Events

 

• Tuesdays, March 30, April 6, 13, and 20, 2010, 10 a.m.- noon

The Learning Curve, Tucson, Arizona

Journal to the Self®

 

The impulse to “hear” ourselves by putting words on a page is a very human one. This kind of self-expressive writing, often called journaling, is also a powerful tool for healing body, mind, and spirit. People journal for any number of reasons: to explore dreams, develop intuition and creativity, give themselves a voice, heal relationships, clarify spirituality, envision the future, imagine possibilities, empower themselves, and even maximize time and business efficiency. Other reasons undoubtedly exist. That’s the beauty of journaling―it is infinitely supple and adaptable.

 

Journaling is an intensely personal activity unhampered by rules. Yet using some simple journaling techniques can enhance your practice and make it more empowering. Learn a dozen techniques during this four-session Journal to the Self® workshop (with six more techniques in the workbook for you to try later). Among them are The Five-Minute Sprint, Springboards, Captured Moments, Dialogue, Unsent Letters, Topics du Jour, Perspectives, and Alpha Poems.

 

Cost: $125 (Journal to the Self® workbook included)

Location: The Windmill Inn, 4250 North Campbell Avenue, Tucson

Information: The Learning Curve

 

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• Saturday, April 17, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Savoring Senses, Enriching Memories:  A Workshop for Writers and Journal-Keepers

 

Bring your journal and your appetite!

Location: Tucson’s East Side in private home • Cost: $85, including lunch and snacks 

To register or for more information: 520-575-9650 or barbara@barbarastahura.com

 

What sensations flow through you when you smell a hot-out-of-the-oven apple pie?  What about the sound of birdsong or the tantalizing taste of a fresh-as-summer peach?  This workshop will carry you into a world of sensory experiences and reconnect you to your deep memories, allowing you to add zest to your words on the page, to enrich your characters and powers of description, and to enhance your own self-awareness.

 

Through a series of sensory and writing exercises, you’ll discover the keys to unlocking your innate creativity.  And because food is a primary sensory memory trigger, you’ll enjoy a gourmet, comfort-food lunch on a beautiful patio overlooking the Catalinas and the city.

 

The raw ingredients of memory flow in through your senses. Blend those ingredients with personal meaning and stir in just the right amount of emotion, and you have a complete recipe for bringing life to your stories. Whether you write fiction or nonfiction, for publication or for yourself, you’ll learn to engage and use your senses to polish your prose.

 

• Barbara Stahura is a freelance writer and certified instructor of Journal to the Self. She is the author of the first journaling book for people with brain injury, After Brain Injury: Telling Your Story, and in writing her memoir, What I Thought I Knew, she depended on her journals to fill in the details of her memories.

 

 • Marilyn Noble is a freelance writer and editor, cookbook author, workshop leader, and personal chef.  Her writing has appeared in publications around the world, and she has led writing retreats in the mountains of Colorado and the rainforests of Costa Rica.  She will be preparing an organic, locally-sourced, comfort food lunch.

 

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• Wednesdays, May 12-June 16, 4 to 5:30 pm

HealthSouth Rehabilitation Hospital of Southern Arizona

1921 W. Hospital Drive, Tucson, Arizona

 

After Brain Injury: Telling Your Story

 

This six-week journaling workshop is tightly focused on exploring elements of life after brain injury, using After Brain Injury: Telling Your Story. Each 90-minute session includes two or three opportunities for writing and occasional drawing. Many of the writing exercises begin with a “prompt,” which is a phrase or sentence used to get the writing started. After writing, participants may voluntarily share what they have written with the group.

 

People with brain injury often become frustrated and depressed as they attempt to cope with the realities of their altered lives. They can also isolate themselves, feeling unsure about navigating and negotiating a world they may no longer recognize as familiar. Journaling has long been known to offer therapeutic benefits, and people with brain injury can benefit from it, too, by using directed prompts and exercises. In this way, they can write their stories for themselves, as in traditional journaling, and they may choose to share those stories with others to increase understanding and build connections. If they journal in a group with a facilitator, they find they are not alone but in the company of others who understand as no one else can.

 

Copies of After Brain Injury: Telling Your Story are provided. Participants must complete an application before attending, and the workshop is free to qualified applicants. Contact Barbara Stahura at barbara@barbarastahura.com or 520-575-9650 for more information.

