OUR STORY
Lifescribing began during the uncertainty of Covid, when I was afraid I might not live long enough for my four-year-old daughter to truly know me or for me to witness the woman she would become.
After stepping away from a 20-year career in publishing and media, I began writing my memories for her. I was not writing for publication. I was writing because I wanted to leave her a way back to me. I wanted her to know who I was, what I loved, what I carried, what I had learned, and what kind of woman had once dreamed of her.
But as I remembered, reflected, and wrote the small details of my life, something unexpected happened. The practice became more than an act of preservation. It became a way of meeting myself with more honesty, tenderness, and compassion.
Then, in June 2021, my Mama died quietly in her sleep in our family home in Solana.
During her wake, stories about her came pouring in from family, friends, neighbors, former students, and people whose lives she had touched. In every telling, she returned to us.
I realized then that stories are not only records of the past. They are refuge. They are what remains.
That realization became the heart of Lifescribing.
Today, The Lifescribing Company creates books, programs, retreats, and tools that help individuals, families, and communities preserve human legacy through story.
Because when we love, we never want to forget.
ABOUT JOAN
Joan Gallares is the founder of The Lifescribing Company, an author, editor, and cultural entrepreneur devoted to helping people transform memory into legacy.
Before creating Lifescribing, Joan built a 20-year career across publishing, media, and digital storytelling. She began as a lifestyle reporter for a business newspaper, became Executive Editor of a travel magazine, and contributed to international travel guidebooks and publications including Condé Nast Traveler and Travel + Leisure.
In 1998, she shifted to digital media as editor of an online magazine. Two years later, she joined the new media startup of a leading broadcast network, where she spent two decades building and leading the creative team as Senior Vice President for Creative and Content Development.
In 2020, Joan entered a major life and career transition, stepping away from corporate media to become a free agent, writer, and homeschooling mother.
A lifelong storyteller, Joan considers writing a spiritual practice alongside meditation and chanting. In 2021, she developed Lifescribing, a method that guides people in writing their life stories as legacy so they can harvest the wisdom of their personal history, remember the best of themselves, and embody a larger possibility.