Journaling has saved my life many times as I poured my heart and soul onto blank pages and shared a whole range of stories, memories and emotions. These have become
I haven’t always published because just the act of writing a book can heal the trauma that surfaces through journaling. These healing memoirs are just as powerful as the memoirs that you write for actual publication where you seek to inspire and impact others.
Make no mistake whichever kind of memoir you write, it will change your life and your readers life forever.
Memories can be healing, revealing, scary, upsetting, fun and a whole lot of emotions in-between. Every experience creates a memory in the library of your heart and soul. When you come to write a memoir and walk into that vast room, you may not know where or how to start – but you know you just have to start.
Personally, I think that when you start the journey into memoir the most important thing is that you allow.
What I mean by that is you allow yourself to wander through the library and enjoy the process of connecting your memories with new eyes. Also allowing whatever needs to arise in the moment.
Often I am confronted with something that triggers a memory, it seems at first disconnected to the memoir, personal story, book or blog that I am writing. And then just like that, it starts to make sense.
In that sense making process, I believe that we can create a sense of freedom.
Everything starts from within. Our beliefs about ‘things’ seem so deeply ingrained, yet when we explore with new eyes and open our hearts to the message that lies beneath we start to liberate ourselves from self-imposed tyranny.
Now I am not saying you will be jumping for joy when you are reminded of events. You may be happy and equally, you may cry. The important thing is that you allow, acknowledge, accept and then take some small action.
Let me give you an example.
Back in mid 2018, I went to a birthday meal celebration and after we headed back to the birthday boy’s house for music and chat.
They had an Alexa and I loved that I could change the music at the drop of a hat and indulge myself.
While everyone was in the garden chatting I asked Alexa to find Nirvana for me. Songs like this always take me back to another time when I would have been on the dance floor all night.
In January 2018 my spine fractured and stuff like dancing hurt and so to protect myself I didn’t. But then a very curious thing happened.
I let myself relax into the words and let the music flow through me.
Music and parties were a big part of my childhood. My parents, like many of their
As the music played many memories came back to me. I wasn’t at this party, I was back as a child twisting and laughing
A friend of mine used to be called the phantom DJ because she would constantly change CDs and stop songs partway through as her excitement for what was to come grew. It was confusing but funny. I was teetering on the edge of taking her title when the hostess told me enough and to just let Alexa play.
One last song I begged and then I’m going to bed. ‘Alexa play Jolene.’ We all sang to one last track. What a wonderful song to finish a lovely evening.
I haven’t been able to dance much since 2018, so these could be the kind of memories that could go into a memoir.
When I was healing my bones I wrote a book Healing Osteoporosis Naturally, which I never published. It was written as a self-help healing memoir.
It was a crazy book to write. And it certainly helped me to heal.
The story was an emotional roller coaster, as I wrote in my journal I changed. Every pen stroke was a piece for healing, something for reflection, an action, and part of the story that I thought I would tell.
It was a hard book because of all of the technical research that I have had to do. Although I have trained in nutrition, it was like going to medical school and nutrition school all rolled into one. I must have read over 30 books and countless articles to understand how all of the systems of the body can become unbalanced and impact the bones.
My brain exploded as I made connections and made sense. And then it didn’t and then it did…
I wrote it to work out what my root cause was and experimented with nutrition. My life was all about osteoporosis and finding balance in this crazy world.
I was scared. I was certainly pigheaded. No specialist doctor was going to shove poison in my body and ignore my questions. Who did they think they were anyway?
Crying and endless senseless fear invaded the nights when I couldn’t sleep.
Back then I knew that I had to keep writing. I journaled through the terror and the research. At night when I wanted to get off this planet and for the pain to go away, I journaled, reflected and made sense.
I found what I thought was my root cause. I worked with a brilliant doctor, whom I amused with the books and research that I took in. He helped me with tests and bouncing ideas around and his faith in my ability to know how to heal me restored my faith in some of the medical profession. I have since discovered what the actual root cause is.
If I hadn’t started a brand new journal just for this journey, I couldn’t have healed as quickly and I have been able to refer to it to help me stay true to my memories.
Take your time to write your memoir
Books like this are often not quick writes.
You need to take time out. While I was immersed in my healing I wrote, researched and reflected. I also set up a website and a support group so that I could help others – that felt good and kept me grounded. My launch and marketing plan were been outlined. However, I discovered that I did not want to specialise in this. The writing had served its purpose.
You may think you are just writing a memoir, but in effect as you work on your book you are creating a pathway to inner freedom and healing.
For you to ponder…
What is the core message of your memoir?
We always come back to the core message. A memoir is not just a story, there is a learning point or points in every chapter, which comes back to the core message.
In Healing Osteoporosis Naturally, I wrote to support people with a process to find their root cause and how to use natural healing to find balance in their lives, heal their bones and their hearts.
I’ve used techniques from my coaching in this healing memoir. For example, I used a timeline exercise to help writers find the stories and content for their books. When you look at business the timeline enables you to find knowledge, skills and experiences and what you really love and are good at. In a memoir we discover memories. In journaling, it’s about memories and making sense – finding the root cause of trauma.
In healing yourself and knowing how you got to this point is a big part of healing – so timelines is an invaluable process, which links to the core message of the book.
I wrote this book because it helped me to heal and it taught me some valuable lessons for use in my book business. It doesn’t matter that it’s not published. It helped me heal.
However, the bigger message for me is to inspire you to have the courage to write your book, so that you can inspire others to heal and grow.
Do you have a powerful healing memoir to write and wondering where to start and if you could use this to build your brand? Maybe you want to pivot what you do or add credibility to your existing business.
Perhaps you just need to write it, for now.
Start a new journal today, who knows where you will go with it. I’ve been scribbling in mine this morning with a cuppa and feel better for letting my words flow.
An invitation or several invitations
If writing a book is something you know you want to do, and then book a call.
You can grab a copy of my book Plan your non-fiction book in a weekend on Amazon. Your lowest cost entry into planning and writing the right book.
PS: Start a new journal today. You will see your life change in many ways, just from daily writing.