Write it Down!

Today is a battle between what science says about journaling and what Cydni and Sher’s lived experiences of reading journals from their past felt like. Science and psychology suggest that you will be less stressed, more reflective, and happier if you write things down. Cydni argues that her body is now in a complete state of cringe after reading what her 12-year-old self wrote. Sher was doing just fine until she read about the situation with the hamster she forgot about. Could writing things down really benefit our lives the way studies have shown? Maybe what matters is what we write down and the intention behind it. Join us in today’s episode, “Write it Down,” and decide for yourself. We are so glad you are here.

This Week's Challenge
This week, we challenge you to take some time to write something down. Write in a journal, or write a nice note or text to someone. If something has been causing you grief, we challenge you to write it down with the intention of tearing it up.

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Show Notes

Drip-Drip Drop, Words and  Music by  Matt Hoiland
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Transcript

Episode 59 - Write it Down

Cydni: [00:00:00] this is Cydni and 

Sher: I'm Sher. And each week we get together to share with you a message of hope.

Cydni: It is through our own study and our personal experiences that we offer the reminder to not only seek the light, 

Sher: but be the light. You can find peace and there is hope

Cydni: and as long as one of us is slightly caffeinated, there will be laughter. 

Sher: Today's topic is write it down. 

Cydni: And we're so glad you are here 

Sher: today we're going to talk about writing your own words down. So what do you have over there, Cydni, to get us going? 

Cydni: I wonder if the inspiration came for writing because God's like, Hey guys, quit talking. Start writing. In a personal journal. Alone.

Sher: That's a good point because he has a lot of kids. So it's journal time. Everyone write something down just be quiet, listen to heavenly music and write. I like that Cydni. 

Cydni: I'm not that complicated. If he told us it was nap [00:01:00] time. Warm milk and cookies. That would work. Just kidding. I hate milk, but I would do a nap. I love milk Cydni. Yeah. 'cause the first time I think I really met you, you were drinking warm milk at like 2:00 PM

Sher: I was not drinking warm milk. I like my milk cold, but I do like milk. It's so yummy. 

Cydni: Who has a glass of milk these days?

Me. So does rock . He loves milk. Gross. No offense. I like cheese though. But I know that you were not as excited about this and maybe some of it came because recently I was looking for something. Rock needed a poem for a class. And I knew I had a good collection in this old bin and I pulled it out and happened to find all my old journals from the time I was about 12 up to 19.

Sher: That's very cool. 

Cydni: And I've done a lot of work in the last few years to learn how to love myself and see worth. And in about 20 minutes time, I ruined all of it. Every bit by reading those words that I wrote, I was in such a state of cringe that I have not recovered. Yano [00:02:00] picked up one and she was reading and I grabbed it from her and I said, you guys may never read this.

Which. I thought that was the point. You write for the future generations. I don't want anyone to read those. 

Sher: I would agree. I am not happy with this topic. This was Cydni's idea, I have made some really pathetic attempts to journal, but I opened up my journal and let me just tell you, it was just cringeworthy word vomit all over the place, and I also now feel bad about myself, so thank you, Cydni, for bringing this topic up and making me look at my old. journals 

Cydni: right. Because all of the work of going to your inner child and saying, Cydni, you are important. You are loved It's going to be okay. All of that is ruined. Now if I go back and I see her, I'm going to tell her to shut the up, put the pen down. Go outside and play, quit it, the poetry needs to stop today.

Sher: I didn't find my poetry, [00:03:00] but just the words I wrote were so bad that I feel the same way. But the entry I was reading was from college, so I might have been 19, I don't know. But was horrifying, Cydni, so thanks a lot.

Cydni: Well, I'm going to tell you, this is how I deal with the cringe as I'm going to share some of it with you. I'm not going to read it word for word because I will vomit in my mouth, but I'm going to tell you that I learned from my journal. I once asked a boy to a dance, is it called morp or something? The backwards? I asked him in Sunday school during a prayer, I said, and please God, no, asked that Jacob will go to the dance with me. Why?

