How Writing Can Save Your Life

Written on November 17th, 2009 at 10:45 pm by shimon

This is a guest post by B. Lynn Goodwin. Lynn is a freelance writer, editor, teacher, former caregiver, and the author of You Want Me To Do WHAT? – Journaling for Caregivers (Tate Publishing), which can be purchased at Amazon, through Writer Advice, or from your local bookstore. She is published in numerous anthologies, magazines, newspapers, e-zines, and blogs, and she owns Writer Advice . When you visit the website, be sure to click on Journaling for Caregivers. Lynn is participating in the WOW! Women On Writing Blog Tour.
Have you ever been a caregiver for a spouse, parent, child, special needs child, or yourself?

If so, you know that you spend every spare minute driving to medical appointments, stopping at the pharmacy, cooking, answering questions,

paying bills, giving medicine, adjusting machines, returning phone calls, and helping with matters that used to be private.

Why write about it?

Writing gives perspective and restores sanity. Writing is a lifeline as well as a record. Writing will improve your life and could even save it. Do not underestimate the power of journaling.
It allows you to vent, delve into issues, and untangle messes. It lets you analyze or celebrate. It allows you to finish a thought without interruption. Journaling releases mental toxins and deepens awareness.

What do you do if you don’t know what to write about?

One way to avoid facing a blank page is to use sentence starts. There are over 200 of them in You Want Me to Do WHAT? Journaling for Caregivers, and they will trigger all kinds of memories, plans, and ideas.

Want to try it right now? Pick one of the sentence starts listed here:
Today, I want…
Sometimes I wonder…
I lust after…
It’s hard to admit…
What if…
I will always love…
Finish the sentence and keep going. You are journaling. Explore your hopes and fears. Vent. Analyze. Process. Reflect. Make discoveries and find the hope that can hide when you are overwhelmed by your daily routine.

Are judgment gremlins nagging at you as you write? Ask them to go outside or tell them to play on the freeway. Your journal is yours. It does not need their approval.

Journaling helps you see yourself and your loved one from a new perspective. Journals never interrupt or argue. They let you evaluate, interpret, and rediscover your love.
Use the prompts in You Want Me to Do WHAT? to ease the stress of caring for a patient with dementia, stroke, cancer or any degenerative disease.

Use them if you care for someone with special needs or a mental illness.
Use them if you are a primary caregiver, spouse of a primary caregiver, or a long distance caregiver.
Use these prompts if you are in any kind of dependent relationship. Use them to process the end of a relationship. They will help you understand what happened.
Writing is therapeutic. It saves lives. Your truths are eager to come out. Let them spill onto the page, and see what doors writing opens for you.

21 Responses to “How Writing Can Save Your Life”

Jodi

3 months ago

Do you ever worry about people reading your journal?

Lynn

3 months ago

That’s a great question. I used to worry about it. Then I took a look at my scrawls and thought who would bother?

I have some old letters that my father sent my mother from Bahrain when Shell Oil sent him there during World War II. I would love to read those letters, but even with a magnifying glass, his small handwriting is too big a challenge for me.

If I really don’t want someone to read something, I use code aka initials. Do you know what TWNMBD means? If so, please write back. I always know the meaning, and this sequence of letters suggest a frame of mind when I read it.

If you’re worried about privacy, come up with your own code, or put your journal in an envelope and label it Medical Receipts, 1998. There are lots of creative ways to keep others out of your business. Thanks again for asking, Jodi, and Shimon, thanks for having me here.

Lynn
http://www.writeradvice.com
Author of You Want Me to Do WHAT? Journaling for Caregivers.

Lynn

3 months ago

I was fascinated as I watched this post and saw “39 years ago” under my name. Time is relative. I just did the math. In Earth time, I was a 21-year-old senior at Vassar College 39 years ago. I wrote on a Smith Corona typewriter. Hmmm.

Lynn
http://www.writeradvice.com
Author of You Want Me to Do WHAT? Journaling for Caregivers

shimon

3 months ago

Yeah it’s probably some bug in my theme, I think I’ll remove the relative dates altogether.

Reply

Lynn

3 months ago

I hope you don’t think I thought it was a problem. I thought it was fun. It reminds me that machines are only machines.

Lynn
http://www.writeradvice.com
Author of You Want Me to Do WHAT? Journaling for Caregivers

shimon

3 months ago

yeah it’s fun but I still want to fix it.

