What's Your Way In?
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At my last live journaling event, I met a woman who once started a memoir by listing things she'd picked up off the ground. Pennies. Inchworms. Dandelion seeds. Each one attached to a scene. Each scene a memory. Each memory a door into something she hadn't been able to approach head-on. I love that idea. It reminds me of a project I started years ago which happens to involve a spreadsheet. As an English major, I was taught to hate them, but as a trauma survivor with limited childhood memories, it became one of my most valuable tools for memory retrieval. I started by creating a row for every year of my life, with columns for everything from school grades and relationships to popular music and TV shows. Knowing which year “Roots” was on TV helped me place the apartment we lived in at the time and a pivotal conversation I had with my mom. Knowing the year Madonna’s “Like a Virgin” was popular helped me place a major accident and subsequent dental surgery. It's been a long process putting the puzzle pieces of my life together, and I still add to it occasionally. Unlocking long buried memories has helped me feel more whole and complete, like I'm no longer such a stranger to myself. These are just two examples of doorways that can help you bypass the inner critic, the resistance, the voice that says you don't know where to start, because sometimes that's all you need. It's why I created space for us to do it together: Join me for Unmuted: Women's Journaling Hour on April 25, at 10 AM PT | 1 PM ET. You've learned to keep the peace. Now tell your story.
Books Are My Love Language 📚Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life by Anne Lamott is one of my favorite writing books. At just 226 pages, it's an easy and approachable read, and her premise is simple: the way in is always smaller than you think. Not the whole memoir or even the whole chapter. Just the next small true thing. Sound familiar? Anne urges us to evict our inner critics and just write. Badly if necessary. The shitty first draft isn’t a failure — it's the way. This book contains some of the best writing advice that exists, like this little gem: "Write toward vulnerability. Risk being unliked. Tell the truth as you understand it.” Have you read it? Hit reply and let me know. I have it in my Bookshop if you want it.
Recent Byline 📰"The advice from a teacher that helped me escape a troubled home and become a first-generation college graduate" (Business Insider) Weekly Journal Prompt ✍️What's one small thing from your past — an object, a song, a smell — that unlocks something bigger when you let yourself follow it? Write bravely, my friend. See you next week. -Amber 🥰 PS. If you're ready to start journaling now, my guided journals will meet you right where you are. Explore the full series. |
Have you been last on your own list for so long you forgot you were on it?
I'm Amber Campbell — journalist, writer, and midlife reinvention coach. I help women rebuild after big life ruptures like high-conflict divorce, family estrangement, empty nest, and career change. I didn't just study this work. I lived it. Every week I write a personal letter — honest, reflective, no toxic positivity — about what it really looks like to become your own hero after everything blows up.