Are you up for a challenge? Do you want to transform your life in less than a month? If so, you're going to love this blog tour!
Mari McCarthy's new workbook, Peace of Mind and Body: 27 Days of Journaling to Health and Happiness, guides you through short journal writing exercises to help you identify old, unhealthy patterns in your life and make positive changes in your thinking and behavior to achieve your true potential. The workbook is designed to be completed in short blocks of time in a period of 27 consecutive days, and this commitment is what challenges and motivates you to create lasting change.
27 Days allows you to face fears, set goals and create a plan for success in many areas of your life, including: career, money, spirituality, and emotional and physical health. Use this workbook to:
Download a FREE chapter here (left hand side of web page).
Book Giveaway Contest: If you'd like to win a copy of Peace of Mind and Body: 27 Days of Journaling to Health and Happiness, please leave a comment at the end of this post to be entered in a random drawing. For an extra entry, link to this post on Twitter with the hashtag #27Days, then come back and leave us a link to your tweet. The giveaway contest closes this Thursday, May 5th at 11:59 PM, PST. We will announce the winner in the comments section of this post the following day, Friday May 6th. Good luck!
Peace of Mind and Body: 27 Days of Journaling to Health and Happiness by Mari L. McCarthy is available as an ebook or a spiral-bound workbook at CreateWriteNow.com. You can also find it for the Kindle at Amazon, the Nook at Barnes & Noble, and for iBooks (iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch) at iTunes.
----- About the author:
Mari L. McCarthy, The Journal/Writing Therapist, helps you start, keep up and earn all the personal results you can with a daily pen-to-page Journaling Practice. Learn more about journal writing therapy at www.CreateWriteNow.com where you'll find Journaling for the Health of It™ inspiration, ideas, and resources, and The Journal Writing Therapy Transforms You Blog.
You can also download the FREE e-book, How to Use Your Journal to Cure Writer's Block Now.
The Weekly Thursday Journaling Therapy Cures newsletter provides unique journaling tips, prompts, and writing exercises. You can sign up here and also view the e-mail archives: http://www.createwritenow.com/journaling-newsletter-archive/
And be sure to check out Mari's latest e-book, Who Are You? How to Use Journaling Therapy to Know and Grow Your Life, as well as Marcia Peterson's review of the ebook here.
----- Interview by Jodi Webb
WOW: Mari, you now lead journaling workshops and have written books on journaling including Peace of Mind and Body: 27 Days of Journaling to Health and Happiness. Tell us how you first began journaling.
Mari: I had a Multiple Sclerosis (MS) episode one winter about 13 years ago, when I lost feeling and function on the right side of my body. I needed a method to teach my left hand how to write. I started Julia Cameron’s Morning Pages and I could read my left-hand writing within a month!
WOW: At what point did you realize that journaling had become more than an exercise in physical therapy?
Mari: Probably within two to three weeks, I started hearing rhymes and began writing poetry for the first time in my life. Soon after I started hearing voices (later identified as my "Inner Critics," lots of them!). I began recalling snippets of my childhood and experiencing all kinds of new emotional and physical feelings. I wanted to see where I’d go next so I wrote and wrote and wrote every morning first thing.
WOW: Do you journal every day? Is it always at the same time or at the same place?
Mari: Yes, it’s always first thing in my office each day before I power up my computer.
WOW: Is it a part of your routine like brushing your teeth or do you just journal when you have something significant to say or explore?
Mari: Yes, it’s part of my daily routine. I do at least a page every day. I use that Journal throughout my work day for helping me with my writing, to help me set priorities and to work through problems--I ask her lots of questions. I keep a Journal on my nightstand for dreams and night notes when the spirit moves me. I take my Journal with me to the dentist's office, the hairdressers, anyplace I know I’ll have some me time.
WOW: What do you feel journaling does for you?
Mari: It helps me discover more about myself and create new, more positive thoughts, be more productive and accomplish more goals. It’s my primary care provider and saves me trips to the doctor and pharmacy.
WOW: What benefits do you think readers could gain from regular journaling?
Mari: They’ll understand what makes them tick emotionally, spiritually, mentally and physically. They’ll learn how to dump their baggage from the past, live in the present and create the future they want.
WOW: Sounds like everyone should be journaling! What makes people hold back from starting a journal or just not keep up with their journaling habit?
