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The heart shoulder with

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Karen Coty -- With Nissan. --

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our news talk. Tara

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Logan Buckey, the clinical psychologist is

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with me to talk about journaling. You might

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have seen Bernad O'Shea's column in the Irish examiner

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today he describes journaling as one of the

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best things he has ever done.

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Tara, what is it? And how is

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it different from keeping a diary? I imagine

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Bernadette's Adrian Mole writing about Cassandra.

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Absolutely. So I think

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that the biggest the easiest way to explain the difference

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between for me a diary in a journal is that

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a diary is content, whereas

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a journal is processed. Okay.

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So for me, my diary is a day to

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day where I put the content of what happened in

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that day. It's not necessarily filled with

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how those events made me feel,

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or my reflection on those events. So

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for me, a journal is about processing emotions,

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processing feelings, putting stuff down that

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might be more around goal

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settings, around inspiration, whereas

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a diary is more so here's the day, and

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here's

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what happened.

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What is the value of doing that? So

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there's lots of different things. So

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I think that for journey, well, there's a few different.

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So the first of all is going to be around. It helps

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you kind of achieve goals. So it's really good to say

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right. I have a goal in five months time to

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achieve whatever that might be. I'm gonna

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journal about this and I'm gonna be quite specific.

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The second thing is it lets you see kind of

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like your growth and progress, so it's really beautiful

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to look back on past entries maybe at difficult

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time and say, wow, look how far I've

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come. Look, look at how I'm actually feeling

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right now compared to where I was a month ago, so

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to be able to go back and look at that. And

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the beautiful thing about being able track your

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progress and your growth is you gain a self confidence.

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So kind of go, wow. Actually, I was able to deal with

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that really difficult time or I was able

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to achieve that goal, and that does give you a confidence

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boost. Sorry.

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And but because the

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content of it is is

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more emotional and feeling based, does that

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mean the goals are that

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way orientated as well. I mean, the goal is hardly,

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let's run marathon in three and a half hours

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or something. Yeah.

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Well, I think that

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depends. So for example, people have different type

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journals.

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So for example, what you're talking about there might be,

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for example, a fitness journal where that's a fitness

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goal that you have and you would keep in that journal.

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So it

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depends on what kind of journey you want to do.

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you certainly can have goals to overcome, for

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example, what might be the emotions I might

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feel for running an marathon, what might be those

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intrusive thoughts that I can't do with a lot of

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my negative kind of thoughts that are going on that I

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won't be able to do a marathon in general or in

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a certain amount of time and to journal

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through those kind of negative thoughts because

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one of the beautiful things about journaling is

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research has shown that it really does

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help to reduce negative thoughts around

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negative events or intrusive thoughts that you're

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having. by also actually improving your work

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in memory, believe it or not. So it's

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it's really good for those things.

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The heart

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chiller listener is always very

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quick to pick up a mistake, and I suggested that

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Adrian Mold is right about Cassandra, but of course

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it was Pandora according to the listener.

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I might have said mixing up my ancient Greek

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characters there for myth. So,

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I mean, for for people who journal, I mean,

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or rather for people who don't.

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Is there a value in it for everyone?

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absolutely a hundred percent. So even

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if we think about how we communicate

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now, so for example, how do you normally communicate

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with people now? I speak to them.

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Okay. And would that be verbally over a phone?

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Would it be texting emails? Oh,

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god. That's a great question. Definitely not emails,

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definitely not text. Mostly

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probably WhatsApp.

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Okay. So how do you think your written

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hand is physically with paper and pen?

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Oh, I do wanna see my writing.

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I mean, it's overly indecisive to anybody

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but me.

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So I think what happens to

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an awful lot of people is when they leave education, is

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that tends to

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go, so people get like, you know, sore hands

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and things like that. The really good thing about

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journaling is we do ask people to do with pen

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and paper. So what it does is it's getting it out of

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your mind and

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physically onto a piece of paper and

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that's got a lot of strength in that because it's

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not overtaking up your space But a

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second thing that it does is it gets your writing

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skills back and it actually gets your communication skills

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back and your vocabulary as well,

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believe it or not. So even if we think

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about everybody that perhaps they they

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don't really want to talk a lot about their emotions,

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but they want to improve their communication with their

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writing skills, journaling is a perfect way to

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do that. And the thing with journaling

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is it can be just about whatever you wanted

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to be. For example, there's dream journaling. So

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if you have a dream and you want a journal about that,

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it might be a difficult time you had in your life, it

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might be an event, or it might be something that

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you're having complications with a family

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member, or just

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maybe even a person network with

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maybe a

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personality style, and you can just be specific

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and pick what you want to journal about and

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tease it out. It can be your best friend

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because you can say whatever you want to say.

