Yesterday I returned from a stimulating conference in Noosa, Queensland, Australia. The main themes of the inaugural interdisciplinary conference were the value of narrative in 1)promoting wellness, healing and resilience, and 2) teaching health professionals to gain more empathy and understand more about the illness experience from a patient’s perspective.

The majority of the participants were nurses or students doing a PhD in creative writing. It was inspiring to come to a conference which encouraged presenters to share their creative pieces, rather than focusing on hiding behind academic papers and jargon.

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How many of you journal on a regular basis?

I’ve been journalling for more years than I can remember, as evidenced by the mountains of journals stacked on a large shelf in my spacious home library.I’m so grateful for these journals. They are more like friends. Confidantes. I tell them my deepest darkest thoughts and feelings. I reflect on what’s going on in my life. They are my therapist, my friend and my companion.They have sustained me through many challenges in my life, including the deaths of my parents.So when the opportunity to submit a paper for Central Queensland University’s inaugural Narrative, Health and Wellbeing Research Conference came along, I promptly wrote an abstract.

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1. Having deadlines.
2. Paying for a course where 5000 words had to be submitted by a deadline in order to receive feedback from an experienced writer and the rest of the group.
3. Being in a supportive group of other writers who gave me encouraging feedback.
4. Seeing that the struggles I was experiencing were similar to other people in the group.
5. Having confidence in my ability as a writer after receiving helpful feedback from others.
6. Having an accountability partner who expected me to SMS her the number of words I’d written.

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If you could think of three words that describe the person you want to be, when acting from your Higher Self, which ones would they be?

Mine are: authentic, courageous and creative.

Some people find it helpful to put their three words in a place where they will see them regularly. I even know some people who put the three words in their phone and get the words to come up automatically several times a day. The words can remind you of who you would like to be. You can then choose to become more of that word, or not. The choice is ours!

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