The Life Writing Workbook: How To Work Through Your Life's Unresolved Emotional [Paperback]

I stumbled upon life writing at age/twenty-nine. I was/at/that moment in/a divorce/when you know it's over/and it's time to move on. I/realized how little/I/understood my life and that/I had no real sense of/how to make a life./I wanted a life./I wanted/a certain kind of/satisfaction/from life/that I knew existed; yet here I was, very clear that/this/marriage/wasn't going to work out/and faced with raising/a/lovely/child/alone/as I/made/my way/toward this certain something I couldn't even name. I moved in with my best friend's parents, who were very kind to me. To/try to get a handle on things, I/secluded/myself/in their/basement for many evenings to dissect/my/life story./It was just instinct./Starting with/my/earliest memory, I/started the/walk/forward, sifting carefully through each/experience I could/recall. I would approach/certain memories/in the writing, and my body would tighten./At first I just kept going, but those particular memories called me back. So I went back, slowed down, and/sifted more carefully-looking at the/scene, the/circumstances, the/people involved, and/at/myself, my emotions, my perceptions, and my/fears. At the end/of this/rather intense/process,/there was no doubt that something/in me/had shifted. I/felt/a new/sense of self-possession. I felt aware of myself in a way I wasn't before./I can see this same new presence and power arise in the faces of/others as they complete the life-writing process. The Life Writing Workbook guides you step-by-step through eight sessions of deeply engaging, private, and transformative writing through your life story./