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if you kind of think about that, it's a safe

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space for you to talk openly, whereas

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if you came to your friend, you might be

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as open and honest in that communication. So

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really for everybody, it's a safe space

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to be able to say what they want to say in the way that

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they want to say it,

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while also developing skills. could could

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it have the opposite

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effect in the sense that

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you might then be more reluctant to

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say things to people

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face to face because you know you can express

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them in your journal. You know, I'm Tarrah's

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really annoying me, but you know what? I just get this

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out of me in my journal later. Whereas maybe

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you should just tell Tara, she's really annoying

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you. So

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I think the thing there is that if you

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look at the journal and you do write

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about that, that you might go and tell

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Tara that she's annoying you, but maybe in a different

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way. So if we react,

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let's say, from a place

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of trust, where maybe I'm annoying you and that's

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making you quite angry, way we might

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approach that conversation might be one of a place

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of threat, and we might end up maybe

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rupturing that relationship that you'd have with me.

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Mhmm. Whereas if

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you go in a journal and get those heavy emotions

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down on paper and get them out, you might say,

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okay, well, jeez, Tara isn't actually that

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bad. That's funny you say that. Brandon Ogle

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was my guess on Thursday interview last week, and he

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said in in another interview I was listening

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to, but but a journal he was writing

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while he was undergoing his chemotherapy,

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that he was he would get really annoyed with

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someone, and then he'd go down and write then he'd

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realized, actually, John, I'm not actually really annoyed

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with the madar. Once once was out on paper,

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he realized this is all a bit

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silly.

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That's it because you see, if we think about it,

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just as humans evolutionary, we when our

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threat system gets activated, we go straight into

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fight for flight. and that can be with people as

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well. And what happens is if we react in

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anger with someone, we

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rupture that relationship,

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and that might take a long time to appear. Whereas,

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If we go and sit down, actually look at it. A lot of the

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time the emotion actually isn't about the other person at

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all. It's something that might have been from yesterday

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or it might be feelings you're feeling anyway.

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and you want to put it onto that person. Whereas, journaling

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gives you that space to go, actually, you know what? I'm

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really actually not feeling that about that person. That

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was a lovely example that you used there that

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actually No, I don't. So in a

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way, journaling can help you get out the real negative

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stuff and actually see, okay. Actually, no, I am

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gonna tell Tara, I'm annoyed, but it's not going

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to be from a place anger. It's gonna be more

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of an assertive tone. Have we not evolved

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to the point that we should be emotionally mature

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enough to process all of this without writing

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it down?

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No. Of course not. We need

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that place to be able to talk about our emotions.

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I think, you know, I

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would like to say that we are more emotionally

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a tune and aware and modern society, but

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I don't think that's necessarily the case. I think that,

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you know, a lot of us are afraid to talk

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about our emotions and it hasn't been something that's

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been done to us as a child. We haven't experience

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what that's like. So a lot of people repress them.

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So a journal is a really safe place to be

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able to start expressing them and then be able

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to move out, to be able

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to process and express them on your

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own. Well

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listen, lots of people getting in touch like

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this listener says, I love the head plan journal.

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It's the best goal setting journal in the market, and

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it's Irish. as well as to a plug there for

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one of them. And thank you to everybody who keeps

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texting in to say it's Pandora and

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her and and her box not at Cassandra

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and her prophecies. 53106

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I'll try not make that mistake of future Tara at

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pleasure as always. And thanks a million for coming

7:40

into his Tara Logan bookley clinical site colleges

7:42

lots have come on the hard shoulder. The

7:45

hard shoulder with Keurin Colli,

7:47

with Nissan. Weekdays from

7:49

four. Our news

7:51

talk.