 

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Presented through Harvey Stanbrough’s Writing the World series:  

 

August 21: Journaling: The Seed and the Spice, Part 1

Whether you write fiction or nonfiction, you can use your personal journal to enhance, enliven, and empower your writing. Learn proven journaling techniques to spice up your stories with details gleaned from real life and flesh-out intriguing characters (true or imagined), even as you improve your own well-being.

 

Expressive writing, such as personal journaling, has been shown in many studies to encourage deeper insight; offer relief from difficult memories; and enhance physical, emotional, and mental well-being. In addition, many writers have used various kinds of journals as the seed-bed for published works. In this three-hour workshop, you will learn five easy yet powerful techniques that will benefit you in private journaling as well as writing meant for publication. Come prepared to write.

 

September 18: Journaling: The Seed and the Spice, Part 2

Build on what you learned in Part 1, or take this as a stand-alone workshop. Learn five additional journaling techniques to enhance, enliven, and empower your fiction or nonfiction writing. Come prepared to write.

 

If you attended Part 1, I encourage to bring some of the exercises you wrote afterward and share them with the group.

 

Fee: $30

Location: The Arizona Room, Residence Inn, 6477 East Speedway, Tucson

Information: http://www.stonethread.com/events.html or barbara@barbarastahura.com

 

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• October 22-23, 2010

Writing and Wellness Connections Conference

Atlanta, Georgia

 

Journaling After Brain Injury

 

Brain injury is a life-changing event, and it’s important that survivors be able to tell the stories of their new lives, even years after their injury. Barbara Stahura will introduce the concepts she has used since 2007 in her “After Brain Injury: Telling Your Story” journaling workshop to help survivors of brain injury clarify their experiences, deal with life changes and strong emotions, and focus on the positive. People with brain injury, family members/caregivers, journal instructors, and therapists can all benefit from this workshop. This hands-on session will demonstrate how to use After Brain Injury: Telling Your Story, the first journaling book for people with brain injury, for individual or group journaling.

 

People with brain injury often become frustrated and depressed as they attempt to cope with the realities of their altered lives. They can also isolate themselves, feeling unsure about navigating and negotiating a world they may no longer recognize as familiar. Journaling has long been known to offer therapeutic benefits, and people with brain injury can benefit from it, too, by using directed prompts and exercises. In this way, they can write their stories for themselves, as in traditional journaling, and they may choose to share those stories with others to increase understanding and build connections. If they journal in a group with a facilitator, they find they are not alone but in the company of others who understand as no one else can.

 

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• Dates to be announced

Care for Yourself While Caregiving:

A Journal Workshop for Family Caregivers of People with Brain Injury

 

Facing the ongoing challenges of caring for a  family member with a brain injury can leave spouse/partners or parents desperate for relief. They can find every area of  their lives disrupted, which is harmful to their own health and well-being. Lack of support combined with society’s image of the “ideal caregiver” only enlarges the problem. In order to remain healthy and strong as they care for a loved one, they must also find positive ways of caring for themselves. One proven method of self-care is telling one’s story through personal journaling.

 

Numerous studies have demonstrated journaling’s therapeutic benefits for body and mind, heart and spirit. At its most basic, journaling enhances well-being by allowing us to “hear” ourselves through our writing and so become our own compassionate listeners. Even as caregivers, we can journal for many reasons: to have an outlet for creativity or self-expression, to relieve stress, to give ourselves a voice, to heal relationships, to empower ourselves, to put to rest false conceptions of what a caregiver “should” be, and to record our journey through a difficult time. Journal writing is not critiqued or judged; grammar, punctuation, and “perfection” do not matter. No experience is necessary, and you need not be a “good” writer.

 

With Care For Yourself While Caregiving, you’ll learn basic journaling techniques (with topics targeted toward caregiving) that will provide you with simple yet powerful ways of caring for yourself long after the workshop. Using only a journal or notebook and a pen, you will be able to construct a sanctuary for yourself on the page, even when you have only five minutes to write. This workshop is valuable even if direct caregiving has ended, since many issues can linger.

 

Bring: Journal or notebook and pen, or your laptop.

Information: 520-575-9650 or barbara@barbarastahura.com