Dear Friends,

Summertime, and the living is easy. Although summer can be action-packed, it may also allow us some time for reflection. And what better way to reflect on where we've been, where we are, and where we want to be than to write it down in a notebook or journal.

Journals and journaling provide the theme for our June newsletter. This is a theme close to my heart. I started using journals in teaching my English classes in 1975 and continued some form of required journal writing in undergraduate and graduate classes until I retired from professing English in 2010. Not only has a journal practice served me as a teaching tool, but my journals have quite literally saved my life several times, and they have enabled me, I am convinced, to live the life I have imagined possible.

So today, I am delighted our newsletter includes a featured interview with Mari McCarthy, founder of CreateWriteNow. Mari has a great deal of experience and many journaling resources to share with you. Also, Patrice Dickey, an experienced journaling teacher, shares how she uses journals in her life coaching practice.

We are happy also to share information about Christina Baldwin's Lifelines, a six-cd collection of inspiring journal exercises and ideas. Those who wish to move from journaling to memoir writing will find these tools very useful.

Completing our newsletter is the first in our new feature where we highlight a self-published book. While this series is not a formal review, it is our attempt to honor authors who have continued their writing efforts through to project completion. This month's self-published book is Nancy Stephan's memoir, The Truth about Butterflies.

Please consider sharing your stories about journals on one of our social media sites where you can also raise questions about different approaches one takes to move writing from journals to memoirs.

Write and be well!

Best wishes,
John

Interview with Mari McCarthy

Satia: Mari, would you please introduce yourself to our readers and tell us a bit about your website?

Mari: I'm The Journal/Writing Therapist, founder of CreateWriteNow, home of the Journaling for the Health of It™ community. My website provides information, inspiration and ideas for people to start and keep a daily pen-to-page Journaling Practice for self-discovery, personal growth, psychophysical healing, life problem solving and... We have a Journal Writing Therapy Blog, a Personal Journal Stories section where Journalers talk about their Journal Writing Journey results and rewards. We post unique weekly Journaling Therapy Tips and Ideas (we have over 100 now).

Satia: I have been a subscriber to your newsletter for a while now. When did you first create the newsletter and what kind of response from readers have you been receiving?

Mari: I started the monthly Healing Write Newsletter a couple of years ago and began the Journaling Therapy Tips Newsletter which goes out each Thursday morning last year. It's become a great two way communication vehicle for us Journal Writing "Junkies".

Satia: Please tell us about your workbook Who Are You? and the other resources you offer on your website.

Mari: Who Are You? is an introduction to Journaling Therapy and gives exercises and approaches for using this free self-health tool for wellness and wealth. We've published three other workbooks: 85 of Mari's Most Musefull Journaling Tips, 53 Weekly Writing Retreats, and Peace of Mind and Body: 27 Days of Journaling to Health and Happiness. We also have a free eBook, We All Are Writers: How to Use Your Journal to Cure Writer's Block Now.

You can visit Mari’s website to learn more about her workbooks and be sure to sign up for her newsletter.

An Excerpt from Back to the Garden by Patrice Dickey

DEAR KITTY

When I ask the class how many people keep journals, invariably just one or two hands go up. I see journals as an important tool in charting first the direction that one wants to take, and secondly, a means of keeping a finger on the pulse: are you adhering to that direction? What trials and tribulations have you been able to overcome on your own hero's journey?

Comments and complaints fly around the room.
"I've always thought that unless I wrote the perfect journal, it wouldn't be worth it."
"I have a stack of pretty little journal books that I've never been able to bring myself to crack."
"When I write in my journal I'm afraid someone will read it later and think I'm really stupid."
"For me, I find it easier not to admit to myself what's really happening in my life 'cause I just get so worked up I just want to shout What the F***!"
"Yeah, sometimes I get so riled when I'm writing that I have to stay up for hours just to get it all out!"

Of course the alternative is going to bed mad, and we've all heard the wisdom against going to bed mad, even if it's only with yourself.

