the benefits of journaling

Do you keep a journal? Many people use journaling to relieve stress, capture treasured memories while they are fresh, record the historic times they are living through, and ass a way to make use of some found time. Keeping a journal is an important way to record the stories of daily life today for the generations of tomorrow.

Let's look at some of the benefits:

1. Reducing Stress and Anxiety. Journaling has been shown to help handle stress. It gives you time to make sense of thoughts and emotions that come with anxiety.

2. Preserving Personal History.  Our thoughts and daily lives can be preserved for generation to come by telling stories that can help our great-great-grandchildren navigate their own lives.

3. Telling Untold Stories. Everyone has a unique experience, even during a globally important event.  There are always articles about important events, but just as important are the stories of those who lived through it.

4. Personal Reflection.  You are writing for yourself, and you can choose if and how you want to share those memories later. [Side note: the first time I read this I thought it said Personal Revelation. The same advice applies.]

-- this article was taken from a familysearch instagram post.

Remembering grandma

 

the difference between a recollection and a journal entry

Would you rather have 3 lines or a detailed description?

 

Online System for Temple Prayer Rolls

 

The First Presidency has announced that an online system has been created to allow members to send the names, of family or friends who are in need, to the temple, where those names will be placed on the prayer roll.

Requests can now be made by visiting any temple's information page and clicking the prayer roll link. Requests can also be made through the Temples section of the Member Tools mobile app. This update to the Android and iOS versions of the app will be available in the coming days. Once the names are entered, they will be sent to that temple (or to the nearest operating temple if that temple is closed).

Star Wars

 

tribute to a grandma

 written by MaryJan Munger, these memories conjure up sights, sounds, and smells.  Even if we didn't know Hannah, we feel like we did!

Today is the birthday of my dear dear grandmother Hannah Hansen Gay. She would have been 103 years old. She grew up in "Gravelbed" just outside of Monroe, Utah, where she sang songs with her sisters and climbed up in a tree with a book to escape dishes. When she was grown she married and moved over the hill to Joseph, Utah, and had two sons (my dad and uncle Larry) and one daughter (named for her husband and herself: Dee + Hannah= Deanna) who was born too soon and died after only a few days. Everyone who knew her seemed to feel she had a particular love for and delight in them individually. I think she probably did. She played the ukulele and sang songs like "When It's Springtime in the Rockies" (I remember her teaching me the words while driving up the mountain, me wedged between her and Grandpa in the old blue Ford pick-up on a rainy June day on the way to go camping at Fish Lake) and "Go To Sleep, My Little Buckaroo" (my dearest memory of this: her lullaby as I snuggled down, in my dad's old army green canvas sleeping bag with the red flannel cowboy lining, out on the grass by the back porch, looking up into the milky light of those western stars shining down on me). She also led the music at church and because it was my favorite song always scheduled "Come Come Ye Saints" (#13 in those days) when I came to visit -- her face twinkling down at me as she waved her arms to pull the singing from the congregation. She was the town postmistress and so visiting at her house was always punctuated by the sharp *ting* of the silver bell and then neighbors' voices as they came to collect their mail from cunning little golden boxes with adorable curly handles and fancy numbering in the little office built just off her kitchen. We children weren't allowed on the other side of the gate but we could watch her sort the mail and hear the neighbors' gossip. In the evenings we'd help her hoist down the flag and fold it into a tight triangle of beautiful starry blue which she would then lay on the impressive looking brass scale. Our parents (but never Grandma herself) scolded us for "mailing" pinecones in the big blue mailbox out by the road. The only cross words I ever heard from her were an impatient "Hell's bells, Dee!" to my Grandpa once in a while, which always made us giggle, because she was so angelic in every other way you couldn't take it as actual cussing. She read Little Golden Books to us in a rushed breathless voice, licking her fingers to turn the pages, all of us grandkids piled up in her lap. Her bookcase was filled with actual books a person could read for fun -- Zane Grey westerns and romance novels about dashing young women who found adventure everywhere from the American West to misty, mysterious England to Imperial China. She let us "experiment" with every ingredient in her kitchen -- I made some memorably awful dishes with broccoli and mayonnaise, peaches and Worcestershire sauce. More successfully we made crust cookies sprinkled with sugar when she made her pies, her quick clever fingers pinching scallops all around the pie-pan. She taught us how to play cards mercilessly -- Bloody Smash was our favorite -- as well as how to embroider flowers and birds and smiling self-portraits to decorate our pillowcases and how to crochet blankets for our dolls. And there were always cookies or cake and Neapolitan ice cream or Shasta black cherry soda to guzzle out on the front porch while we listened to the whine and roar of semis barreling past down state route 89 or frozen cherries in little baggies that she would let us take outside so we could spit the pits in the grass. Her house was tall, steep-roofed, and pale green with a flagpole and two giant pine trees filled with singing birds. Baby birds would sometimes fall from their nests and we would try to save them, filling their little gullets with tiny translucent red berries from Grandma's bird bush (I think it was a viburnum). Grandma Hannah's garden was iris and buttercup, yellow columbine, pink peonies, snowball bush, snapdragon, and petunias. Grandpa Dee's garden was tomatoes, potatoes, squash, cucumbers that Grandma made into unequalled bread & butter pickles, and the peas and beans Grandma would shell or snap it seems every summer morning. Her meals were the height of deliciousness, love made into a casserole or cake or jello salad. Her hugs were all-encompassing, her sweet floury scent all-embracing, her soft smiling cheek still a memory against my own. Oh, how much I still miss her! When I see her again, will she say like she always did, "Why, Dee, look who's here. It's the kids! I'm just tickled pink!" and gather me up in her arms? I still see her in my mind's eye, standing on her front lawn waving for as long as I look back out of the car window as we drive away.

