Merle R. Saferstein
Our Journals: Mining Them for Gold
May 19, 2023
11 AM PDT | 12 PM MDT | 1 PM CDT | 2 PM EDT
What does one do with journals compiled over the course of many years? If you’re Merle R. Saferstein, you take what you’ve learned and experienced, cull excerpts, and share them. The result? Merle wrote Living and Leaving My Legacy, Volume l, which inspires the readers to reflect on their lives and motivates others to discover the magic of journaling. Volume ll will be released in June 2023 and continues with another deep and provocative dive inside Saferstein’s internal musings. She carefully curates passages on a variety of subjects, illustrating the power of journaling and how reflection has the potential to help and heal. In this presentation, Merle will help you look at the process of mining your journals for use in your memoir and all that surfaces in doing so.
Some of the questions she’ll address are:
- How will you organize the process?
- What gifts have you gained by writing in journals and then in reading them?
- How will you cope with the emotions that appear and how can they be useful in your memoir?
- As you reflect on the memories and unforgettable moments, how will you use them in telling your story?
- What do we learn about ourselves by reading our old journals?
- What is legacy journaling?
Merle R. Saferstein worked closely with hundreds of Holocaust survivors helping them pass along their legacy to hundreds of thousands of students and teachers. She developed a course entitled Living and Leaving Your Legacy® and teaches and speaks to audiences locally, nationally, and internationally.
She trains hospice staffs and helps patients leave their sacred legacies. Merle facilitates a writing for wellness group for women impacted by cancer as well as a weekly journaling circle.
Merle is an author and a council member of the International Association for Journal Writing. As a pioneer in the field of legacy journaling, her chapter on the subject appears in The Great Book of Journaling: How Journal Writing Can Support a Life of Wellness, Creativity, Meaning and Purpose.
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