CHEAP SHRINK

A journal is the most marvelous cheap psychiatrist I've found, and it gives me a chance to sort through my feelings and reach some place of hope that tomorrow is another day. (Thank you, Scarlett O'Hara!)

However, many women in my class vehemently insisted that a journal must be some work of art in order to have any validity whatsoever. This amazed me! To me, this is an extraordinary degree of self-hatred and denigration, when we can't even express our most private thoughts without censuring ourselves.

Why not use it as a dumping ground? The whole objective is to learn how to accept ourselves; how to be gentle with ourselves; how to love ourselves. Eventually the love we're able to feel for ourselves will emanate outward, and every ounce of love makes the world a better place.

A journal can be a handy companion along the way as we begin to steadily shift our perceptions and our consciousness, ever so slightly, day by day.

The shifts occur partially through releasing the old, angry, stagnant thoughts, the negativity into which we pour fear-filled energy, which ends up attracting more negative outcomes.

And that's not what we want! What better way to witness that, than through a reflection of our soul-journey, the journal. The book of the day (le jour, in French) accompanies us on our journey--in fact it is meant to be our companion on the path.

As with everything, moderation is advised. A recent study by James Pennebaker, a great advocate of journaling, indicates that endless obsessing over the same topic can add to depression. So just write it down and release it, and move on.

A journal is like writing a letter to your best friend--and part of the purpose of the class is to get to know yourself as the best friend you'll ever have. Dear Diary. Dear Kitty, as Anne Frank called hers. Such a powerful and sensitive document, The Diary of Anne Frank revealed one of history's beautiful souls.

Embarking upon this lifelong path, happily girded with a journal, lessens the need to arm oneself with bandolier and pith helmet (or our far-more-obnoxious contemporary versions of these--handguns and Humvees).

When we learn how to hold the internal demons at bay with a well-honed pen stroke, we have a much lesser need to project our fears outward, on THEM--those people out there.

Embarking on a journey with a journal is beginning the adventure of a lifetime. If the strict "journal" doesn't work for you, use the blank book as a doodle pad, for scrapbooking, creating a document of your life and observing your own hero's journey. It's amazing to look back and see how far you've come.

Visit Patrice Dickey’s website and sign up for her newsletter.

Product Review: Lifelines by Christina Baldwin

Lifelines by Christina Baldwin is an audio recording drawn from her workshop experiences. This six cd collection includes stories from Baldwin's own experience, her philosophy on journaling as a writing practice, and plenty of inspiring journaling exercises and ideas. This is not something you will listen to one time for the lessons and ideas she suggests are too numerous to be completed in a single sitting.

The primary means she recommends for journaling is, of course, flow writing, where the listener is encouraged to put pen to paper and just write. But she also offers suggestions that include writing in the third person or writing an entry that is dated a year from now. These alternate ways of approaching journaling allow the writer to work with ideas that are hard to approach otherwise, whether they are painful memories or whether they are dreams that seem too large to consider.

Of course, with so much content there are parts of the whole which may not appeal to everyone. One writing exercise may be the perfect fit today while another is the one that will be needed years from now. Baldwin, whose been writing about journaling for decades now, knows her stuff and whether you read one of her books or listen to this audio collection, you're bound to come away with some insight into how you can more fully explore yourself on the page, whether you are new to journaling or have many volumes collected on your bookshelves.

Journaling Software and Apps

LifeJournal

The LifeJournal software package is perhaps the most extensive, offering add-ons to personalize the journaling experience. It is also recommended by the International Association for Journal Writing. Complete with writing prompts, quotes, and more, it won't be long before even a journal writer who is most comfortable with pen and paper isn't tapping away at the keyboard. With a list of extensions for writers, educators, and more, this is a journaling software that is designed to grow with the user. You can download a free trial and write up to 14 entries. Be sure to sign up for the newsletter as well.

The Journal

DavidRM's "The Journal" with inspiring features including writing prompts and packages for adding on resources to meet your particular journaling needs including a couple of free ones to try on for size before investing in more. The initial package comes with writing prompts, including Memory Grabbers, a fill-in-the blank writing response that is both inviting and non-intimidating. You can try this software for 45 days for free.

