Tuesday recap

Last night was LAB’s second meeting. Heather Hammond led us through the healthy benefits of “Journaling Motherhood”.

After going around the circle to meet everyone (Anne Marie, Bethany, Bobbie, Diane, Heather, Leah, Lisa, Matt, Jen, Jenna, Julie, Kristin, Shannon) Heather shared some articles from the AMA as to studies how journaling or “expressive writing” has been found helpful in cases of people struggling with things like asthma and rheumatoid arthritis.

Heather gave each of us a spiral-bound notebook as a starter journal apologizing that they were “only 69 cents, so you can take ‘em home and use them for your grocery list or ditch them or whatever.”

Then she had us write out all the rules of writing that we could remember–anything from penmanship to rules of grammar. We all wrote for a few minutes and shared what we came up with:

• Write neatly
• Spell correctly
• Use big words
• Indent paragraphs
• Write so that if someone else reads what you write they can understand it too
• Capitalize the first word in a sentence
• Make sure your verb tenses agree

Then Heather told us to rip out the page with all the writing rules, wad it up, and throw it into a laundry basket she had placed in the center of our circle. “There are no rules”, she said, “for your journal”. She instructed us to write the word “disclaimer” on the top of the first page of our journal, then proceeded to read us a sample disclaimer where we apologize in advance for things like misspelling words, not writing often enough, not finishing thoughts, being angry, etc. so that we will be free to write however and whatever in the ensuing journal pages.

We turned to a fresh page in our notebooks and she introduced us to using prompts for inspiring journal topics. Often we may know we need to do something to get down a thought, express an emotion, just “talk” grownup for a little while, but we get stuck not knowing what to write about. You can only write “what I did today” so many times…

She said, “your prompt is ‘Baby Names’, now write”. Then there was silence, as write we did. It was interesting how three people who shared what they wrote on the same topic had three different thoughts or ideas come out of the same topic. One revealed a deeper issue of struggling with not being able to control things like your child’s safety, making sure they have the best care and best life possible, another shared the angst around trying to name their daughter, while a third was a funny piece of stream-of-consciousness writing about how the hospital won’t allow you to leave until you’ve named your baby.

For our next writing prompt, Heather suggested that we pick and write about an object; because every object has a story, right? So, we had to put our hand into our pocket, purse, or diaper bag and pull out the first thing our hand touched, and write about that object.

Would you believe that almost half of the group wrote about their cell phones! Ironically, Heather (the holistic health counselor) pulled out a bottle of pain reliever, and one person had a sample vial of Kenneth Cole Black “eau de toilette” in her pocket!?!

We laughed, we learned, and for a few hours at LAB last night, we experienced life. And that’s what it’s all about. I keep coming back to John 10:10, where Jesus says that He has come so that we can have life, and live it to the full. I’m so thankful for this group and the life it is breathing into me.

And I’m inspired to put pen to paper more often to cathart, emote, express, talk grown-up when I’m feeling lonely, use a different part of my brain, relieve stress, exercise my muscles, try to figure out what the real issue behind a thought or feeling is, or even just entertain myself.

For further inspiration, see Writing Motherhood: Tapping into your creativity as a Mother and as a Writer.