You can save yourself a lot of headaches and doctor bills when you heal from the inside out. Let's face it, worry lines wouldn't even be there if you had a place to put your worries. You might even skip the chocolate if you could truly express your anger, fear and sadness. Those natural highs can get the best of you too. Might as well account for those flights of fancy and outrageous escapades.

Did you know that research shows that people who write deeply about how they feel or about traumatic events boost their immunity and decrease their doctor visits by 50%? Holding back tough emotions creates distress, and writing about them defuses the damage they can make.

Dive in and tell it like it is. Don't censor one word. Rant, rave, scribble and scream. Bare your soul. The paper can take it.

Ever feel fragmented or confused about which way your life is going? Dr. James Pennebaker believes that we rely on narratives to make sense of our experiences. Once we understand them, they become less stressful. Learning to cast events in a new, more optimistic light known as reframing has also been shown to reduce depression. Try putting a story structure to your life, much like you would to a dream. Look at your LifeStory TimeLine (in Woman's Book of Changes) for the turning points, crossroads and intersections of your life. Pretty soon, you will find patterns, hidden meaning, main characters and a variety of archetypes. You'll probably watch far less reality on TV as you watch the mystery of your own life unfold.

More on Your Life as Story

Scrapbook

Every picture tells a story, and kudos for those of you who have been telling your family stories through scrapbooking. You are teaching your children that their lives are no less important than their favorite on-screen characters. You create your own story ideas, make yourselves newsworthy and celebrate your own main characters. Journaling around photos and mementos adds even more to keeping your family memories meaningful and the entire family can contribute some of their journal writing, doodles, symbolic scraps and drawings to this visual family journal.

We have found some very special scrapbooks and albums.

"I remember the day I stayed home from school and ate a whole box of chocolate cupcakes in three hours. I did not want them. I was not physically hungry. I was emotionally hungry, a type of hunger I was too young to understand. I ate compulsively out of emotional hunger until I was 30. I needed to heal my relationship with food. It was then that I discovered the power of keeping a journal. ~ Marian Willingham, Personal Journaling

Marian Willingham is the author of the book Journey to the Shape of You  and a personal eating coach in private practice. She says that through daily journal writing, you will begin to discover it's not what you're eating but what's eating at you that is the root cause of a compulsive relationship with food.

A simple food and fitness log to track your progress is a complement to any fitness program. Early in my career as founder of Day Runner, I learned that only 5% of people write down their goals. But, of that 5%, all but 5% achieve them! No matter what kind of diet you're on or what type of exercise workout you do, keeping a journal or log will help you reach your goals. The important thing here is to log the details of your program such as the type and length of your exercise, fats, protein, carbs & calories if you're counting them, weight, pulse rate and other details you want to keep track of on a regular basis. Keep your journal entries short and relative to your goals, i.e. moods, accomplishments, disappointments, observations, affirmations and next steps. This can all be kept on one page on a simple 2-page per-day calendar that fits in your loose-leaf day planner. The longer you maintain the log, the clearer you will see your patterns, your moods, when and why you overeat and any other obstacles that get in the way of your ideal self.

Tools With Heart is working on a complete Wellness Planner, A Journalog of Useful Tools for Personal Health. We'll let you know when it's available!

Healing Journals

The healing benefits of journal writing have been studied and reported by many researchers and journal writers. In fact, Tools With Heart works with several medical doctors advocating the healing benefits of journal writing for their patients. Dr. Susan Love devotes a large section to complementary and alternative treatments in the revised edition of Dr. Susan Love's Breast Book. She has written the introduction to the Tools With Heart Reflections on Recovery, a special journal supplement for breast cancer survivors.

If you or anyone close to you has had breast cancer surgery and has gone through treatment, you are well on your way to recovery. It is critical during this time, however, that you find the time and space to actually heal.

"That words are powerful may seem obvious, but the fact is that most of us, most of the time, use them lightly. We choose our clothes more carefully than we choose our words." ~ Rabbi Joseph Telushkin

Words move us to tears, anger, violence, hate, love and wonder when a novelist, songwriter or screenwriter puts pen to paper and through choice words provokes our deepest emotions. Whether in the form of personal journal writing, letters, conversations, prayer, affirmation or meditation, words support or damage the healing process. Wise words, by themselves or combined could gently and illuminate our journey towards physical, psychological, emotional and/or spiritual healing and growth.

Think of the extraordinarily simple word groups of haiku. Three lines of five, seven and five syllables can create a mood, a moment of insight or a feeling of one with nature.

Maggie Oman Shannon is a spiritual director and writer with a special interest in practices that nourish the soul. The former editor of three national magazines, including The Saturday Evening Post, she also served as Director of Marketing for the Institute of Noetic Sciences. She is the author for The Way We Pray  and Prayers For Healing

Words are slippery things; they can carry different meanings for each listener, a fact of human living which invites us to choose our words with care. Chosen carefully, words are extremely valuable to us, as they connect us to another, create a bridge of understanding or kinship that did not exist before. Used carelessly, words can destroy those bridges or at least create enough damage for some major roadwork to be necessary! And this, we know, also applies to the words we choose for our own interior conversation as well. Our words to ourselves can also create or destroy.

As Charles Capps once said, "Words are the most powerful thing in the universe. Words are containers. They contain faith or fear, and they produce after their kind..."  But the great thing about words is that they can be changed, shaped, written, revised at any time. Today. Right now. May your words bless you and be a blessing; may your words create your New Story.

Affirmations as we know them were brought to the public eye in the 19^th century through the work of French pharmacist Dr. Emile Coue. In the 1870's, Coue became fascinated by the power of the mind; one of the first and best-known phrases defined as an affirmation comes from Coue: "Every day in every way I'm getting better and better." As that example illustrates, effective affirmations follow similar guidelines: They are focused on a specific goal; they use the present tense; they are positive and focus on the desired outcome; they are short and easily memorized; and they are repeated out loud or written down several times a day for weeks often longer.

Choose an area in your life that you feel has been an impediment to your spiritual life such as spending too much time watching television instead of reading uplifting material; or not scheduling a consistent period of prayer and meditation. Create affirmations that will support you in these endeavors for instance, "I enjoy my schedule, which allows me the time to engage in activities that nourish my soul," or "As I turn off the television channels, channels for good and channels for God open up in my life."

Surround yourself with your affirmations, put them on mirrors, in your day planner, or on your car dashboard, on your computer at work. Begin an affirmation journal, and keep a record of the changes you see manifesting in your life.

From The Way We Pray: Prayer Practices from Around the World  by Maggie Oman Shannon

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

JOURNAL ENTRY - FREE GIFT

Send us a journal entry on the following topic:

How does the transition from summer to autumn mirror transition in your life?

All entries will receive a beautiful autumn refill  for your journal

Send your journal entry to: felice@toolswithheart.com

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *