Journaling an Artistic Science.

[Music]

generally

is the science of putting your thoughts

down on a piece of paper

this is my journal it’s a book

in which i write my thoughts feelings

and emotions when i was 14 years old

i had an amazing friend who told me

about a diary she used to keep

she was a very fascinating person so

each time we met

she would talk to me about it there was

one time

i asked her what do you write in this

book

so she explained to me what she wrote

she wrote about her crushes who had the

crush on her

and which celebrity she thought would

marry her

i found that very fascinating i used to

ask myself

how is my friend so articulate how is

she able to put her thoughts down on a

piece of paper

like this i went on to ask her

does your journal come with a lock and

she said yes

so she showed me the lock and the key i

looked at them

and they were so small they could barely

fit in my hand

for me i wondered what if my mom

older sister or an aunt stumbled across

the book

and knew who i have a crush on the

thought of that

killed me so i told her i’ll think about

it

maybe some other time but the beauty

about it

was that this thought remained in the

back of my mind that there was a thing

called a journal

which i could turn to in times of

trouble there was a book called a

journal

which i could use to express myself

there are many people in our communities

who go through different pressure

stress anxiety and depression

these people have got nowhere to turn to

but a journal

is an alternative option for them to

express themselves

in my first year at university i

remember failing my exams

out of the seven courses i was taking i

only passed four

so that meant going on part-time the

scary thought about it was

there were some people who had been

advising how to pass an exam at

university

so they were coming after me and coming

to join our class

and so i was so embarrassed so these

guys will join me

and now they’ll know that i’m not as

good as they thought

i thought i was bulletproof because i

had never failed an exam

previously in my life so i started to

wonder

why would i fail now why has this

happened to me

so i turned to my journal and began to

write my thoughts down

initially feeling like a victim this

shouldn’t have happened to me

i don’t deserve to be here i don’t even

like my new class

as time went on i began to realize that

they were actually brilliant people in

my new class

some were funny some were amazing and

some were very intelligent

so my journal now turned to start

writing

things like i love my new class oh they

are very exciting people

thank god i found a new class and so it

became easier for me to deal with my

failure

this brings me on to some of the

benefits of journaling

one of the first ones is that it helps

you deal with depression

statistics show that 77 percent of the

youth

age between 14 and 25 are battling with

some form of depression

but it’s there even in adulthood

there was one time i met an amazing lady

she was so beautiful and i thought in my

head this should be the person i date

as time went on it did happen we started

dating and i was very happy

i used to look at her and think wow this

is everything i ever dreamed of

and the relationship was so good i never

thought it would end

each time when we met we were very happy

and laughing

but as i grew older i began to realize

that my goals

dreams and aspirations were changing and

maybe she was not the one for me

but i was so scared to bring it up i

just thought well when the time comes

we’ll deal with it

and so time went on i remember one day

being at a party with her

and we were having so much fun as usual

and so she bent down and told me this is

not working

at the time she had a 40 phone so i

thought she meant her phone so i bent

down and said

no no no no don’t worry i’ll look at it

afterwards

so she said no no no no no not the phone

this is not working so it clicked to me

to say oh i think she means the

relationship

but in the heat of the moment i decided

to say

ah okay when one door closes another one

opens

don’t worry it’s better to go our

separate ways than to keep fighting

about something

but what i didn’t think about was the

impact of that decision

no more late night calls no more early

morning texts

no more mid-day calls to ask how i was

doing so it hit me

is this how it’s going to be going

forward so i wondered

sometimes it would be hard for me to

wake up in the morning and sometimes in

the night i had barely any sleep

i knew that this wasn’t going to work

because i was too busy to go into a

depression

which clearly was coming so again i

turned to my journal

and started writing down my thoughts i

was actually angry at her how could she

do this to me i’m such a nice guy

i don’t deserve to be treated like this

so

as time went on i actually realized why

it never worked

and so my thoughts turned from

complaining to saying oh thank god it

never went oh it would never have worked

i’m so glad that was the outcome

and so from then i realized that the

