Healing through Writing

I began my writing career at age ten, sitting in my walk-in closet scribbling in my journal. My mother had given me the journal to help me cope with my grandmother’s suicide. Thirty years later, those childhood scribblings inspired my first memoir, Regina’s Closet. 

Fast forward ten more years, I began journaling my breast cancer journey. Essentially, I journaled my way to recovery. And those journals became the jumping-off point for my second memoir, Healing with Words: A Writer’s Cancer Journey. While the book began as a recounting of my cancer story, it evolved into a self-help guide for others to chronicle their own cancer journeys. 

Not all journals turn into published books, but since I’m a writer, it seemed like a natural path for me. However, you don’t have to be a writer to journal. Journals are a productive way to vent about difficult experiences, like facing cancer, for instance. When writing in a journal, it’s important to not only write about your experiences but also write how you feel. Writing is an excellent way to get in touch with your feelings.

Journaling is cathartic. It allows you to spill your emotions on the page. My attitude is: “Direct the rage to the page.” I have a writing colleague who says, “If it hurts, write harder,” and for years those words were posted above my computer until they simply became a part of me.

In the journaling classes I teach, I remind my students that they’re not being graded on their journal entries, and they should write whatever comes to their minds. I emphasize that there’s no right or wrong way to journal. When you’re journaling, you’re writing for yourself and no one else.