Note: This memory was originally shared on Facebook Aug. 25, 2018. The tribute was titled: Happy happy birthday, Grandma Hannah dear

💗❤🧡💛💚💙💜💗

Why Telling Family Stories To Our Kids Is So Important

Nothing bonds families more than shared tales and experiences.

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• By Tamsin Kelly

Everyone has a story - and kids love hearing these family tales. Funny mishaps when they were younger (they love being the star character), how their parents met, the naughty things you got up to at their age and what you did in the ‘olden days’, these are the stories your children never tire of hearing.

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So why do children enjoy the telling - and retelling - of these stories so much?

“Children are naturally self centred so any story featuring themselves will have an extra attraction. Hearing about family members being younger and getting into adventures, or living at a time when things were different can stir the imagination and the contrast between the grown up and the story of the child can amaze and surprise,” says psychologist and parenting expert Claire Halsey.  

Paul Jackson, director of the Society for Storytelling agrees: “Personal stories are very powerful and can pull families together. The listener has a personal connection to these reminiscences. Even just asking ‘do you remember when?’ can trigger images and memories and a deep emotional response.”

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But these familiar stories are also important in your child’s development and their sense of self. There have been psychological studies that show the more children knew about their family’s history, the stronger their sense of control over their lives, the higher their self-esteem and the more successfully they believe their families function. In one study children were asked questions including: Do you know where your grandparents grew up? Do you know where your mum and dad went to school? Do you know where your parents met? Do you know an illness or something really terrible that happened in your family? Do you know the story of your birth?. This “Do You Know?” scale of 20 questions turned out to be the best single predictor of children’s emotional health and happiness.

“Our identity is strongly tied to our family and its history; not only where we’ve come from but the family characteristics such as adventure, courage, creativity and even the jobs or achievements of family members,” explains Claire Halsey, co-author of Your Child Year by Year. “Family story telling reinforces those family characteristics and establishes the connection between generations in even the simplest way when, in a story, a child is told of characteristics they share with a parent or other relative.

“The sense of a shared past, common experiences and characteristics can be powerfully reinforced in family history or story telling. Differences can be celebrated too and become integrated into the family identity. Stories also constitute family traditions and family rituals, when you re tell stories at celebrations or festive times of year.”

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Jonathan Douglas, director of the National Literacy Trust, says: “All families have stories to tell and all children love to hear them. 

“The stories children read in books help them to become part of other people’s worlds but the stories they hear from their family help them to understand their own world, who they are, where they come from and where they might want to go. The stories of our childhood shape the people we become and the world we create.

“Sharing stories as a family will boost your child’s emotional development, as well as bringing them enjoyment and giving them inspiration. What’s more, storytelling will also help to strengthen your relationship with your child, and we know that this foundation helps children develop the resilience and confidence they need to succeed later in life.”

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Linda Blair, a clinical psychologist and Telegraph columnist, says children aged seven and under are particularly validated by these family stories. “In those early years children are working on establishing and trying to understand their identities. Stories about themselves and their families help them feel safe, help them belong and clarify who they are.”

As a parent, all you need is time and willingness to recall these stories. Not only will the content of your stories enable your child to feel grounded and confident, but the sheer act of sitting close together, laughing and talking, will deepen your bond with your child. 

Jonathan Douglas, director of the National Literacy Trust, has these top tips for parents to encourage family storytelling:

• It’s never too early to share family stories. Research shows that by the age of five, children in ‘word poor’ households have heard nearly 30 million fewer words than their peers and this holds them back when they start school. What’s more, teenagers in families who regularly talk about their history have higher self-esteem, stronger self-concepts, better coping skills and are more resilient.
• All families have traditions and a story to tell about them! If your traditions are steeped in history, encourage your child to do some research and find out everything they can. Also get your child to speak as many different family members as possible about the traditions, from grandparents to aunties, uncles and cousins.
• Create a family memory box and fill it with objects and images that remind you of key events and moments. Whenever you open the box, use the objects to prompt the retelling a family memory.
• If your child is going through a difficult situation which you can relate to, don’t be afraid to share your experience with them. Family storytelling enables children to learn about powerful emotions and cope with life’s challenges in a safe environment.

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One word of warning though. Linda Blair counsels that in your child’s teenage years they may be less of an eager sponge for family tales. “At that age they are more interested in ‘who am I?’ in relation to their peers. That’s when they roll their eyes and want you to please stop.”  So get your family stories in when you have the chance!

Here, parents share the stories their children love to hear again and again.

“My children love the re-telling of how the youngest’s first combined pair of words were ‘Get out’ (with a tragic elongated stress on the vowels) because she was so sick of being ignored in her high chair in favour of her toddler sister.” Emma

“My kids like to hear my mum tell stories of naughty things I did as a child, like when I turned the garden hose on the top deck of a tour bus going past our house or when I bit her hand to get her attention!” Olivia

“My favourite story is about my late Granny’s dog, Griswald, who used to get the bus into Norwich by himself. He was a golden retriever and all the bus drivers would recognise him and let him on the bus, saying ‘Morning, Griswald’. He’d get off in Norwich city centre, walk around for a bit and get the bus home. I imagine the story was hugely exaggerated but it’s been retold so many times by different family members that it’s become true.” Claudia

“My son loves to hear stories about naughty things the family got up to as kids – my dad and his friend managed to make nitroglycerine in the school science lab and a fireman had to very gingerly take it out to the football pitch and toss something at it to get it to explode safely. This story has been retold many times, and my son just related it to his Y7 science teacher as they were discussing dangerous chemicals!” Jo

“My son loves the one about when he painted his baby sister’s bald head pink with a highlighter pen, to match her clothes.” Fiona