Journal Writing: A Prescription for Good Health

Getting Started

Don't let the blank journal page intimidate you. Just start writing and write everyday until it becomes a daily habit. Books like Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity and Natalie Goldberg's Writing Down The Bones: Freeing the Writer Within offer suggestions for finding the freedom to write down your emotions and feelings. And if you're more comfortable with a keyboard than with a pen, type away. The key is to get your feelings down, regardless of how you do it.

Keeping a journal is particularly effective for people undergoing long periods of grief, such as the loss of a spouse or child. The journal serves as a "vessel" for your emotions that you may be unable or unwilling to share.

Need some help getting started? In her journal-writing workshops, Charlene Kingston, of Writing the Journey, suggests some basic topics that will get you started.

• Who am I? How do I know who I am?
• What does it mean to be content?
• Do I listen more or talk more? Why?
• What does it mean to nurture myself?
• Am I comfortable with my feelings? What makes me cry or laugh? When am I comfortable expressing my feelings?
• How much of my time is spent with other people and how much am I alone?
• Why do bad things happen? Who is responsible when something bad happens to me?
• How do I handle stress? Do I welcome challenges?
• What is my unique gift to the world?