BOOK REVIEW: Journaling Power: How to Create the Happy, Healthy Life You Want to Live
I read a lot of books about journaling! Recently, I read Journaling Power: How to Create the Happy, Healthy Life You Want to Live by Mari L. McCarthy.
In this book, Mari intimately shares her own experience of using journaling to transform her own health and life. She writes about journaling helped her to cope and heal after being diagnosed with MS. The many first hand accounts of how she herself uses journaling to great effect offers real inspiration throughout this entire book.
There are many tidbits of wisdom woven in the pages of this book. I found myself jotting down lots of ideas while reading including passages like these:
“You don’t need to worry about the content of your pages – it’s the process that heals.“ P21
“Humans are hardwired for storytelling and desire a creative release.” P22
“Through writing every day I’ve learned to live in the present moment.” P30
“Putting pen to paper is a whole body experience.” P45
Journaling power is very easy to read. It is written in a very personal and accessible style, filled with the authors own stories and experiences, as well as those of her journaling clients. It is filled with journaling prompts and suggested writing exercises. Each chapter focuses on a key aspect of the power of journaling for healing, personal growth and living the life you want to live.
This book has nine chapters including:
Chapter 1: My Wake-Up Call
Chapter 2: Taming the Inner Critic
Chapter 3: Healing from the Inside Out
Chapter 4: Rewriting History
Chapter 5: High Notes and Harmony
Chapter 6: Create Write Now
Chapter 7: The Proof Is In the Pudding
Chapter 8: Having it All
Chapter 9: Higher and Higher, Baby
In addition to the Journaling Power Prompts in the book, I also loved Mari’s Journaling Power Tips throughout including this advice:
“First: journaling should be done by putting pen or pencil to page and writing longhand. Second: I believe it should be part of a daily routine, whether during the morning, before bed, or both.” P45
Lastly, I want to end this book review by quoting Mari, words that I couldn’t agree with more…
“Journaling takes us to the sacred space where we can connect with something bigger than ourselves – the place where dreams are made.” P118
Journaling prompts I created while reading this book…
I often create journaling prompts for my own writing while reading books. This was the case while reading Mari’s book too. Here are a few of the journaling prompts I created flowing from reading this book and I hope you might find them useful inquiries for your own journaling time…
- What good things have happened in your life when you’ve been able to push through any limiting fears you have?
- What challenge have you faced, if any, that really changed your life significantly, like Mari’s diagnosis of MS?
- How do you tame the inner critic voice that might try to derail you from your dreams, desires and creative self-expression?
You can learn more about Mari’s book here. I highly recommend this book for new and seasoned journal writer’s alike.
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