Mari: Journaling is for everyone. Fear is the biggest obstacle. We have to realize that we have grown up chronologically but we’re still carrying around the erroneous messages (thoughts, feelings, beliefs) about our self that we created as children. To our Inner Kid, Journaling is seen as questioning authority and it means being selfish, spending so much time on our self when we are supposed to be saving the rest of the world. Some people have experienced someone reading their Journal and they never went back to their pages.
WOW: That’s a powerful reaction to having your words read. Is it because the emotions of a journal are so private?
Mari: Yes, I've had several clients who really want to get back to journaling, but they're so traumatized (they were teenagers and their mother or boyfriend read it, one's ex-husband read it during their marriage) and they need help in healing those wounds and trusting themselves again.
Sharing your journal is a personal choice. I have no problem if anyone wants to read mine. It often works well if you have a friend who journals and you can swap and share. Most people are still very much afraid of what other people would think and/or say.
WOW: What types of things do you journal about?
Mari: Any and everything. I just sit down and write, write, write.
WOW: Do you ever get "writer's block" when thinking what to journal about next?
Mari: No, because it’s part of my daily health routine. Like brushing my teeth, I "just do it" because it keeps me and makes me healthier.
WOW: Give us one or two tips about starting a journal.
Mari: Be good to yourself. Pick a pen and notebook from the drugstore or office supply store that call to you, that catch your eye, that you will have fun with. Find your place to set up your practice. Sit with your Journal, tune into yourself and take some meaningful breaths. Date the page and start with a statement like “today I feel…” or a question like “What am I doing this for?” then just write and write and write.
WOW: Do you do any other types of writing or artistic expression?
Mari: I’m a singer/songwriter (a goal I uncovered in my daily Journaling) and am working on "A Baby Boomer’s Christmas" album. I’m also taking up Art Journaling, something completely new for me.
WOW: Art journaling? What is that?
Mari: I haven't gotten my Art Journal kit but it contains paints and pencils and a journal and you express yourself in artwork rather than just words. My artistic experience is stick figures and smiley faces so I'm looking forward to doing this for me but also to work it into my journaling therapy business somehow.
WOW: I’m not an artist either but I can imagine images would be a great way to express some thoughts, or at least be a first step to expressing something in words. What can we expect from you next?
Mari: I have two eBooks in the works: Dark Chocolate for the Journaler’s Soul: 20 Ways to Heal and Grow Your Life and What the Health? How to Use Journaling Therapy to Master Your Money.
WOW: We’re looking forward to hearing more about them!
----- Blog Tour Dates:
Join Mari on her tour! Check out these dates and mark your calendar. You can also snag a copy of WOW's Events Calendar HERE.
May 3, Tuesday @ GaGa Sisterhood: Thirsty? Don't miss "Turning Lemons into Lemonade: Living with a Chronic Illness," a guest post from Mari McCarthy.
http://gagasisterhood.com/
May 4, Wednesday @ Donna's Book Pub: Enrich the journaling experience by using all five of your senses. Learn more from Mari McCarthy, and you can also win an ebook copy of Peace of Mind and Body: 27 Days of Journaling for Health and Happiness.
http://donnasbookpub.blogspot.com/
May 10, Tuesday @ Empty Nest: Mari McCarthy talks about SIX journals everyone should be familiar with...five by well-known journalers and the SIXTH you should be writing. Readers can also win an e-format or print copy of Mari's workbook!
http://emptynest1.blogspot.com/
May 11, Wednesday @ Musings From a Midwestern Writer: Journaling expert Mari McCarthy gives readers tips for unleashing their creativity. Don't miss the giveaway of Mari's workbook Peace of Mind and Body: 27 Days of Journaling for Health and Happiness.
http://blog.juliealindsey.com/
May 13, Friday @ Books, Books, the Magical Fruit: Celebrate the month of May with "A May Basket of Journaling Prompts" from Mari McCarthy. You can also enter to win a copy of her workbook.
http://booksbooksthemagicalfruit.blogspot.com/
May 17, Tuesday @ Writers Inspired: Can the kid in you help improve your writing? Mari McCarthy shows you the way to your inner-kid. She'll also be giving away an e-copy of her book to a budding journal writer!