Reply

Lynn

3 months ago

Did you know that November is National Caregiver Month? Who will you honor? How will you celebrate?

B. Lynn Goodwin
http://www.writeradvice.com
Author of You Want Me to Do WHAT? Journaling for Caregivers

amanda@choosing-life-my-way.com

3 months ago

Thanks for an inspiring post. I have always found writing to be very healing and helpful, no matter what is going on in my life. I really like your journalling suggestions. Today, I want to embrace everything that comes my way, and learn from it.
amanda@choosing-life-my-way.com´s last blog ..Inspiration and Motivation Come from Action

Lynn

3 months ago

Thanks so much for your generous words, Amanda. Like you, I want to embrace everything that comes my way and learn from it. Have you found that some days this is much easier than others?

Lynn
http://www.writeradvice.com
Author of You Want Me to Do WHAT? Journaling for Caregivers

Raj

3 months ago

Yeah I agree, Writing always helps people bring them back to sanity.

If you are sad and you write your feelings on a paper, u tend to feel much better as soon as u write them, I myself have tried this technique several times.

And every time it worked !!
Raj´s last blog ..Poor Time Manager or Effective Time Manager, you decide

Lynn

3 months ago

Raj, I’m so glad journaling works for you. It’s a great way to get on the other side of sadness. Do you have a regular journaling practice or do you just do it when you feel like it?

Lynn
http://www.writeradvice.com
Author of You Want Me to Do WHAT? Journaling for Caregivers

best

3 months ago

I thought this was a very interesting post thanks for writing it!

Lynn

3 months ago

You are welcome. Do you ever journal?

Lynn
http://www.writeradvice.com
Author of You Want Me to Do WHAT? Journaling for Caregivers

Paul Maurice Martin

1 month ago

Great tips and approaches. One that I used for journaling myself was to focus on the “little” things. For example, I worked with children and they’d often do or say something interesting or enlivening. Or out jogging I might notice something about the sky, the wind…

So it was kind of the opposite of a diary approach. Instead of feeling I had to write every day, I’d just write about interesting little things when they happened to happen. But once I started writing about them I noticed them more, and ended up writing almost every day anyway!

shimon

1 month ago

Hi Paul, thanks for sharing.

Reply
Lynn

1 month ago

Journaling has a way of doing that to you. Annie Dillard said, ““One of the few things I know about writing is this: spend it all, shoot it, play it, lose it, all, right away, every time. Do not hoard what seems good. Give it, give it all, give it now. Something more will arise for later, something better. These things fill from behind, from beneath, like well water.” Sounds like you are doing that.

Lynn
http://www.writeradvice.com
You Want Me to Do WHAT? Journaling for Caregivers

Reply

Joseph Condron

1 month ago

That was a good post. Writing can be such a powerful therapeutic aid for many people.
Joseph Condron´s last blog ..Top Gun Film Review: Can The Fascination Be Explained

Lynn

1 month ago

I’m so glad you like what I wrote. You are exactly right. Writing is both powerful and a therapeutic aid for many. Do you journal? What do you like to write about?

Take care,

Lynn
http://www.writeradvice.com
Author of You Want Me to Do WHAT? Journaling for Caregivers

Marilyn Thompson

2 weeks ago

It’s a great way to make your mind work and think. Because you are going to write something which we can understand. We have to gramatise the whole thing. That is why people write blogs. Brings creativity from within.

Christopher

Lynn

2 weeks ago

Creativity can come from the most unexpected places. Thanks for sharing this.

Lynn
http://www.writeradvice.com
Author of You Want Me to Do WHAT? Journaling for Caregivers

1 Trackbacks For This Post

Tweets that mention How Writing Can Save Your Life | Spirituality and Self Help -- Topsy.com Says:
November 18th, 2009 at 8:06 pm

[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by WOW! WomenOnWriting, Jodi at WOW!. Jodi at WOW! said: B. Lynn Goodwin tell you how to take the plunge into journaling and how it can improve your life @ http://ow.ly/Dn1Y [...]

Jodi

3 months ago

Do you ever worry about people reading your journal?

Lynn

3 months ago

That’s a great question. I used to worry about it. Then I took a look at my scrawls and thought who would bother?

I have some old letters that my father sent my mother from Bahrain when Shell Oil sent him there during World War II. I would love to read those letters, but even with a magnifying glass, his small handwriting is too big a challenge for me.

If I really don’t want someone to read something, I use code aka initials. Do you know what TWNMBD means? If so, please write back. I always know the meaning, and this sequence of letters suggest a frame of mind when I read it.