I also put in there, I've already told you, but I was sad I didn't get to dance with a certain boy, but Mr. RV danced with me. What? 

Sher: So then I asked when Cydni brought this up, I'm like, who's Mr. RV? I thought it was like a cool slang name for the football player or something. 

Cydni: No, it's like a math teacher. The one that's there to look for girls who don't get any attention from the [00:04:00] boys. They're like, go make sure that this one is not depressed. So go ask the less fortunate girls to dance. Mr. RV danced with me. How, how did we dance? Was it the margarina? Was it the electric slide? Or was it like. I will be your hero, baby, like that, like, what was it? I need details. 12 year old Cydni. 

Sher: Well, it depends on if he got fired shortly after or not would be the answer to that question.

Cydni: No, he did not. So I think he was a good man. I think he was just like, poor, poor girl. Anyway, I have several journals, and I am in love with someone new about every six months. I don't know their name yet, 

Sher: but you're in love with them 

Cydni: completely in love. Like my heart hurts. It's aching because I was poetic. I have to burn all of these today.

Sher: , she has that book in her hand. I might have to steal it and just make a podcast all by myself. 

Cydni: You won't be able to read it. You will have secondhand embarrassment and you will never talk to me again. 

Sher: No, I'll read it and put really cool music behind and read it in a calming voice. It'll be great. 

Cydni: [00:05:00] Dug myself in a hole and you will hate me after you read this, so But we're going to get through this, right? Because we're going to talk about the scientist and leaders of the world who say it is actually good to journal, which I would love to hear what they have to say, because I will tell you how I feel reading the old stuff it does not align with the benefits that I've read. 

Sher: would agree with that. Just the little bit that I read, I was like, what in the heck, why did you write it down? but , Cydni, I do have to read something that I found in my journal. It was a letter that I wrote to my friend, and I never sent it to her. Sorry Jamie, maybe I'll send it to you now, it was written when I was in college, and I vaguely remember this, a group of friends and I bought a hamster, and gave it to another friend as a joke

and I don't remember why that was funny, but apparently it was hilarious. and then I told Jamie, who lived far away from me, about the hamster. And this is what I wrote I went over to visit the hamster. It was struggling to stay alive. And kept trying to walk [00:06:00] around, I being the wonderful, compassionate person that I am, picked it up and patted it on the head, calmed it down, and comforted the poor thing. 

Cydni: This is good. Thank you. This might be similar vibes to mine though, honestly.

Sher: So I was comforting it Just as a review until the hand of fate and death intervened I took it to Dwayne and his vet schooling came into play all The hamsters internal organs were slowly stopping. This is the dreaded hamster disease known as wet butt I'm pretty sure he made that up That's not a thing. 

Cydni: 

Sher: To prevent unnecessary suffering, Duane killed it, broke its little neck. It was terrible. I wasn't even around the dumb thing and I was devastated.

We held a very formal and proper funeral. Dwayne chucked it into the lady's backyard across the street. What? 

Cydni: Is this a true story? 

Sher: . I wrote it down. I'm assuming it's true. I don't know. so then it says . I hit him. That's how it ended. 

Cydni: Wow, you need to send it [00:07:00] still. She'd be like, what are you doing to me? That's from 1991. That's a good reason to journal though or write is to remember this kind of story. Because that's not really a core memory, but it should be.

Sher: Why is he chucking a hamster in some lady's backyard? The poor lady. That's horrifying. That whole story shows what a butt I was. 

Cydni: That says a lot about you. It answers a lot of questions that I've had, Sher I 

Sher: was a horrible person. Just reading what I did, I'm like, I was a horrible human being. But, I guess that's the point of journaling, is that you realize that you can change and grow up. 

Cydni: I like that. Thank you. I needed to hear that. I'm not the same. It's slightly different, 

Sher: right? you can grow up. I read a quote from President Spencer W. Kimball. He said, every person should keep a journal, and every person can keep a journal. And now I'm gonna make it worse, Cydni, okay? I'm ready. I read the definition of a journal on LDS. org. A journal is a continuing record of meaningful experiences that affect our lives.

