Journal with Me: Write for Yourself

Writing for yourself has many benefits. You can read more here about the benefits of writing for yourself. But writing and sharing your stories also benefits others, especially children, your own, your grandchildren, nieces, nephews… Sharing your stories, both the good and the hard ones, helps create a strong family narrative. Why is this important? Family stories build connection and show kids values without lecturing. But the stories do more. Two researchers at Emory University, Dr. Duke and Dr. Fivush have discovered that knowing family stories correlates with higher levels of self-esteem and confidence, self control and autonomy, resilience and grit. Dr. Duke says that children who have the most self-confidence have a strong “intergenerational self.” The way to achieve that is through telling and retelling family stories, especially family narratives that share both the ups and downs. Even if your kids are older (mine are 26, 24 and 19), writing down and sharing these stories has an impact – it creates connection and allows you to share what matters to you, creating a shared vision. Click here to get a list of questions about your family and prompts to write your story. Happy Writing. Melanie