I’m writing today to give you a sneak peek inside my new book, the Grieving the Write Way Journal and Workbook.

You can tell a lot about a book from the beginning, so I thought I would share the new book’s introduction with you. Here you go…

WHAT GRIEVING THE WRITE WAY IS ALL ABOUT

Your world has changed. Someone special is missing.

This loss hits you on all levels: emotional, mental, physical, spiritual, and relational. Your routine has been upended. Life for you is not business as usual.

How do you do this?

What does this loss mean for you?

Who are you now?

What’s next?

MY PERSONAL HISTORY WITH WRITING AND GRIEF

I experienced multiple, traumatic losses in early childhood. By the time I was a teenager, I was slogging through each day carrying massive weights that I was unaware of.

Then I lost my dad. He dropped in front of me of a heart attack. He was a single dad and my one functional parent.

My grief burden was already massive. When this lightning bolt struck, I thought my life was over.
I was stunned.

I managed to stay functional. I went to school. I stayed on the swim team. I kept connecting with my friends. Because of previous losses, however, I already felt different from my peers. Now, I felt like I lived alone in some alternate universe.

One day I picked up a pencil and started writing. A poem materialized. I wasn’t a poetry fan, but somehow it fit my mood that day.

The next day, I wrote another poem. A few days later, I penned another.

I found myself emoting as I wrote. I cried. I paced and talked to myself. I yelled and screamed.

Writing poetry opened an avenue for my heart to express its anguish. Sadness, confusion, anger, fear, anxiety, and guilt spewed out of me, one word at a time. I felt lousy, but expressing myself felt good and relieving.

I continued writing poetry through high school. In college, I began to journal. When I was upset or frustrated, I found myself writing down what I was feeling and thinking.

Keeping a journal became a habit. Writing about what was happening in my heart and mind became a part of my daily routine. I continue this today.

I write in the morning, before the pressures and interruptions of the day begin their assault. I get to process what happened yesterday. I prepare myself for the day ahead.

As a hospice chaplain, grief specialist, and grief coach, I’m around death, loss, and heavy grief every day. I use writing to process and release the huge amount of pain that I hear and see.

Frankly, I don’t know what I would do without writing as a way of processing life.

WRITING AND THE GRIEF PROCESS

Writing can play a massive part in the grief and healing process.

Writing steadies our hearts enough to express our emotions in a healthy and productive way.

Writing slows our spinning minds down enough to get our thoughts on paper and begin to process them.

Writing can enable us to consider the physical impact of on our bodies and help us decide what to do about it.

Writing gives us a safe place to express and process spiritual questions, doubts, and fears.

Writing allows us to share our frustrations about our relationships in an honest and uncensored manner.

Writing enables us to consider and work through our thoughts, wonderings, and fears about the future.

Writing can become a powerful habit that can help us navigate life in general. What we don’t express stays locked in our hearts and often becomes some of the baggage that weighs us down.

Writing can be a tool which unveils hope. Hope is always here, but sometimes pain can blind us to it.

HOW GRIEVING THE WRITE WAY CAN HELP

This book is about you and the terrible loss you’re enduring.

This book is about helping you express your heart, mind, and soul.

This book can aid you in tackling (in a sane and healthy way) all the changes that have been thrust upon you.

This book can assist you in navigating all the relational changes and upsets you’re facing.

This book can help you honor your loved one as you grieve.

This book can help you see that you’re not alone, you’re not crazy, and that you will make it through this.

This book can help you take the next steps in your grief process, whatever they might be.

WELCOME TO GRIEVING THE WRITE WAY

So, welcome to the Grieving the Write Way Journal and Workbook. In the following pages, you’ll get many opportunities to experience the benefits of writing about your loss and what’s happening in your heart and mind.

I’m glad you’re here. Take the next step. Read on…and write.

Taken from the Grieving the Write Way Journal and Workbook.

Well? What do you think? Can you use this book? Do you know someone who might benefit from it?

Grieving the Write Way will be officially released at the end of next week. It will be on New Release Special on Amazon and other book retailers for a few days.  Stay tuned.

In the meantime, please be thinking about those you know that would benefit from this book. Book Launches and new releases are wonderful opportunities to share with others and grab healing resources at great discounts.

Together we can touch so many more grieving hearts. Just by sharing this article, who knows how many people you might reach?