If you do not record your own story, your tiny bit of the history of the human race is lost. Shakespeare wrote Shakespeare’s vision. Dickinson wrote Dickinson’s.
Who will write yours, if you do not?

--Pat Schneider, Writing Alone and With Others, Oxford Press
Founder, Amherst Writers & Artists

Writing Saves Lives

Reprinted by permission of Story Circle Network

As a caregiver, you spend every spare minute driving to medical appointments, stopping at the pharmacy, cooking, answering questions, paying bills, and helping with matters that used to be private.

Why write about it?

Writing gives perspective and restores sanity. Writing is a lifeline as well as a record. Writing saves lives. Do not underestimate its power.

One of the simplest, most private places to write is in a journal. It allows you to vent, delve into issues, and untangle messes. It lets you analyze or celebrate. It allows you to finish a thought without interruption. Journaling releases mental toxins and deepens awareness. It enables you to strip away the daily debris and let the strong, sane, safe, healthy, hopeful parts of you emerge.

What do you do if you have nothing to say? Look around the room for an image or a sensory detail—the way the sun makes a path on the carpet, the way steam rises off a cup of coffee, carrying the aroma of morning with it. Listen to the high pitched whirring of an omnipresent machine, the tick of the kitchen’s black-and-white, kitty-cat clock—any image at all.

Write about a specific image you see or hear. Include sights, sounds, movements, smells, and the feel of the air. Describing the immediate environment will start your writing again. Don’t worry if it’s not related to the suggested topic, because topics are only suggestions. Go wherever an image takes you. Explore fearlessly.

When you write in your journal, it can be all about you. The journal validates your right to be who you are and your worth as a caregiver. There is no wrong way to keep a journal. The only way you can be wrong is to refuse to write. Write anything.

Still stuck? Write, “Stuck, stuck, stuck,” until something else comes out. Draw a picture. Keep the pen moving. You will get past this block.

Use the prompts in this book to ease the stress of caring for an aging parent or someone with Alzheimer’s or dementia. Use them if you care for a cancer patient or someone with any debilitating, degenerative disease.

Use them if you care for someone with special needs or a mental illness.

Use them if you are a primary caregiver, spouse of a primary caregiver, or long distance caregiver. This is the place to explore your frustrations and express your ideas without interruption.

Use these prompts if you are in any kind of dependent relationship. Use them to process the end of a relationship. They will help you understand what happened.

Writing is therapeutic. It saves lives. Get out of your own way and just do it. Your truths are dying to come out. Let them spill onto the page, and see what doors writing opens for you.