Writing as Medicine: Rebecca Jarmas on Migraine, Creativity, and Courage

Welcome to Twice 5 Miles Radio. I’m your host, James Navé.Today’s conversation unfolds in a sunlit adobe room in Taos, New Mexico, where writer Rebecca Jarmas, also known by her pen name Alice W Meadows, joins me to explore the deep intersection of creativity, community, and resilience.Rebecca shares her journey from a successful career in finance into the uncertain, demanding, and ultimately liberating world of writing. At the heart of our conversation is her lifelong experience with migraine disease—an often invisible, debilitating condition that has shaped both her life and her work. Out of that challenge, she’s created a children’s book designed to help young readers understand and communicate what they’re going through—something she never had as a child.We talk about the power of writing as medicine, the role of community in overcoming creative paralysis, and how vulnerability becomes a gateway to authentic expression. Rebecca also opens up about starting a Substack, finding her voice later in life, and learning how to quiet the inner critic long enough to let the imagination speak.This is a conversation about honoring the dreams we made as children, finding courage in the face of chronic struggle, and discovering that sometimes the very thing that holds us back becomes the source of our greatest creative offering.