http://writerinspired.wordpress.com/
May 19, Thursday @ Adventures in the Writing Life: Think about new ways to create writing prompts for your journaling with "I Smell a Great Journal Topic" by Mari McCarthy.
http://adventuresinthewritinglife.blogspot.com/
May 20, Friday @ Lori's Reading Corner: Stop by for journal writing tips from Mari McCarthy and a chance to win an ebook or print copy of her workbook Peace of Mind and Body: 27 Days of Journaling to Health and Happiness.
http://www.lorisreadingcorner.com/
May 24, Tuesday @ Colloquium: Want to know the inner you? Colloquium reviews Peace of Mind and Body: 27 Days of Journaling to Health and Happiness, and gives away and ecopy or print copy--winner's choice.
http://www.jhsiess.com/
May 25, Wednesday @ Women's Memoirs: Stop by today as Mari tells the story of writing Peace of Mind and Body: 27 Days of Journaling to Health and Happiness.
http://womensmemoirs.com/
May 27, Friday @ Women's Memoirs: Ever wonder what it's like to be an author on a blog tour? The ladies at Women's Memoirs get the inside scoop from Mari McCarthy as she finishes her WOW! blog tour.
http://womensmemoirs.com/
To view all of our touring authors, check out our Events Calendar HERE.
Get involved!
If you have a blog or website and would like to host Mari McCarthy or schedule a tour of your own, please email Jodi at: blogtour@wow-womenonwriting.com
Book Giveaway Contest: Enter to win a print copy of Mari McCarthy's workbook, Peace of Mind and Body: 27 Days of Journaling to Health and Happiness.
Here's how to enter:
1. For your first entry, just leave a comment on this post! Leave a comment or ask Mari a question, to be entered in a random drawing.
2. For an extra entry, link to this post on Twitter with the hashtag #27Days, then come back and leave us a link to your tweet.
The giveaway contest closes this Thursday, May 5th at 11:59 PM, PST. We will announce the winner in the comments section of this post the following day, Friday May 6th, and if we have the winner's email address from the comments section or profile, we will also notify the winner via email. Good luck!
Read More »
Mari McCarthy's new workbook, Peace of Mind and Body: 27 Days of Journaling to Health and Happiness, guides you through short journal writing exercises to help you identify old, unhealthy patterns in your life and make positive changes in your thinking and behavior to achieve your true potential. The workbook is designed to be completed in short blocks of time in a period of 27 consecutive days, and this commitment is what challenges and motivates you to create lasting change.27 Days allows you to face fears, set goals and create a plan for success in many areas of your life, including: career, money, spirituality, and emotional and physical health. Use this workbook to:
- Increase self-awareness and access the full power of your talents, skills and creativity
- Heal old wounds and learn to live in the present, not the past
- Reduce stress, manage inner critics and conduct healthy self-talk
- Reconnect with your inner kid and start having fun
- Overcome writer's block and keep a regular journal therapy practice
Download a FREE chapter here (left hand side of web page).
Book Giveaway Contest: If you'd like to win a copy of Peace of Mind and Body: 27 Days of Journaling to Health and Happiness, please leave a comment at the end of this post to be entered in a random drawing. For an extra entry, link to this post on Twitter with the hashtag #27Days, then come back and leave us a link to your tweet. The giveaway contest closes this Thursday, May 5th at 11:59 PM, PST. We will announce the winner in the comments section of this post the following day, Friday May 6th. Good luck!
Peace of Mind and Body: 27 Days of Journaling to Health and Happiness by Mari L. McCarthy is available as an ebook or a spiral-bound workbook at CreateWriteNow.com. You can also find it for the Kindle at Amazon, the Nook at Barnes & Noble, and for iBooks (iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch) at iTunes.
----- About the author:
Mari L. McCarthy, The Journal/Writing Therapist, helps you start, keep up and earn all the personal results you can with a daily pen-to-page Journaling Practice. Learn more about journal writing therapy at www.CreateWriteNow.com where you'll find Journaling for the Health of It™ inspiration, ideas, and resources, and The Journal Writing Therapy Transforms You Blog.You can also download the FREE e-book, How to Use Your Journal to Cure Writer's Block Now.
