You don’t have to take Julia Cameron’s self-help 90-day course based on “The Artist’s Way, A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity” to discover inspiration for journaling your grief. However, the 237-page book or 90 days can seem overwhelming, especially when grief makes it hard to get out of bed.
Cameron recommends getting up early every morning to write three pages in long hand. Just to get out whatever comes to mind, knowing that your words are only for you.
In the early stages of grief, this too can seem overwhelming – which is why Journal For Seekers created the “Small Steps Toward Transforming Grief, a Guided Journal.” Start with the guided prompts for a week, and then check in again to feel if you want to try the Morning Pages (or, as we like to call the grief-relief writing, Mourning Pages.)
TIPS & QUOTES ON WRITING FOR GRIEF
Here are some tips and quotes from Cameron and her books to inspire you to pick up a pen or pencil and start your grief journaling path.
“Writing is medicine. It is an appropriate antidote to injury. It is an appropriate companion for any difficult change.”
Set a daily schedule to write, and make a commitment to yourself.
Do you feel resistance? Remember “that we often resist what we most need.”
Why write? “To get to the other side…: the other side of our fear, of our negativity, of our moods.”
“While there is no quick fix for instant, pain-free creativity, creative recovery (or discovery) is a teachable, trackable, spiritual process. Each of us is complex and highly individual, yet there are common recognizable denominators to the creative recovery process.”
“Think of it as a journey with difficult, varied, and fascinating terrain. You are moving to a higher ground. The fruit of your withdrawal is what you need to understand as a positive process, both painful and exhilarating.”
“Be prepared for bursts of tears and laughter. A certain giddiness may accompany sudden stabs of loss. Think of yourself as an accident victim walking away from the crash: your old life has crashed and burned; your new life isn’t apparent yet. You may feel yourself to be temporarily without a vehicle. Just keep walking.”
“If something is bothering us, we put it on the page. Often, many things are bothering us, and our pages seem filled with negatives. It’s important to note that negativity is often the bridge to positives.”
“Writing is a way not only to metabolize life but to alchemize it as well. It is a way to transform what happens to us into our own experience. It is a way to move from passive to active. We may still be the victims of circumstance, but by our understanding those circumstances we place events within the ongoing context of our own life, that is the life we own.’”
Start With Small Steps
With these tidbits of inspiration, take the next best step and start your path to transforming grief through journaling. Peter Burke’s Guided Journal offers relatable prompts and space to start working through numbness, despair, and disorganization using your basic human talents expressed through your heart, head, and hands.
Need your own copy? Order direct from the author: https://journalsforseekers.com/