Mari L. McCarthy is the Founder and Chief Empowerment Officer of Create Write Now, and the bestselling author behind Heal Yourself with Journaling Power - the follow-up to her multi award winning book, Journaling Power.

In today’s new episode, Mari shares her journey from diagnosis with Multiple Sclerosis (MS), to crafting a life filled with joy, purpose, and passion. About 20 years ago, Mari had an MS exacerbation where she lost most of her feeling and function on the right side of her body. She needed to teach herself how to write with her left hand. A hypnotherapist introduced her to Julia Cameron’s book, The Artist’s Way, and her Morning Pages practice. Each morning, Mari would handwrite 3 stream-of-consciousness page, and she learned how to write left-handed in a matter of weeks.

Mari’s reflections of her first-hand experience with the therapeutic power of journaling will inspire you to pick up your pen and start journaling too. After starting and sticking with a therapeutic journaling routine of her own, Mari was able to reverse her debilitating MS symptoms and ditch her prescription drug routine forever - and if that isn't inspiring, I don’t know what is.

When Mari realized that journaling/expressive writing was way more than just physical therapy, she knew she needed to set up a company and share Journaling for the Health of It with the world. The name of her company and brand were contributions from her journal as were the titles of the 2 books and 22 e-workbooks she’s written. Mari’s Journal is always providing her with guidance, focus and universal messages. Through her story, her work, and her books, Mari shares valuable lessons with readers that are communicated through moving personal stories and heartfelt pearls of wisdom. In everything that she does, Mari guides, inspires, and empowers you to use your journal to access your intelligence, talents and creativity, and to transform your life daily.

“My passion and mission is to share journaling for the health of it with everyone I possibly can. So that they can do the heavy lifting, the discovery of coming to terms with and understanding their past, and putting the past where it belongs, to then have the time, space, and love for themselves to go out and create the world, the life, and the person that they truly are and truly want to be.”

— Mari L. McCarthy

Tune in on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7bZHrtjAzbksbLWNaak1NM

Tune in on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/stories-of-inspiring-joy/id1510488632

To connect with Mari and learn more visit her website www.createwritenow.com and on Facebook @createwritenow and on Twitter @createwritenow

Stories of Inspiring Joy is a production of Seek The Joy Media and created by Sydney Weiss. To learn more and submit your story, click here.