196 - The Transformative Power of Journaling

Episode 196 - The Transformative Power of Journaling with Merle Saferstein

July 25, 2023

This week on The Indy Author Podcast, I talk with Merle Saferstein about THE TRANSFORMATIVE POWER OF JOURNALING, including overcoming mental barriers to journaling, and how revisiting your journals is optional; the importance of not censoring yourself, and of exploring your shadow self; using journaling to declutter your mind, and as a tool for character development; and preparing your armor for reader responses.

If one of those topics piques your interest, you can easily jump to that section on YouTube by clicking on the flagged timestamps in the description.

"People read our work through their lens and not through our lens. We put it out there the way we want and what we think, but we have no idea what's going on in someone's life when they read our books. And so what I realize is that almost always, it's not about me, and it's not about my writing. It's about them. It's about how my writing causes someone to react." —Merle Saferstein

As the director of educational outreach at the Holocaust Documentation and Education Center, Merle Saferstein worked closely with hundreds of Holocaust survivors helping them to pass along their Legacy of Remembrance to students and teachers. When she retired from the Holocaust Center, she developed a course entitled Living and Leaving Your Legacy®. Merle is a council member of the International Association of Journal Writing, the author of ROOM 732, and a contributor to the Huffington Post, Medium, Authority Magazine, and Thrive Global.

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Links

Merle's Links:
merlersaferstein.com
https://www.facebook.com/merle.saferstein
https://www.linkedin.com/in/merle-saferstein-43b97739/
https://www.instagram.com/merles1212/
https://twitter.com/safer1212
What Merle Saferstein Learned from LIVING AND LEAVING MY LEGACY, Vol. ll

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I hope you enjoyed my conversation with Merle! Do you journal and, if yes, how does it impact your writing? Do you apply your journaling to your creative work in a way that Merle and I didn't discuss? I'd love to hear about it!

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NOTE: After several years of trying to cover the costs of producing the podcast with earnings from patronage and sponsorships, I finally had to acknowledge that, for now at least, The Indy Author Podcast is more a labor of love than an income stream. As a result, I needed to find ways to reduce my expenses, and the expense I finally decided to eliminate was the editing of the transcript.

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When AI transcription improves to the point that it doesn't require the time and expense of a human edit, or once my earnings from the podcast enable me to cover the costs of a human editing, I will resume that offering!