• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Heart - Head - Hands logo

  • Home
  • About
    • Beth Godbee
    • Commitments
    • Publications
  • Blog
    • Contemplative Practices
    • Emotional Literacies
    • Everyday Feminism
    • Higher Education
    • Interviews
    • Racial Justice
    • Recipes
    • Why Vegan?
  • Work with Me
    • Coaching
    • Courses, Retreats, Workshops
    • Career Discernment
    • Pathways Through Burnout
    • Writing Groups
  • Subscribe
  • Contact
  • Navigation Menu: Social Icons

    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • LinkedIn
    • Twitter

Gratitude for Journals and Other Spaces for Self-Work

Filed Under: Contemplative Practices, Emotional Literacies, Everyday Feminism By Beth Godbee June 8, 2023 1 Comment

This blog post shares part of my email newsletter, which can be found in full here.

This week I completed another journal and started a new one, my eighth since the start of the pandemic. So much of my recent writing has been personal, filling the pages of these journals and not ready to share … just yet … But I do have a piece coming out in Inside Higher Ed (I’ll be sure to share soon!). And I have several blog posts in-process. And I’m hoping for good reception of an article I revised and resubmitted this spring. And I’m returning to work on the collaborative book project: inching forward little by little.

Pictured here are eight colorful journals -- with designs that include trees, flowers, and birds -- spread across a patterned bedspread.

Pictured here are eight colorful journals — with designs that include trees, flowers, and birds — spread across a patterned bedspread.

I appreciate how a writing life involves so many forms of creation, always inviting self-work and self-reflection. Words mirroring the writer’s internal world may never find their way to wider audiences. But reaching for words offers incredible potential. I know that possibilities open for me when I find or build linguistic resources to name, identify, describe, and understand life’s experiences, especially the most tender ones.

For many years, I joked that I studied language (writing, rhetoric, composition, and literacy studies) because “words are hard.” But it’s not just a joke. I recognize that my body relaxes when I can name experiences, especially injustice. In contrast, I hold tension when I can’t access the language. Or when I/we avoid or block naming and, thereby, perpetuate epistemic injustice.

Recently, a somatic experiencing practitioner told me that when we can’t find words, it means that the roots of our traumas are pre-verbal—that they started in infancy or before we developed speech.

As I’m sitting with this insight, I’m wondering how much our work (and play) as writers is about healing trauma. How might working with words be a form of holding closely and caretaking our inner child? What words might be balms or braces? What words are needed to remember, resist, repair, relate, even reconcile? What words invite us into deeper learning and unlearning, clarifying and bringing us back to commitments to justice?

I’m reflecting on these themes—the power of words, the importance of naming, and the healing of trauma—in the midst of smoky air (hazardous air conditions) keeping me indoors here in Washington, D.C. My lungs are constricted by climate crisis. My language is similarly constricted within conditions of oppression. I can’t miss the connection. And I’m wanting to breathe deeply, to keep writing, to reach toward healing and liberation in the midst of toxicity.

My journals are full of longing ~ of pages articulating what I love so deeply that I’m willing to rage and grieve and pick myself up and keep going. Perhaps your journals are like this too?  

I am grateful for journals, which provide the space for ongoing self-work. In its many forms, in its winding words, in its calls to come back and forge forward again and again. And in this spirit, to try-try again.

I close this newsletter with a few reading recommendations (scroll to the end). One recommendation I want to highlight has been deeply impacting me and how I’m thinking-feeling-acting-writing-relating-living within toxicity. It is The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness, and Healing in a Toxic Culture by Gabor Maté with Daniel Maté. I am sure to return to this book because it does important naming work: identifying, recognizing, describing, and countering injustice. It offers insights, practices, and recommendations.

Below there is also information about upcoming writing retreats and the open e-course on career discernment. And I’ll preview that Dr. Candace Epps-Robertson and I are developing a cohort experience for the 2023-2024 academic year around burnout. We’ll share more and open an application process in August. Reach out if you’re interested and would like to know more.

I’m also taking some time off this month and again (maybe always?) working on my relationship with money. Last month’s blog post “Can Registration Be Relational? How I’m Longing for Sliding-Scale Registration to Work” has led me to more questions and insights about pricing, resourcing, and striving toward economic justice within capitalism. I’ll be back with more writing and updates about this. 🙂

Always, I send good wishes, and I hope you, too, find spaces for self-work,
Beth

Read the full newsletter here.

—
This post is written by
Beth Godbee, Ph.D. for Heart-Head-Hands.com. Subscribe to the newsletter for upcoming announcements. These announcements include: 

  • Next Writing Retreat: Thursday 6/29
  • Recent Blog Post: “Can Registration Be Relational? How I’m Longing for Sliding-Scale Registration to Work“
  • One-with-One Coaching: Options for Personalized Support

Share this:

  • Print
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
  • Pocket

Tagged with: climate crisis, commitments, embodiment, epistemic injustice, gratitude, healing, journaling, journals, language, learning, longing, practices, reflection, self-work, social justice, systemic oppression, understanding injustice, words, writing

Support the Work

subscribe to posts:

Previous Post: « Can Registration Be Relational? How I’m Longing for Sliding-Scale Registration to Work
Next Post: Intervening into Burnout, Building a Sense of What’s Possible »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Alexandra

    September 21, 2023 at 9:09 am

    I definitely need to get myself one of those journals! Maybe the aesthetic will help me keep up with my gratitude practice haha

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

About This Site

Embodied knowledge matters. So do commitments. And especially acting on commitments as part of everyday life, BIG and small. This website—a mix of blog posts and research writing, courses and offerings—shares ongoing efforts toward everyday living (feeling, thinking, and doing) for justice.

