it. Remember you feel so dejected about something, and you get a person who just sits in front and do nothing other than just listen, then you will start opening all your issues and feelings to this person. Your diary doesn’t talk to you, but it listens. Listens to everything you say. Once you get started, your journal will become one of your good friends — one who is always available and has the time to listen attentively.

Four, do not lie to yourself. Be honest. You may feel Happy, Great, Mad, Bad, Sad, depressing, confusing, embarrassing, frustrating, heart breaking, disgusting, lonely, shocking or rewarding. What ever you feel, reflect them in your words. You are talking to your best friend and you need to be honest to it right!!

Nowadays my diary is password protected. Instead of writing in a diary, I feel more comfortable to type and store them online. I use www.penzu.com for my journal writing. In this way, I don’t need to carry them with me wherever I go and I don’t have the trouble of someone “unknowingly” reading my journal. We have lots and lots of web sites offering free diary writing space.