Journaling Through Grief: Session Three

Journaling Through Grief Session Three
Wednesday 27 May 2020 7PM

Review of Last Week
For those who were unable to join us or joined us late last week, during our last session we discussed the following topics:
  • We talked about the space in which we journal in and how it should be free of distraction, but also comfortable and inviting and personable for us.
  • We also reviewed the purpose of journal writing and the mechanics of journal writing as presented by Susan Fee, M.ED., PCC for Hospice of the Western Reserve. (You can read more about these in our blog post The Healing Power of Journaling)
  • We concluded with our weekly writing prompt, which focused on Memorial Day. (You can see the Memorial Day weekly writing prompt by visiting last week's review or reading the Weekly Writing Prompt)
This Week's Discussion
For those joining us this week, our session this week will cover the following:
  • We will continue reviewing Susan Fee's presentation The Healing Power of Journaling, focusing on her first three journal exercises: Sentence Stems, Five Minute Sprints/Timed exercises and Lists and Structured Writing.
  • As we review each one of these this evening, we will take the time to focus on each one and perform some of the writing exercises she included. (These will be posted tomorrow morning to our blog page)
  • Our Weekly Writing Prompt will focus on our first Journal Theme entitled A Changed Life. I'll post our Writing Theme as it's own blog post following tonight's session.
This week on Blogger
For those who missed it last week, I announced that we have our own blog page! As part of our weekly session, I will include in the summary of the weekly Live Stream the link to that week's corresponding blog page so you can follow along with me.

This week on Blogger:
Posted Articles:
  • Journaling Through Grieg by Tensie Holland is up and is a great article that appeared in the Spring, 2019 newsletter About Grief: A Publication of Hospice of the Western Reserve. It provides a simple summary of what grief journaling is and how it can help as you work through your grief. She briefly touches on the different types of journals and how a journal can be used.
  • Putting it into Words by Linda Clark is also posted, and is a first-hand account about how grief journaling helped Ms. Clark after the death of her daughter Kristen. At the end of her article, she provides ideas on how to start journaling. 
Articles to still be posted:
  • A sample of our first week's Weekly Writing Prompt exercise which was spider-webbing.
  • Funeralbasics.org's blog post on the Purpose of the Grief Journal, which we covered also in our first session.
  • How To Choose a Grief Journal by Heather Stang. In her article, Stang explores the different types of Grief Journal Medium, including paper verse digital. In each, she explores the benefits of each medium.
  • Create a Journaling Space by Meg Leder is another first-hand article in which she talks about how to create a journaling space. In it, she talks about not only the when but the where of journal writing.
  • The Healing Power of Journaling by Susan Fee. While not an article, we will be posting her bullet points on the purpose of writing as well as the mechanics of journal writing.
  • Last week's Weekly Writing Prompt entitled Memorial Day which not only gave us three writing prompts, but also provided us with a reflection on the holiday.
This week's video can be found by clicking on the video below.


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