Nov 22, 2022
Have you ever tried to start a consistent journaling practice? Especially, if you have young kids in the house, it might feel impossible to sit down and do anything with any sort of consistency. Merle Saferstein decided to share 48 years’ worth of her journaling practice – containing lessons and life experiences – through a series of books. In this episode, Merle shares how she managed to implement a journaling ritual, even when she was a mom with young kids. She also shared the times of day she would figure out when to write, as well as the moments that prompted us as a society to start journaling.
As the director of educational outreach at the Holocaust Documentation and Education Center for twenty-six years, Merle Saferstein worked closely with hundreds of Holocaust survivors helping them to pass along their Legacy of Remembrance to hundreds of thousands of students and teachers. When she retired from the Holocaust Center, she developed a course entitled Living and Leaving Your Legacy® and teaches and speaks to audiences locally, nationally, and internationally. She trains hospice staffs and volunteers showing them ways to help patients leave their legacies and works closely with the patients at the end of their lives doing sacred legacy work.
For many years, she has volunteered at a camp for children who experienced the death of a family member. Merle facilitates a writing for wellness group at Gilda’s Club for women who have been impacted by cancer. She is also currently involved in Wisdom of the Century, a project that interviews individuals ninety years old and older. Merle has been facilitating a weekly journaling circle since April 2020. For fourteen years, she culled through her 359 journals taking excerpts according to approximately seventy topics. This June, Living and Leaving My Legacy, Vol. 1, a book containing eleven of these topics was released. The second volume will be published in 2023. Merle is a council member of the International Association for Journal Writing and is the author of Room 732. Her chapter on legacy journaling appears in The Great Book of Journaling: How Journal Writing Can Support a Life of Wellness, Creativity, Meaning and Purpose.
Hopefully, this episode will inspire you to get started on journaling and see its benefits. There may be times when your consistency will be challenged, that’s why Merle is also going to share some journal prompts to help you with your journaling. Every mom has a story to tell. And if no one writes our legacies, who else will?
In this episode, you will hear:
- How to create a new journaling ritual as a mom with young kids
- When to write when you don’t really have time to write and why that’s important
- Ways your feelings can come out and astound you by writing even a “fiction” piece
- Are there typical times when most people journal?
- How to get through negative moments to get to a positive space
- Using journaling to grease your writing wheel
- Journaling as the place to practice being vulnerable for writing that’s public
- Insights garnered about the cycle of life/motherhood after journaling for 48 years
- What might your kids not want to read about if you decide to write your own legacy book?
- The benefits of documenting your life for self-understanding and the benefits to our kids as they grow up and became parents
- Is journaling everyday being selfish? Here’s what Merle found
- Our memory is unreliable; an effective alternative is keeping a daily journal
- How to start journaling using Merle’s mom-friendly journal prompts and where to grab a Quick Guide Merle designed just for Unimaginable Wellness listeners
Supporting Resources:
Shop Merle’s Book on Amazon: Living and Leaving My Legacy, Vol. 1 Paperback – June 7, 2022 by Merle R. Saferstein
https://www.amazon.com/Living-Leaving-My-Legacy-Vol/dp/0999696092
Grab a FREE copy of Merle’s Quick Start Journaling Guide For Moms: bit.ly/momwrites
Website: www.merlersaferstein.com
Instagram: www.instagram.com/merles1212/
Twitter: twitter.com/safer1212
Facebook: www.facebook.com/merle.saferstein
SHARE this episode with a mom who enjoys reading nonfiction and/or is writing her own.
Similar Episodes:
Want to Make a Big Life Change? Learn the Four Phases of the Jump Curve from Mike Lewis, Episode 139 - https://www.melissallarena.com/want-to-make-a-big-life-change-learn-the-four-phases-of-the-jump-curve-from-mike-lewis-episode-139/
Shop: When To Jump: If The Job You Have Isn’t The Life You Want
https://www.amazon.com/When-Jump-Have-Isnt-Life-ebook/dp/B072V1BWFK
The Rules of Raising An Entrepreneur by A Mom Who Did Margot Machol Bisnow, Episode 133
Shop Raising an Entrepreneur: How to Help Your Children Achieve Their Dreams - 99 Stories from Families Who Did by Margot Machol Bisnow
https://www.amazon.com/Raising-Entrepreneur-Children-Achieve-Families-ebook/dp/B09WCVC7HQ
Subscribe and Review
Have you subscribed to my podcast for moms who read and want to write a nonfiction book? I’d love for you to subscribe if you haven’t yet.
I’d love it even more if you could drop a review or 5-star rating over on Apple Podcasts. Simply select “Ratings and Reviews” and “Write a Review” then a quick line with your favorite part of the episode. It only takes a second and it helps spread the word about the podcast for writer moms.
Grab a Free Chapter of My Personal Development Book for Moms entitled: Mom Needs A Lift: Stop Self-Doubt, Uncover What Lights You Up, And Imagine Yourself Going For It!
Go to www.melissallarena.com/waitlist if you would like some answers tackling these questions:
- So how can you get back to that time when you were free, fun, and energized?
- What if your kid/s hold the key to this?
- How can you start your journey from feeling zapped to uncapped in your own level of playfulness?
It’s time you uncover just how under your nose the answer to these questions are! Grab the chapter here www.melissallarena.com/waitlist and tonight you can use the ideas presented in this quick read.
Meanwhile, check out what moms like you have to say about this chapter and my upcoming book overall! Get your free chapter today! Don’t you want to feel alive again? You know who raises happy kids? Happy moms. So here is what other moms have to say…
This book is about getting in touch with your creative, playful, imaginative side. The part of yourself that perhaps felt freer before you became a parent, before you chose your identity and had a lot of responsibilities weighing you down. In helping you get in touch with your more playful, creative self, it not only helps you on a path toward greater happiness and fulfillment, but it also helps you to feel more fulfilled as a parent. - Mom/Librarian
The words: imagination, play and fun are not the usual things we as mothers think of when wondering how to get a grip back on our career and I believe it provides a really fresh take and lots of food for thought for mothers reading it. I think that the tone is so energetic and fresh that it is why I would pick it up. - Mom/Positive Psychology Coach
Go to www.melissallarena.com/waitlist
You are invited to send me a DM. What did you uncover from this episode? I’d love to know.
https://www.instagram.com/melissallarena/