Interest in Personal Storybooks Exploding

Publication of personal memoir books is exploding, according to an article in the Ontario Business Edge. The article features two Canadian women whose businesses specialize in personal memoirs, both of whom entered the business after losing loved ones whose life stories they never knew in depth. Now they both help others capture the stories of loved ones--or themselves--before it's too late.

According to the Association of Personal Historians, thera re 79 million people in the U.S. appraoching retirement, and 37 million are at least 67 years old. "Many feel compelled to capture the stories of their aging parents before it is too late," says Jeanne Arthur, president of APH. Those who have already lost parents regret they didn't capture their stories and are motivated to record their own.

How about you? Have you thought about interviewing your loved ones so you have a better understanding of their life experiences and can create a family legacy? You may want to check out the services of APH members near you. Or like me, you may choose to record your own interviews with one or both parents or other loved ones.

To read the entire Business Edge article, go to http://http://www.businessedge.ca/article.cfm/
newsID/15418.cfm

Storytelling for Stress Relief

If, like me, you've never thought of storytelling as a therapeutic practice, you also may find a press release from a media company in Toronto to be of interest. CNW Group issued a release last week about the increasing stress levels among the population of the B.C. interior region as flood warnings continue to be issued.

The threats of flooding "put many people under high levels of duress and anxiety at the prospect of displacement, evacuation and damage to personal property", the release says. One official recommends talking with outers as an effective stress reliever. "Storytelling is the natural human way of processing stress andprocessing an event", says Gerry Smith,Vice President of Organizational Health at Shepell-fgi. "It may seem simple, but communicating what we're feeling, what we're going through is our automatic coping mechanism and helps us a great deal."

To read the entire release, go to http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/
May2007/10/c7125.html