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# 6 Journaling
- Shelley Shares: Journaling
- Making Life Easier Tips: Journaling
- Making Life Easier Services, Resources, and Products
- Quotes of the Month
- Questions for our Readers
 1. Shelley Shares: Journaling
I started writing in a journal many years ago. In the beginning I wrote about being a mother and all the emotions associated with motherhood. It was a way for me to “wind down” at the end of the day.
However, when the children were 5 and 3, I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS). It was then that my journal writing took a different path. I began writing about my thoughts, fears, feelings and frustrations. I didn’t write everyday but I wrote about everything and anything, from problems disciplining the children and interactions with doctors, to plans for remodeling the kitchen and how I would manage when I could no longer drive, walk, use the bathroom independently, etc.
Since there was no pressure of writing for someone else, my journal freed me to put whatever was on my mind down on paper. It was a safe place for me to laugh, cry, worry, and vow to triumph over this horrible illness. Each time I wrote what was in my heart, I felt I was getting rid of the poisonous, negative thoughts that threatened to pull me down.
I didn't just write about the bad stuff. That was too painful. I also wrote about my triumphs, accomplishments, fun experiences, and all the things for which I was grateful. Many times seeing the words on the page made me feel joy and happiness. Writing about the scent of the lilacs outside my window, my son's upcoming visit, or how that new cheesecake recipe tasted, took me away from the world of chronic illness - even if only for a few minutes.
I have been writing in a journal for nearly 30 years. For many years, I was unwilling to go back and read about the days when I was on chemotherapy, undergoing plasmapheresis, or having difficulty walking. It was too painful to think or read about. However, in recent years, I have been opening up to those pages written 5, 10, 20 years ago. And you know what I discovered? I discovered how far I had come, how I had grown and matured, and how resilient I was. I think sometimes we are tougher and stronger than we ever think we can be.
On a different note, I invite you to visit our newly redesigned Web site www.MeetingLifesChallenges.com and let us know how you like the new layout. Each month we will be adding more products, services, and tips to the site. Click www.makinglifeeasier.com/articles/articles.php to see some of my personal essays.
2. Making Life Easier Tips: Journaling
Keep your journal entries in one place. Use a tablet of paper, a notebook, file folder or, purchase a blank journal book at your local bookstore.
Write whenever the mood hits you. Write before you go to bed, in the morning before everyone is up, or during your rest time. If you wake up in the middle of the night and can’t go back to sleep, turn on a light and write. Sometimes writing your thoughts on paper, will quiet your mind and let you fall back to sleep.
Write about anything. Write about your childhood memories. Write poems. Write brief anecdotes or long, involved stories. Write about your dreams.
Start any where. Tell about your recent frustrations with getting your medication adjusted. That may ignite memories of a reaction to a bee sting you had as a child or it may remind you of the tenacity you had to have with getting your child placed with a certain teacher. Follow your train of thought, wherever it leads you.
Let it flow. Keep those voices quiet that threaten to stop you from writing. No one is reading this but you. You are not getting graded, so don’t worry about your grammar, punctuation, spelling, or sentence structure.
Be creative. If you are artistic, draw images and write stories to go with them.
In our next issue, we will focus on laughter and how it can help you cope with life’s challenges.
3. Making Life Easier Resources, and Products: Journaling
Nitewriter Pen
The lighted pen comes complete with lamp, two AAA batteries, plus an extra cartridge refill. Nitewriter Pen; 707-939-3900; Cost: $11.95
Journals
Choose from hundreds of blank writing journals in a variety of sizes, shapes, and colors. Cost: $8-$20 http://www.amazon.com/blank_writing_journals
Books we recommend Writing From Personal Experience: (ISBN 0-89879-972-4) by Nancy Davidoff Kelton
Learn how to capture the words, emotions, expressions, and settings that are frozen in your mind. With gentle prodding, your deepest thoughts and feelings will pour out and find their way to paper.
Writing A Woman's Life: ISBN 0-345-36256-X) by Carolyn G. Heilbrun
In a wide-ranging study of the personal and feminist stories that have been published through the centuries, the author shares the experiences of celebrated women in history. Her book will help free you to write your story.
Writing Life Stories: ISBN 1-84910-36-X) by Bill Roorbach
A friendly instructional book containing numerous writing exercises to help you discover your creativity. The book will help you unlock your memories and shape them into compelling stories.
4. Quotes of the Month
I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read on the train.
Oscar Wilde
It doesn't matter what you write, what you believe will show through.
Ted Sturgeon
When you write from the heart, you not only light the dark path of your readers, you light your own way as well.
Marjorie Holmes
As long as you write what you wish to write, that’s all that matters.
Virginia Woolf
5. Questions of the Month
Each month we will pose 3 questions that come from you, our readers. We will take your responses and share them in an upcoming issue of the Meeting Life's Challenges E-zine. To send a question that you'd like us to pose to our subscribers, send an E-mail to questions@sps.mailshell.com.
1. What makes you laugh?
2. What do you do to bring laughter into your life?
3. When you’re down, how do you pull yourself out of the doldrums? | 
