Mari L. McCarthy - Journaling Power: How to Create the Happy, Healthy Life You Want to Live

How to Create the Happy, Healthy Life You Want toLive

Copyright 2018 Mari L. McCarthy

Published by Mari L. McCarthy at Smashwords

Smashwords Edition License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoymentonly. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people.If you would like to share this book with another person, pleasepurchase an additional copy for each recipient. If youre readingthis book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for yourenjoyment only, then please return to Smashwords.com or yourfavorite retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you forrespecting the hard work of this author.

Table of Contents

Dedication

To my main music men, Perry Rossi, JustinStoney, David Stephenson, and Dominic Devitt, who taught me tothink with my heart and sing from my soul.

To Lyn Alderson, my soul sister, for herlove, inspiration, and adult supervision.

Introduction

Ihear and I forget, I see and I remember, I write and Iunderstand.

Chinese Proverb

Back in 1998 I did not have the strength tocook a meal without dropping my saucepans (and sometimes my dinner)on the kitchen floor, and I had very little function in the rightside of my body. I had been floored, quite literally, by an ongoinghealth crisis.

As a successful consultant advising Fortune1000 companies, I had previously owned my own business, but Idbeen forced to sell it due to my disability. I wasnt even able towrite my name properly, as Id lost the use of my right hand. A fewyears earlier, Id regularly walked for miles just for fun andfitness; Id been quite athletic as a young person, a good sprinterand basketball player. Now I could no longer walk down the streetin a straight line; in the eyes of people who didnt know me, Ilooked exactly like the town drunk. Things couldnt get much worsefor the girl who had once solved everyone elses problems.

In a desperate bid to recover my health I wasfollowing conventional medical advice, and taking a cocktail ofprescription drugs every day as I dutifully went from onespecialist to another. But my condition was getting worse insteadof better. It took a mammoth effort every day to coordinate my legsand walk from the bedroom to the bathroom. I felt diminished by mychronic illness.

I needed a radical transformation, and itcame when a friend introduced me to writing therapy (also known astherapeutic journaling or expressive writing). At first I viewedjournaling as a means to an end (I wanted to learn to write with myleft hand) but I soon noticed how it eased my bodily symptoms,especially when I wrote about them in depth. Before I startedjournaling about the lack of function in my right side, forexample, Id been suffering a lot with numbness and tingling in theaffected areas. My right arm was colder and redder in appearancethan my left arm, but over a period of time the blood flow improvedand my affected arm began to look normal. Gradually the generalizednumbness and tingling I felt on my right side diminished too. Ialso noticed improvements in my digestion after writing about myrushed approach to mealtimes and implementing some changes in myeating habits.

As I continued to explore my physical andemotional distress through journaling, I realized Id been abusingmy body for years and ignoring its cries for help. Id driven itrecklessly like an automobile, yet it was actually a livingorganism in need of care and attention. I started to take aholistic approach to my health and introduced some lifestylechanges.

Right from day one, journaling revealed myissues and helped me find solutions. I was forced to recognize mynegative self-image and to discover that I hadnt dealt with thepain of my childhood. With my journal as a catalyst, I began ametamorphosis, a dynamic process of physical, emotional, andspiritual change. After a year or two of regular writing therapy Ifound I didnt need the masses of prescription drugs Id beentaking, so I stopped buying insurance and saved myself thousands ofdollars a year. (Im not saying everyone should do this, but itworked for me.)

However, the biggest surprise of all wasthis: through journaling

I had found a door into my soul.

I began to discover who the real Mari L.McCarthy was: an individual with unfulfilled dreams that hadsomehow been forgotten and buried; a person with innate talentsthat had not been recognized or developed. My journal entriesrevealed what mattered to the real me, and the path I needed totake. As I got in touch with my deepest thoughts, feelings, anddesires, I began to change my whole way of life. I learned to thinkwith my heart and not just my head.

Before I started journaling, I was dominatedby my left brain. I was always practical, logical, and rational,and I thought that showing emotion was a sign of weakness. This hada lot to do with how Id been raised. Id been taught to keep astiff upper lip and did so 24/7 (I never even cried over the deathof my mother, whom I loved dearly). But through reflective writingI began to understand that my feelings were important and must beheard. I realized I could engage with the business world and yet becreative in my approach, maintaining a healthy, balanced lifestylethat allowed me to be myself.

This transformation in attitude and behaviorwas not an overnight miracle; it involved hard work andsoul-searching on my part, but it brought measurable results andsuccess in the external world. Soon, I had a future that excitedme: I seized my life back, regained significant function in theright side of my body, started an online journaling community, andthen I really surprised myself I learned to sing and became arecording artist! These were major achievements that combined togive me the life I longed for; journaling was a very specific andeffective toolkit to facilitate them.

Today I am happy and fulfilled. I feelhealthy and sleep soundly. I work from my beachfront home nearBoston, running my second successful business, enjoying a qualityof life I once thought impossible. It has been such an amazingjourney that I feel compelled to share it with you. This is a bookthat HAD to be written. It would have been wrong to keep my storyall to myself.

So in these pages I want to share myexperience of writing therapy (or Journaling Power as I like tocall it), the self-help therapy that changed my life. I will giveyou all of the knowledge and tools you need to start ajournal-writing practice of your own. If you use them daily, youcan expect to see big changes in your life.

The benefits of journaling are multi-faceted,and vary between individuals. If you have a chronic illness, youmay find that the symptoms become less troublesome. Expressivewriting has helped people suffering with asthma, rheumatoidarthritis, IBS, and lupus even cancer and AIDS. It helps manypeople with different long term illnesses, because it boosts theimmune system. This book evaluates and presents the medicalevidence for journaling, which has been steadily growing over thepast thirty years.

If your life is highly pressured, journalingis an excellent stress-management tool. Stress is a huge factor inmany physical and mental health problems and compromises the immunesystem. Therapeutic writing appears to have a protective effectagainst stress and possibly acts as a release valve.

One of the pioneers of writing therapy,research psychologist Dr. James Pennebaker from the University ofTexas, has carried out numerous scientific studies. He found that afew sessions of expressive writing can have a beneficial effect formonths, resulting in fewer visits to the doctor. Many otheracademics have developed and expanded his work with positiveoutcomes.

A review published in the British Journal ofGeneral Practice in 2012 concluded writing therapy can potentiallyhelp thirty percent of patients who visit the doctor in primarycare settings and could be used potentially very widely indeed.In a separate review in the Royal College of Psychiatrists journalAdvances in Psychiatric Treatment, UK clinical psychiatrist KayWilhelm concludes that for some people expressive writing isextremely helpful and has quickly resolved issues that have beenmulled over sometimes for years with no resolution (Baikie& Wilhelm, 2005). Many other U.S. studies support theseconclusions, which you can read about in Chapter 7 of thisbook.