Transforming Hardship Through Heartship: A Therapeutic Positive Autoethnography of Recovery Through Rereading and Rewriting Past Journal Entries

Journal writing has long been recommended as a therapeutic practice for growth and healing. Receiving less attention, however, are techniques for revisiting past journal entries to learn from and/or expand them. What might autoethnographers and journalers alike discover about themselves and their potential for growth by looking back on and interacting with these entries through a positive inquiry lens? In the key of therapeutic positive autoethnography (ThePosAE), the author experiments with artistic, inquiry-evoking techniques to demonstrate how reflexively rereading and rewriting excerpts from one’s personal journal serves both generative and transformative purposes. Reflecting on and working with her personal journal chronicled throughout her eating disorder recovery, the author shows various creative practices for rereading, reimagining, and rewriting past journal entries in present time to illustrate her transformation through them. Through reconstructing her emotional experiences, including acknowledging them in places where they were once neglected, she shows how ThePosAE can be used to reconfigure past meanings in ways that reveal new pathways for future action and change.