This book is the body of proof that writing can help you heal. Author Mari L. McCarthy, founder and Chief Inspiration Officer of CreateWriteNow.com shares her story about how she turned to journaling as therapy when she was diagnosed with MS. Forced to give up her thriving consulting career due to her symptoms, she turned to writing as a way of retaking control over her movements. Not able to use her right hand any longer, she worked daily on becoming ambidextrous through journaling exercises. Soon her body, and mind, responded to this therapeutic discipline even helping her let go of treatments and drugs and eventually cancelling her health insurance altogether.

Now touting the benefits of therapeutic journaling, or expressive writing, McCarthy works with clients helping them learn how to incorporate journaling into their therapeutic regimen with great results.

This uplifting book provides a deeper look at how therapeutic journaling can help everyone, from working through difficult decisions to shedding emotional distress. Letting go of this “brain weight” and putting it down on paper is proven to help restore the body’s equilibrium, removing stress by exploring ideas, fears and self-defeating thoughts. She cites experts on their proof that therapeutic writing and journaling can have health benefits that last for months and even require fewer visits to the doctor. There is plenty of statistical and scientific proof throughout the book that journaling has the power of healing. The meditative state that occurs in the freedom of expression also has been proven to increase energy and happiness, unlocking talents and abilities that perhaps were latent or yet to be explored.

For those, well, all of us really, suffering from a persistent inner critic, McCarthy commits quite a bit of this book to the power that therapeutic journaling has in taming this voice and rescripting the messages it’s sending.

I can’t think of one person from the novice career professional to the executive, the parent and the young adult, who couldn’t benefit from reading this book.

And while its goal is to teach the powerful healing that can come from journaling, establishing some form of routine around this process of self-expression can only improve your state of being and self-actualization.

Source: NetGalley

Image Courtesy of Hasmark Publishing