Linda Lacina from the World Economic Forum interviews Suleika Jaouad, a memoirist, best-selling author, and three-time cancer survivor. Jaouad is the creator of The Book of Alchemy, a journaling guide that combines memoir with prompts from 100 creative contributors, and founder of the Isolation Journals, a Substack community with nearly 300,000 followers.

The conversation explores how journaling and creative practices help navigate uncertainty, particularly during health crises. Jaouad shares her experience using multiple journals during her 2021 bone marrow transplant, including personal journals, medical notes, and a shared journal with her husband, musician John Baptiste. When vision complications prevented writing, she pivoted to creating visual journals through watercolor paintings of her fever dreams.

The discussion covers the democratic nature of journaling as a creative practice, the power of prompts to overcome blank page syndrome, and how vulnerability in writing creates deeper human connections. Jaouad emphasizes that creativity is essential for meaning-making and community building, not just entertainment or leisure.

Redefining Journaling Beyond the Diary Stereotype

Journaling is 'one of the most essential and democratic of the creative forms' with no rules - it can include lists, poems, or sentence fragments rather than traditional diary entries.

The journal serves as 'a sort of chrysalis, a place where you don't have to have the answers' but can 'live in the questions and someday gradually live your way into the answers.'

For Suleika, journaling transformed from a teenage pastime into 'a lifeline' during her first leukemia diagnosis at age 22, becoming a way to process the 'mysterious happenings in my blood and bone marrow.'

Creative Adaptation During Medical Crisis

During her 2021 bone marrow transplant, Suleika packed multiple specialized journals: personal, medical notes, shared letters with her husband, and a reporter's notebook.

When treatment side effects compromised her vision, she pivoted to visual journaling, painting her 'frightening fever dreams' and 'medication induced hallucinations' with watercolors.

'My bizarre dreams of 10-foot giraffes that doubled as IV poles turned into paintings' - she created daily paintings that became a visual record on her hospital wall.

Creative practice allows you to 'translate uncertainty into something that feels more akin to mystery' and 'turn interruptions into a subject, something that you can examine and make meaning from.'

Building Connection Through Shared Creative Practices

Suleika and John Baptiste maintained a shared journal by writing letters in separate journals, photographing them, and texting the images to each other during travel separations.

Letter writing in journal form allows access to 'thoughts you didn't even know you were carrying in your subconscious' that wouldn't emerge in regular conversation.

During a two-week COVID separation at the hospital, they exchanged daily paintings for lullabies - John composed music while Suleika created visual art.

'We need to double down on love' - John's philosophy during crisis led to feeling 'more deeply connected to each other than we had before' despite physical separation.

The Book of Alchemy and Prompt-Based Writing

The Book of Alchemy addresses 'the tyranny of the blank page' by providing prompts that act like 'a kaleidoscope - you twist the cylinder and the light falls differently.'

The book combines memoir essays with prompts from 100 creative contributors, designed as either a 100-day project or occasional inspiration for stuck writers.

People use The Book of Alchemy in various ways: following prompts religiously day-by-day, as emergency inspiration when stuck, or as dinner table conversation starters.

Community Building Through Vulnerable Writing

The Isolation Journals newsletter, started during early pandemic, grew to nearly 300,000 followers by combining daily essays with prompts that sparked vulnerable dialogue.

Journaling clubs formed globally where people gather in living rooms to write to prompts and discuss what emerges - 'I learn things about people that I've known my entire life that I had no idea about.'

'When I journal with strangers in these communal settings, I feel more connected to them than I do many of the people I see every day' through shared vulnerability.

Practical Prompts for Getting Started

The 'to-feel list' prompt involves listing desired emotions for the day (joy, connection, peace) followed by actions that might generate those feelings.

'Just 10 Images' prompt requires recording 10 visual memories from the last 24 hours in list form, training observation skills and presence.

Beginning the day with a to-feel list rather than a to-do list 'reorients me away from the to-do list and toward the things that I actually care about.'

Living with Uncertainty and Meaningful Momentum

Rather than living 'every day as if it's your last,' Suleika advocates living 'every day as if it's my first' to embrace curiosity over panic-inducing urgency.

The key leadership question: 'Where am I conflating momentum with what's meaningful?' - distinguishing between busyness and actual progress toward what matters.

Journaling shifts perspective 'out of my fear of uncertainty into a sense of awe at the mystery of our lives and how they unfold' through playful, goalless writing.