Memoires(for Mac users)

I don't have a Mac so I was unable to sample this software but this was recommended to me by Mac Users. With autosave features and even a way to add doodling to your journal. There is a free trial version and even a video journaling version for those who are more orally inclined. There is a demo video that highlights the many features which you can watch here.

There are also journaling apps for the iPhone and iPad including:

Chronicle for iPad
Day One
My Own Diary
MyMemoir

If you try any of these software programs or apps and would like to submit a review for a future issue of the Wellness & Writing Connections newsletter, please contact Satia Renée.

We are proud to introduce a new regular feature to the Wellness & Writing Connections newsletter where we will be highlighting self-published and independently published books.

Imagine a child, waking up beside her mother who has died in her sleep. This is how Nancy Stephan begins her memoir, The Truth About Butterflies. Shuffled into the foster care system, she is fortunate enough to be taken in by a family where she is accepted and welcome. When she becomes pregnant as a young teenager, the foster family is still there to encourage and support her. And it is this constancy in support, reinforced by a strong Christian foundation, that gives the author the ability to be a loving and supportive mother to her daughter, Nicole.

The reader knows from the beginning that the story does not end well because Nancy is preparing for her only daughter’s funeral. Still, Stephan has a story to tell and she has the courage to put pen to paper, sharing her faith and hope with a delicate candor.

It is hard to imagine how difficult it is for anyone to write about the loss of a child, regardless of the reason, whether by sudden accident or gradual decline. Whenever a mother makes the effort to share her experience, to put a voice to her emotions, it seems simple to do what many of the people in this book did, suggest platitudes of vague comfort. The truth is bluntly stated early in the memoir when Stephan goes to a grief counselor and asks when will she stop crying for her daughter and the counselor has the courage that no others seem to have when she replies “Never.”

Stephan’s grief is evident on every page of this first memoir which she has self-published under her own imprint, rumandbaker, and be sure to sign her guestbook while you’re there.

If you or someone you know has a self-published or independently published book you would like to have considered for inclusion in an upcoming issue of the newsletter, please contact Satia Renée. Please note that we are not accepting e-books at this time.

Closing Thoughts from Satia Renée

Dear Readers,

It is hard for me to remember a time when I was not writing a journal of some sort. It’s changed over the years in a variety of ways. For a long time most of my journal entries were written in poetry form. At another, my journal was typed out and online. Recently, my journaling has returned to the most basic—a medium point blue ink pen and a composition notebook.

Journaling has long been a form of meditation for me, a chance for me to center myself, to pause at the beginning of my day and just let my mind settle down before I get too busy to remember how I wanted to spend it. This has been especially true for me the past few weeks as my doctor has put me on nearly complete bed rest due to an injury. Without my time to release on the page, I’d probably be climbing walls with boredom.

As John says in his introduction to this month’s newsletter, journaling has even saved my life, giving me a safe place to express my nearly suffocating fears when my marriage began to implode, when I found a lump, when . . . well, you get the point. When overwhelmed by what I was feeling, giving myself time to face them fully allowed me to move out into my day without falling apart.

Because of my deep devotion to my practice of journal writing, I was eager to share a variety of resources on journaling. In the blog we have an “editor’s choice” of books that encourage journaling and we will have also offer resources for journaling online so you can share your thoughts with others, if that is something that will inspire you to write.

Why so much information about journaling? Because it’s easy to forget the fact that there is no one right way to keep a journal. So many get caught up in how it should be done and don’t realize that there are as many ways of keeping a journal as there are reasons for wanting to keep one. Regardless, if you are driven to the page by immediate circumstance or because you want to leave a memento behind for future generations, your story and how you write it is unique to you. It is our hope that this month’s newsletter, the resources you can find on the blog, and the community we are gradually building will all be an inspiration for you, whether you are a journaling novice or, like John, have a collection of books gathered over decades. Above all else, we hope you keep writing!

Wishing You Wellness,
Satia Renée