If you’re worried about privacy, come up with your own code, or put your journal in an envelope and label it Medical Receipts, 1998. There are lots of creative ways to keep others out of your business. Thanks again for asking, Jodi, and Shimon, thanks for having me here.

Lynn
http://www.writeradvice.com
Author of You Want Me to Do WHAT? Journaling for Caregivers.

Lynn

3 months ago

I was fascinated as I watched this post and saw “39 years ago” under my name. Time is relative. I just did the math. In Earth time, I was a 21-year-old senior at Vassar College 39 years ago. I wrote on a Smith Corona typewriter. Hmmm.

Lynn
http://www.writeradvice.com
Author of You Want Me to Do WHAT? Journaling for Caregivers

Lynn

3 months ago

I hope you don’t think I thought it was a problem. I thought it was fun. It reminds me that machines are only machines.

Lynn
http://www.writeradvice.com
Author of You Want Me to Do WHAT? Journaling for Caregivers

Lynn

3 months ago

Did you know that November is National Caregiver Month? Who will you honor? How will you celebrate?

B. Lynn Goodwin
http://www.writeradvice.com
Author of You Want Me to Do WHAT? Journaling for Caregivers

amanda@choosing-life-my-way.com

3 months ago

Thanks for an inspiring post. I have always found writing to be very healing and helpful, no matter what is going on in my life. I really like your journalling suggestions. Today, I want to embrace everything that comes my way, and learn from it.
amanda@choosing-life-my-way.com´s last blog ..Inspiration and Motivation Come from Action

Lynn

3 months ago

Thanks so much for your generous words, Amanda. Like you, I want to embrace everything that comes my way and learn from it. Have you found that some days this is much easier than others?

Lynn
http://www.writeradvice.com
Author of You Want Me to Do WHAT? Journaling for Caregivers

Raj

3 months ago

Yeah I agree, Writing always helps people bring them back to sanity.

If you are sad and you write your feelings on a paper, u tend to feel much better as soon as u write them, I myself have tried this technique several times.

And every time it worked !!
Raj´s last blog ..Poor Time Manager or Effective Time Manager, you decide

Lynn

3 months ago

Raj, I’m so glad journaling works for you. It’s a great way to get on the other side of sadness. Do you have a regular journaling practice or do you just do it when you feel like it?

Lynn
http://www.writeradvice.com
Author of You Want Me to Do WHAT? Journaling for Caregivers

best

3 months ago

I thought this was a very interesting post thanks for writing it!

Lynn

3 months ago

You are welcome. Do you ever journal?

Lynn
http://www.writeradvice.com
Author of You Want Me to Do WHAT? Journaling for Caregivers

Paul Maurice Martin

1 month ago

Great tips and approaches. One that I used for journaling myself was to focus on the “little” things. For example, I worked with children and they’d often do or say something interesting or enlivening. Or out jogging I might notice something about the sky, the wind…

So it was kind of the opposite of a diary approach. Instead of feeling I had to write every day, I’d just write about interesting little things when they happened to happen. But once I started writing about them I noticed them more, and ended up writing almost every day anyway!

Joseph Condron

1 month ago

That was a good post. Writing can be such a powerful therapeutic aid for many people.
Joseph Condron´s last blog ..Top Gun Film Review: Can The Fascination Be Explained

Lynn

1 month ago

I’m so glad you like what I wrote. You are exactly right. Writing is both powerful and a therapeutic aid for many. Do you journal? What do you like to write about?

Take care,

Lynn
http://www.writeradvice.com
Author of You Want Me to Do WHAT? Journaling for Caregivers

Marilyn Thompson

2 weeks ago

It’s a great way to make your mind work and think. Because you are going to write something which we can understand. We have to gramatise the whole thing. That is why people write blogs. Brings creativity from within.

Christopher

Lynn

2 weeks ago

Creativity can come from the most unexpected places. Thanks for sharing this.

Lynn
http://www.writeradvice.com
Author of You Want Me to Do WHAT? Journaling for Caregivers

Tweets that mention How Writing Can Save Your Life | Spirituality and Self Help -- Topsy.com Says:
November 18th, 2009 at 8:06 pm
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by WOW! WomenOnWriting, Jodi at WOW!. Jodi at WOW! said: B. Lynn Goodwin tell you how to take the plunge into journaling and how it can improve your life @ http://ow.ly/Dn1Y [...]

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