44. Healing through creative writing and journaling w/ Rebecca Evans

Are you curious how writing can foster healing, which practices you might try, and how to protect your well-being if you tackle difficult memories?

Joining today’s conversation is Rebecca Evans, a memoirist, poet, essayist, and professor of creative non-fiction. In this episode, you’ll discover how Rebecca uses creative writing and journaling not only to reconnect with herself daily but also to find purpose in her traumatic experiences. 

You’ll also learn how to set up a safety dismount practice for those emotionally difficult writing sessions. And you’ll hear how journaling helped Rebecca to connect with her struggling teenager. 

Topics discussed in this episode: 

• Bookending our days with journaling
• Losing the use of her hands for years
• Safely dismounting from writing as therapy
• The power of funding your voice
• Connecting with our kids via journals
• How art informs life, and life informs art
• The challenges of staying intentionally present
• Being open to exploring someone else’s POV
• Favorite books

About Rebecca: 

Rebecca Evans is a memoirist, poet, and essayist. In addition to writing, she teaches Creative Nonfiction at Boise State University and mentors high school girls in the juvenile system. In her spare time, she co-hosts a radio program, Writer to Writer, offering a space for writers to offer tips on craft and life. 

Rebecca is also disabled, a Veteran, a Jew, a gardener, a mother, a worrier, and more. She has a passion for sharing difficult stories about vulnerability woven with mysticism. She’s earned two MFAs, one in creative nonfiction, the other in poetry, both from the University of Nevada, Reno at Lake Tahoe. She lives in Idaho with her sons, her Newfies, and her Calico.

Connect w/ Rebecca: 

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rebeccawrites33 
• Facebook: https://facebook.com/rebeccawrites 
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhPAJcZV0CEtlCwr_UuMvDuQIm8-UW_ME 

Get her books: 

• Tangled by Blood: A Memoir in Verse: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1957799080 
• When There Are Nine: https://www.moontidepress.com/books 

Links to her essays, poems, and more: 

• Website: https://rebeccaevanswriter.com/published-work/ 

Books discussed during the show: 

• The Warrior of Light, by Paulo Coelho
• Come the Slumberless to the Land of Nod, by Traci Brimhall
• The Book of Nightmares, by Galway Kenk
• The City in Which I Love You, by Li-Young Lee
• The Alchemist, by Paulo Coelho
• Jude the Obscure, by Thomas Hardy
• All the Light We Cannot See, by Anthony Doerr
• Lemon, by Kwon Yeo-sun
• Garlic Ballads, by Mo Yan
• The Monster at the End of This Book, by Jon Stone
• Peanut Butter and Brains, by Joe McGee
• Moby-Dick, by Herman Melville

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