The Weekly Thursday Journaling Therapy Cures newsletter provides unique journaling tips, prompts, and writing exercises. You can sign up here and also view the e-mail archives: http://www.createwritenow.com/journaling-newsletter-archive/
And be sure to check out Mari's latest e-book, Who Are You? How to Use Journaling Therapy to Know and Grow Your Life, as well as Marcia Peterson's review of the ebook here.
----- Interview by Jodi Webb
WOW: Mari, you now lead journaling workshops and have written books on journaling including Peace of Mind and Body: 27 Days of Journaling to Health and Happiness. Tell us how you first began journaling.
Mari: I had a Multiple Sclerosis (MS) episode one winter about 13 years ago, when I lost feeling and function on the right side of my body. I needed a method to teach my left hand how to write. I started Julia Cameron’s Morning Pages and I could read my left-hand writing within a month!
WOW: At what point did you realize that journaling had become more than an exercise in physical therapy?
Mari: Probably within two to three weeks, I started hearing rhymes and began writing poetry for the first time in my life. Soon after I started hearing voices (later identified as my "Inner Critics," lots of them!). I began recalling snippets of my childhood and experiencing all kinds of new emotional and physical feelings. I wanted to see where I’d go next so I wrote and wrote and wrote every morning first thing.
WOW: Do you journal every day? Is it always at the same time or at the same place?
Mari: Yes, it’s always first thing in my office each day before I power up my computer.
WOW: Is it a part of your routine like brushing your teeth or do you just journal when you have something significant to say or explore?
Mari: Yes, it’s part of my daily routine. I do at least a page every day. I use that Journal throughout my work day for helping me with my writing, to help me set priorities and to work through problems--I ask her lots of questions. I keep a Journal on my nightstand for dreams and night notes when the spirit moves me. I take my Journal with me to the dentist's office, the hairdressers, anyplace I know I’ll have some me time.
WOW: What do you feel journaling does for you?
Mari: It helps me discover more about myself and create new, more positive thoughts, be more productive and accomplish more goals. It’s my primary care provider and saves me trips to the doctor and pharmacy.
WOW: What benefits do you think readers could gain from regular journaling?
Mari: They’ll understand what makes them tick emotionally, spiritually, mentally and physically. They’ll learn how to dump their baggage from the past, live in the present and create the future they want.
WOW: Sounds like everyone should be journaling! What makes people hold back from starting a journal or just not keep up with their journaling habit?
Mari: Journaling is for everyone. Fear is the biggest obstacle. We have to realize that we have grown up chronologically but we’re still carrying around the erroneous messages (thoughts, feelings, beliefs) about our self that we created as children. To our Inner Kid, Journaling is seen as questioning authority and it means being selfish, spending so much time on our self when we are supposed to be saving the rest of the world. Some people have experienced someone reading their Journal and they never went back to their pages.
WOW: That’s a powerful reaction to having your words read. Is it because the emotions of a journal are so private?
Mari: Yes, I've had several clients who really want to get back to journaling, but they're so traumatized (they were teenagers and their mother or boyfriend read it, one's ex-husband read it during their marriage) and they need help in healing those wounds and trusting themselves again.
Sharing your journal is a personal choice. I have no problem if anyone wants to read mine. It often works well if you have a friend who journals and you can swap and share. Most people are still very much afraid of what other people would think and/or say.
WOW: What types of things do you journal about?
Mari: Any and everything. I just sit down and write, write, write.
WOW: Do you ever get "writer's block" when thinking what to journal about next?
Mari: No, because it’s part of my daily health routine. Like brushing my teeth, I "just do it" because it keeps me and makes me healthier.
WOW: Give us one or two tips about starting a journal.
Mari: Be good to yourself. Pick a pen and notebook from the drugstore or office supply store that call to you, that catch your eye, that you will have fun with. Find your place to set up your practice. Sit with your Journal, tune into yourself and take some meaningful breaths. Date the page and start with a statement like “today I feel…” or a question like “What am I doing this for?” then just write and write and write.
WOW: Do you do any other types of writing or artistic expression?
Mari: I’m a singer/songwriter (a goal I uncovered in my daily Journaling) and am working on "A Baby Boomer’s Christmas" album. I’m also taking up Art Journaling, something completely new for me.
WOW: Art journaling? What is that?
Mari: I haven't gotten my Art Journal kit but it contains paints and pencils and a journal and you express yourself in artwork rather than just words. My artistic experience is stick figures and smiley faces so I'm looking forward to doing this for me but also to work it into my journaling therapy business somehow.