Through his prophets, the Lord [00:08:00] has commanded each of us to keep a journal. As we record our activities and feelings, we can more clearly see the Lord's influence in our lives. This does not help me. The Lord has commanded us to keep a journal and that just made me feel really bad about myself. 

Cydni: I did keep a journal when I was 12 and 14 and 16. I have lots of journals in my house. I keep unwritten in 

Sher: that's step one. I guess. Right. As I was glancing at my journal that I do have. I noticed that almost every entry started with, I'm so bad at this, or look at me. I'm finally writing then followed by crap. I'm really bad at this. It's pathetic, but the Lord has commanded each of us to keep a journal. And I realized that I'm not doing it and it made me feel bad about myself. But I did think of this. It talks about how we record our activities and feelings. We can more clearly see the Lord's influence in our lives. I focused on that because this is one of the points of journaling so that we can see those times that we are down or we lack faith or [00:09:00] we're struggling, that we have a record of the times that you have felt the Lord's hand and felt his love and felt his grace.

You're writing about miracles that happened in your life and the comfort that the Lord has been able to give you throughout your lifetime. We forget about those moments and times, but when we have record of it, those memories come back to us and it's giving us our own testimony to lean on, which is really cool.

So we are basically creating our own set of personal scriptures it's about me, and the interactions I've had with my Savior. So this is, the point of a journal is to help us in our own life and in our future, but it's also to leave something for your family so that they get to know you a little bit better and so that they can see, Your testimony grow throughout your life now as I thought about this I was feeling super bad about myself, but I realized that I do record activities and feelings, but not necessarily in a journal I'm really bad at expressing my feelings and saying how I feel but I've always been able to do that through [00:10:00] music.

I'm not great at it. And it's something that I just like to do for me, but it helps me that if I write things down and, put it to music always has helped me get through. I struggle or express my happiness or joy or whatever, I have been able to do that through music.

Another thing that I realize I do is I record activities through photos and through video. for my family, I have been ripping our old VHS tapes and old DVDs and I've created a server for my family. And they can access all the photos and the home movies that we've made and created over the years, from Christmas to Thanksgiving and birthdays and vacations and whatever that we can all access.

And I know that I should write things down and I know I need to be better at it. So I'm not making excuses. It's something that I need to do and that I can work on. But I do have a start. It just may not be in written form. 

Cydni: Yeah. That sounded like an excuse to me. But I have an excuse as well. So I will share my excuse now. My excuses. I use [00:11:00] Twitter. Is that okay? 

Sher: Sure. I mean, if we're going to come up with excuses, Twitter definitely works. 

Cydni: I do actually love to write. I just didn't realize how bad it was. So for a long time, I had no problem writing in my journal. Obviously, I have stacks of them from that time. But once I got married, I stopped writing. I had other things to do and another human to talk to maybe that had a lot to do with it.

But after I had Iana, I started a Twitter account and I would share so much of the things that were funny in our life, which it's funny because if not, it's depressing, and now for the last two, three years, I haven't even done that. So I've done nothing for the last three years, but there was a time and I'm so grateful because they pop up as memories and I am so grateful that I wrote some of the funny stories down.

I'm going to share one with you. That I love so much remembering this because I don't think I'd remember this conversation in the car, but it's when Iyana, she was three and Titus was seven, Rock was nine and [00:12:00] Iyana said, mama, I want you to hold me. And I said, I want to as well, but I can't right now. And then Titus said, that's so mean.

She asked you nicely. Then Rock chimed in. I agree. Why can't you just hold her? And then I reply, I'm driving. It's illegal to hold a three year old while you're driving. And then Rock ended with whatever, she'll remember this. And then I have another one of Titus. That's my favorite. He was pulling his tooth really hard and I said, Titus, what are you doing to your teeth? And he said, I'm trying to get it out. I need the money.