Subscribe via Patreon

This button from Patreon says “Become a Patron” in white font against a bright orange background.

Subscribe to Newsletter

featured offerings

This e-course announcement shows a yellow sunflower and blue sky. It includes a textbox with the following information: “E-COURSE AVAILABLE NOW! Career Discernment for Academics: Aligning Career with Commitments. Self-paced study, exercises, coaching, and more ...”

This ad reads: “Time to write! Writing Retreats. Learn more @ Heart-Head-Hands.com.” A white coffee mug and table appear in the foreground, with golden chairs and walls in the background.

This image shows writing tools (phone, keyboard, journal, pencil, and pen) along with the event information: “Online Writing Groups. Tuesday afternoons & Friday mornings. Come Write Together: Heart-Head-Hands.com.”

This image shows a blazing campfire in a mountain setting at dusk. It shares workshop information: “Practices for Navigating Burnout. Interactive Small-Group Workshops. Offered by Beth Godbee, Ph.D. & Candace Epps-Robertson, Ph.D.”This image shows a scene of wrapped packages, a pine cone, and evergreen branches. A white text box shares the circular logo for Heart-Head-Hands: Everyday Living for Justice, and another text box reads: “gift cards available.”

Categories

  • Contemplative Practices (61)
  • Emotional Literacies (85)
  • Everyday Feminism (106)
  • Higher Education (52)
  • Interviews (10)
  • Racial Justice (64)
  • Recipes (22)
  • Why Vegan? (12)

Footer

bethgodbee

Update: THANKS to everyone who alerted me to the a Update: THANKS to everyone who alerted me to the account and who reported it. It appears to be down. I’m really grateful. 💚

*************

So … apparently someone has cloned my account and started one at @bethgodbeee (with eee — 3 e’s at the end). 

If you’ve received a request from this account, will you report them?

And if you’ve had this happen or know more about this sort of copycatting/cloning, I’m so grateful for camaraderie and advice. I’m in a learning curve.

Thank you!!!
If you're currently on a journey with a writing pr If you're currently on a journey with a writing project, consider joining this Thursday's #writing retreat.

I think of retreats like this boardwalk: there's a pathway to follow with clear edges and a lot of spaciousness to work/walk throughout the day.

Learn more about one-day online retreats, sliding-scale registration, and upcoming dates here:

https://heart-head-hands.com/product/writing-retreats/
✨✨link in bio✨✨
It's fall! A few views from here: 1. My partner J It's fall! A few views from here:

1. My partner Jonathan and me hiking at Great Falls.
2. Crocheting in progress. I'm picking back up this project started early in the pandemic.
3. Pumpkin pancakes. Yum!
4. Weird leg-like mushrooms sticking out of a log.
5. Book display on whole food plant based (WFPB) eating.
6. Embers in a simmering campfire. 
7. Shadows of me and my partner on a winding trail.

{Not pictured: Recovering from covid and flu vaccines. Send healing wishes! :-)}
Updates to the new offering “Pathways Through Bu Updates to the new offering “Pathways Through Burnout: A Cohort Experience”:

For the past year, Candace and I have been listening to requests for an offering around burnout (or, more precisely, being burned up), and we launched a new cohort experience August 1st. We are deeply grateful for the range of responses we’ve received since then, and we’ve been prioritizing time to listen and discern what people want and need.

Through a lot of conversation and reflection, we’ve decided to slow down further and to reshape the offering. 

We’ll continue offering interactive workshops on practices for navigating burnout—with new dates announced for November 3rd and December 15th (and more to come in 2024). 

Starting in January, we’ll hold a few one-day retreats with time for art, play, contemplative practice, conversation, and coaching. We hope the retreat will feel like something that’s possible now (with so many pushes and pulls on time and attention).

All of this is leading to a 12-week version of the cohort experience: a season of connection to match a season in life. We’ll reopen applications in the spring and hope that a small group forms well ahead of our start date in September 2024.

The details of all of these experiences—and an invitation to join the workshops in Nov and Dec—are shared online here: https://heart-head-hands.com/pathways-through-burnout/ 
✨✨link in bio✨✨

And we continue to appreciate all sorts of feedback (questions, suggestions, affirmations), so please reach out anytime. <3

[Image says: “Pathways Through Burnout / Practice Workshops / One-Day Retreats / Cohort Forming for Fall 2024” and shows photos of the two of us—Candace and Beth—side by side.]

With @dr._candace_epps_robertson_ #burnout #update #practice #contemplative #meditation #writing #art #retreat
I am slow to edit and share photos, but I want to I am slow to edit and share photos, but I want to share these from the Beyond Granite public art exhibit that just left the National Mall here in DC. I wish this installation was staying long-term. How I struggle with visiting the Mall in the best of conditions. And how these pieces helped me appreciate what could instead be done in this space. 

Also, Jonathan and I got really lucky that the night we visited was the most spectacular sunset! Scroll through for photos of how "America's Playground" appears against an orange sky (no filter).
Load More... Follow on Instagram

About Beth Godbee

I'm an educator and former writing studies professor who believes our fully embodied selves matter in the world. We can’t just think our way out of the incredible injustices, dehumanization, violence, and wrongdoing that characterize everyday life. We must feel and act, too. [Pronouns: she/her.] Read more ...

This image shows books alongside the words: courses, coaching, consulting. learning + unlearning.

Copyright © 2023