Living A Creative Life

Living A Creative Life
(Guest Post)
by Mari L. McCarthy

I was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) the year I turned the big 4 0 and the ferocity of the disease totally floored me. Nerve fatigue, mobility problems and a lack of function in my right side eventually forced me to stay at home fulltime–a devastating blow to a successful, living-out-of-a suitcase career woman.

For many years, life was a depressing round of hospital appointments as my hope of recovery slowly faded; I saw my dreams unravel.

So today, people are amazed when I describe my illness as “a gift”.

But it’s true: I am grateful that I was stopped in my tracks. My MS diagnosis was the beginning of a process which led to new priorities and a more creative lifestyle.

It began when I read Julia Cameron’s book, The Artist’s Way. Cameron recommends Morning Pages, creating 3 handwritten pages every morning about any topics that come to mind. It’s a tool to declutter the brain and unblock one’s creativity.

So I took Cameron’s advice and dumped all of my “whiny, petty stuff” onto the page, every day without fail.

This discipline really worked. Not only did I feel loads better, mentally and physically, and spiritually but (drum roll, please) I also rediscovered My Writer and with plenty of Muse to spare!

Through journaling I explored how I felt about my symptoms and my life, made peace with my past and to my amazement I regained much of the function I’d lost in my right side. Inspired by these improvements, I looked at new ways to make a living.

I decided to create a business where I could share the wonders of therapeutic writing with writers (yes, we all are writers!) and so I birthed CreateWriteNow.com.

Our blog features many journal writers who share their experiences of dealing with life challenges through their journaling for the health of it practice. We’ve grown into a fascinating community of like-minded people, all working hard to locate and loosen up our muses with writing, writing, and more writing pen-to-paper every day.

And we’ve come up with a writing routine to heal and grow your creativity:

Journaling Power Tips for Creative Transformation:

• For 15 or 20 minutes a day, scribble down anything that comes into your head. You’ll probably start with trivial stuff but deeper insights will follow. Your writing will gradually reveal your passion, pain, hopes and fears; you will unearth your personal interior “map.”

• As your desires surface, you will sense where you need to make changes or see improvements. Write these insights down; gradually you will build a vision.

• Write your vision down and break it into specific goals and actions. Think about where you’d like to be five years from now. What are you doing? Who are you with? What is going on in your life? Don’t be afraid to think ambitious thoughts; go with the flow.

• Take decisive, courageous action to reach your goals. You’ll feel scared as you leave behind the familiar landscape and head for new vistas, but this is normal. You can create the happy, healthy life you want to live, one step at a time.

  #WriteON!

Book Details

• Title: Journaling Power: How to Create the Happy, Healthy Life You Want to Live
• Author: Mari L. McCarthy
• Genre: Self-Help, Creativity, Writing
• Length: 140 pages
• Publisher: Hasmark Publishing
• Publication Date: September 29, 2016

Video Presentation

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ndtMtUfs5s

Synopsis

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.

Buy Links

Amazon US (Kindle) | Amazon US (Paperback)

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. 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).

Contact The Author

Amazon Author Page
Website
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Living A Creative Life - WritersPayItForward

I was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) the year I turned the big 4 0 and the ferocity of the disease totally floored me. My MS diagnosis was the beginning of a process which led to new priorities and a more creative lifestyle.

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