WOW: I’m not an artist either but I can imagine images would be a great way to express some thoughts, or at least be a first step to expressing something in words. What can we expect from you next?
Mari: I have two eBooks in the works: Dark Chocolate for the Journaler’s Soul: 20 Ways to Heal and Grow Your Life and What the Health? How to Use Journaling Therapy to Master Your Money.
WOW: We’re looking forward to hearing more about them!
----- Blog Tour Dates:
Join Mari on her tour! Check out these dates and mark your calendar. You can also snag a copy of WOW's Events Calendar HERE.
May 3, Tuesday @ GaGa Sisterhood: Thirsty? Don't miss "Turning Lemons into Lemonade: Living with a Chronic Illness," a guest post from Mari McCarthy.
http://gagasisterhood.com/
May 4, Wednesday @ Donna's Book Pub: Enrich the journaling experience by using all five of your senses. Learn more from Mari McCarthy, and you can also win an ebook copy of Peace of Mind and Body: 27 Days of Journaling for Health and Happiness.
http://donnasbookpub.blogspot.com/
May 10, Tuesday @ Empty Nest: Mari McCarthy talks about SIX journals everyone should be familiar with...five by well-known journalers and the SIXTH you should be writing. Readers can also win an e-format or print copy of Mari's workbook!
http://emptynest1.blogspot.com/
May 11, Wednesday @ Musings From a Midwestern Writer: Journaling expert Mari McCarthy gives readers tips for unleashing their creativity. Don't miss the giveaway of Mari's workbook Peace of Mind and Body: 27 Days of Journaling for Health and Happiness.
http://blog.juliealindsey.com/
May 13, Friday @ Books, Books, the Magical Fruit: Celebrate the month of May with "A May Basket of Journaling Prompts" from Mari McCarthy. You can also enter to win a copy of her workbook.
http://booksbooksthemagicalfruit.blogspot.com/
May 17, Tuesday @ Writers Inspired: Can the kid in you help improve your writing? Mari McCarthy shows you the way to your inner-kid. She'll also be giving away an e-copy of her book to a budding journal writer!
http://writerinspired.wordpress.com/
May 19, Thursday @ Adventures in the Writing Life: Think about new ways to create writing prompts for your journaling with "I Smell a Great Journal Topic" by Mari McCarthy.
http://adventuresinthewritinglife.blogspot.com/
May 20, Friday @ Lori's Reading Corner: Stop by for journal writing tips from Mari McCarthy and a chance to win an ebook or print copy of her workbook Peace of Mind and Body: 27 Days of Journaling to Health and Happiness.
http://www.lorisreadingcorner.com/
May 24, Tuesday @ Colloquium: Want to know the inner you? Colloquium reviews Peace of Mind and Body: 27 Days of Journaling to Health and Happiness, and gives away and ecopy or print copy--winner's choice.
http://www.jhsiess.com/
May 25, Wednesday @ Women's Memoirs: Stop by today as Mari tells the story of writing Peace of Mind and Body: 27 Days of Journaling to Health and Happiness.
http://womensmemoirs.com/
May 27, Friday @ Women's Memoirs: Ever wonder what it's like to be an author on a blog tour? The ladies at Women's Memoirs get the inside scoop from Mari McCarthy as she finishes her WOW! blog tour.
http://womensmemoirs.com/
To view all of our touring authors, check out our Events Calendar HERE.
Get involved!If you have a blog or website and would like to host Mari McCarthy or schedule a tour of your own, please email Jodi at: blogtour@wow-womenonwriting.com
Book Giveaway Contest: Enter to win a print copy of Mari McCarthy's workbook, Peace of Mind and Body: 27 Days of Journaling to Health and Happiness.
Here's how to enter:
1. For your first entry, just leave a comment on this post! Leave a comment or ask Mari a question, to be entered in a random drawing.
2. For an extra entry, link to this post on Twitter with the hashtag #27Days, then come back and leave us a link to your tweet.
The giveaway contest closes this Thursday, May 5th at 11:59 PM, PST. We will announce the winner in the comments section of this post the following day, Friday May 6th, and if we have the winner's email address from the comments section or profile, we will also notify the winner via email. Good luck!