journaling

helped me overcome the depression or the

depressive state i have found myself in

another one of the benefits of

journaling is that it helps the creative

center of your mind

open up the mind has two sides one is

the left

and another is the right the left side

is the side which we use to analyze

things the lawyers the doctors the

bunkers

that’s the side we use but then there’s

the right side which the poets the

artists

and people who are very creative views

so by journaling it allows the left side

of the brain to work

so that you free the right side and your

creative

abilities and talents tend to come out

so i think from that statistic it’s safe

to say that people who journal are very

creative

another one of the benefits of

journaling is that it can help you deal

with a difficult relationship

there was one time i found myself at

school in a room which was supposed to

house two people

and we ended up being seven so there was

one bed space here

and another one there one for two one

for two

and then it ended up being that the

corridor in the middle was where the

other three were

we were so cramped and there was no

space it wasn’t working but we were all

scared to bring the topic up

so sometimes i would ask my friends guys

is this working but they would say ish

i can’t bring that up look where will

they go they are stranded

and i knew in my heart that this wasn’t

going to work

so there was one day i got up in the

middle of the night in a hurry to go to

the toilet

but since there were people in the

middle i found myself stepping on them

and rushed to the toilet so in the

morning someone brought it up who’s that

guy who stepped on us in the night

and i was afraid to tell them it was me

because i knew what would happen

but for me that was a realization that

this wasn’t going to work

so i started to write it in my journal

how i wanted things to turn out

how the difficult conversation was going

to go on

how i was going to speak to them and ask

them

i actually had the feeling they were

going to ask me questions like where

will we go

so can’t you see we don’t have money

which room will we move to if this

happens

and sure enough those conversations came

up

when they asked me those questions i

actually had answers

because i had already journaled it i was

ready

and i wasn’t afraid so for me it was

just like relieving an old conversation

another one of the benefits of

journaling is that it helps you

create goals for your life i know

everyone has goals

and aspirations for the future and it’s

safe to put them down in your journal

imagine walking up to your neighbor and

saying i want to be the next dangote

you’ll probably think you’re crazy what

is this guy thinking

but in your journal it’s safe to put

down such crazy thoughts

what do you want for your life what do

you expect out of this life

another one of the benefits of

journaling is it can help us deal with

anxiety there are many people who go

through anxiety issues

and have got many problems but when you

journal and put your thoughts on a piece

of paper

it helps you deal with them maybe one of

you in the audience is

interested in writing your autobiography

in the future

journaling helps you keep a record of

your life

the events and how they made you feel

imagine trying to write about an event

20 years ago

today you would probably put in force

numbers

false names for statistics but by

journaling you can relieve the

experience

the reason why i love journaling is

because my journal

is my safe space in my journal i can be

myself

in my journal i don’t have to pretend

that sometimes people ask us how are you

feeling and you say fine

when you’re having the worst day of your

life there are some times when people

ask you

how are things going and you say oh they

are going okay when actually they are

not

in your journal you don’t have to lie

you can be honest

i don’t feel happy right now i don’t

feel like i’m doing as well as i should

for those of you who don’t general and

maybe are considering it

i would like to encourage you to start

it because in your journal

is a world of adventure that awaits you

in your journal

is the world of lots of experiences that

you will find

there’s lots of power in putting your

thoughts down on a piece of paper

and for those of you who probably

journal but have let go of the habit

like a baby learning how to walk that

falls flat on its face

the possibility of being able to walk on

your own two feet

and the freedom that comes with it is

enough to make the baby rise up

and try to walk again but i know there

are some millennials here who will say

but why should i write my thoughts on a

piece of paper well

you can use your tablet your computer or

any other device

that you can use to write your thoughts

down it doesn’t have to be a pen on the

paper

i would like to leave you with the

thoughts of a wise friend who always

shares this quote with me

the greatest story you will ever tell is

the story

of your own life and journaling can make

it happen

thank you very much