13 Reasons to Write a Healing Memoir

We all know that writing our personal stories is a challenge–of heart, mind, and body. To wrestle with truth, history, and memory requires us to be brave as we dare to speak out after years of silence. For some, there is the sound of trumpets as the feeling of freedom and fullness of open up through the writing. For others, they hear the voice of the inner, and outer, critics. But they write anyway, and keep writing as a practice, a meditation, a dedication. Writing leads to more writing, insights, and memories.

It’s true that memoir writing challenges us, but it can be a good friend, this process, inviting us to become more of who we really are, to find the voice that is ours and ours alone.

“Re-member” means to bring together the different parts of ourselves, and find ourselves whole.

1. Writing your deep truths frees you from the past and creates meaning out of chaos.
2. Re-membering brings all parts of you together again.
3. Writing with your own voice is empowering, story by story.
4. Telling your truth frees you from shame and guilt.
5. Your stories on the page will be different from the ones in your head.
6. Writing a memoir is a transformational and spiritual path.
7. Your story can help change others’ lives.
8. Research proves that writing heals both body and mind.
9. Creating a narrative where you are the “I” character and the narrator integrates the past and the present.
10. Integrating who you are and bringing memories out of the darkness changes your brain.
11. Writing and sharing your story breaks you out of isolation and connects you more deeply with the larger world.
12. Becoming an author is empowering and inspiring, and frees you from the shadows.
13. Getting published online, in an anthology or in your own book, are ways to get witnessed and move from victim to leader—showing others the way to healing and greater self-esteem.