Guest Post by Mari L. McCarthy & Spotlight on "Journaling Power: How to Create the Happy, Healthy Life You Want to Life

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

About the Book:
Journaling Power teaches you how to put the ultimate self-healing tool right at your fingertips--journaling. Through Mari L. McCarthy's moving personal story, you'll discover how pen-to-paper journaling leads to self-growth and life-changing transformation. You'll also learn that numerous medical studies prove journaling literally unleashes a healing agent that empowers your life in ways you've never imagined.

About the Author:
Mari L. McCarthy is The Journaling Power Guide and founder of CreateWriteNow.com. Her blog (http://www.createwritenow.com/journal-writing-blog) provides journaling for personal transformation and healthy living ideas, information and inspiration for keeping a daily pen-to-page Journaling for the Health of It™ Practice. You can also download the FREE e-book, How to use Your Journal to Cure Writer's Block Now (http://www.createwritenow.com/download-free-writers-block-tips). More life-changing e-books (http://www.createwritenow.com/journaling-ebooks) can be found in Mari's Personal Transformation Journaling Library and in CreateWriteNow’s store (http://store.createwritenow.com/).




Thank you to WOW! Women on Writing for sharing this delightful and insightful book with me and thank you Mari L. McCarthy for the guest post you are about to read!


Morning Pages: Your Best Daily De-Cluttering Routine
by Mari L. McCarthy

My ‘journaling journey’ started back in 1998 when life had thrown me a curve ball and I’d had to close my business down. I’d been diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) a few years earlier and the illness had floored me-literally.
Endless doctors’ appointments and prescription drugs weren’t helping at all and I was at an all-time low.

Then someone introduced me to Morning Pages, a daily discipline of stream-of-consciousness writing created by Julia Cameron. The idea is simple but powerful: begin every morning by writing about anything you want, but don’t stop scribbling until you’ve filled three pages.

I was astonished at the power of this daily pen-to-paper exercise and its healing effect on my body. Not only was I able to reverse many of my debilitating MS symptoms and regain lost function in my right side, I was able to live without drugs.

Even more amazing than the physical gains were the emotional and spiritual transformations that took place. I had discovered a way of making my unconscious thoughts and feelings conscious. I had found a doorway into my soul!

Through daily journaling I met my authentic self and discovered what really mattered to me. I began to listen to my body, which I’d previously treated like a machine, and I learned to give it the care and attention it needed.

I took a new creative path and rediscovered my old love of writing. I took a completely different
direction with my career and launched my online journaling community, createwritenow.com. I also learned to sing and eventually became a recording artist!

Of course, this metamorphosis didn’t happen overnight. It took place day by day as I emptied my soul of toxic thoughts. Without this junk inside my head I accessed new areas of creativity.

I now have a better understanding of what happens when we journal, and here’s my analysis:

In our daily lives we all experience hyper-critical thoughts that drag us down. We worry about the performance review at work, the messy house, the spouse who is sick, the mountain of bills that must be paid… and so on. We are also affected at a deep, unconscious level by past hurts and traumas.

We have unresolved issues that simmer away just below the surface of our conscious mind and distract and upset us. We have regrets about past mistakes and wrong beliefs about ourselves. All this “stuff” in our heads creates a blockage of fear and stress that interferes with our wellbeing and creativity.

As we do our daily Morning Pages, we move garbage out of our heads and onto the page, where it loses its power over us. It’s a daily spring cleaning routine for our mind, body and soul. It helps us to organize and file away the fragments of our experience compassionately so that we can go out and seize every day.

Journaling Power Prompt:
How Do I Create More Space in My Life For Me?