He was all about the Tooth Fairy at that time. I'm like, Tooth Fairy's broke, bro. Put that back in. one thing when I've been studying on this is that the best they say is to handwrite it because it activates more of your brain but they also say that in this day and age that if you are writing notes in your phone or emails or writing on a computer, it's better than nothing. So Twitter is fine, and so is making your videos.

Sher: Thank you. 

Cydni: Could we be better? According [00:13:00] to some, yes. . 

Sher: You know, the reason also I need to kick myself in my own butt for not being better at journaling because my mom was amazing at it.

a calendar every year, and she would write what, She did every single day, just really briefly. And then when she had a minute, she'd look over her calendar and write down the big things that really mattered to her. I think that is where I would always get frustrated is that I would try to write too much.

And so it took forever. I was always way too detailed. so I'd get frustrated because I'm like, Oh my gosh, I don't want to take three hours journaling. But if I would have followed my mom's example of just writing a brief outline and then hitting the big stuff when you had time to do it, I probably would have been better at it.

And then maybe I would actually want to do it if I would have followed my mom's example. But I'm going to tell you one of the things, so please take my bad example. I wish I had written more things down, because if I had written down all the weird crap that happened in my classroom, I could have written a book about it. I would be filthy rich right now because I am [00:14:00] telling you, every classroom teacher will tell you, no one will believe all the things that happen in your classroom. It's insane. And I don't have a record of all of it. I just have faded memories from wardrobe malfunctions to kids fainting in my classroom to tantrums where kids broke desks in half.

And this one time when a girl was out of control and. bit a police officer's calf. He had to go to the ER. What? I know, I'm telling you. I thought you were gonna say arm. That threw me off. No calf. Good times. You can't bring them back. But writing things down is important so that you have those memories and so that you can go back and look over your life.

To a young me, I would say, right now, only focus on the big things and those day to day things that you're writing about. Outline it like your mom did. And those big spiritual moments, those are the things that I wish that I had a better memory and Recollection of. 

Cydni: I love that. One of the takeaways I had in preparing this is I think the difference is intentional journaling because my [00:15:00] grandma that I never met kept a little journal It reminds me of what your mom did, sort of. She just wrote down one sentence every single day and that's a safe way to do it. 

Sher: Yeah. She's very wise. I can see why my mom just left an outline because all the little details I'm writing down humiliating.

Cydni: I know what I have written, what I have allowed to stand for decades is so sickening. But also I think it's okay because one purpose of writing is to vent and that is healthy. So there's a few benefits from writing that I'm going to share with you.

You shared some in the beginning that were more spiritual. This is from therapist and YouTubers. Very important to get that part in, YouTubers. So I listened to several videos and put together the ones I liked on this list. 

Sher: Of course you did. Yeah. 

Cydni: So the benefits of journaling or writing things down is that it will clarify and help you process how you feel about different emotions If your mind is feeling really jumbled, then [00:16:00] it's a good way to stop, pause, and be aware of how you're feeling, which will then help you to deal with what situation you're dealing with and deal with the feelings that you have.

Also, it will help you to get to know yourself. You've kind of mentioned this Sher, but you see a pattern. And even in the terrible 12 year old self, I could see how important my faith was. It was in every single entry. I was so grateful that I could pray or go to a church activity. it was such a foundation for my life. And I know that, but when I read back on my 12 year old self or 14 year old self, it is there consistently. 

Sher: I'm really glad you said that because when I was glancing through my stuff, I was focusing on all the humiliating parts, but you're right on every single page I talked about God and faith and going to a church activity and how fun it was so I'm glad you brought that up because I might try to dig through the cringe again and Just focus on the God centered aspects of it.

Cydni: I've read enough, but I appreciate that about [00:17:00] you. I Saw that it was there. That's good enough for me But it's true, , you learn about yourself if you journal and writing also reduces your stress and your anger. It helps you deal with your sadness and your grief.

It helps you to solve problems. I thought this was interesting that typically when we are trying to solve problems, we use our left brain, but when you write, you activate your right brain. And what that does is it helps you to see a problem from a different perspective and you can more efficiently solve a difficult problem in your life.

If you write out the problem, write out some solutions, you might just find a solution that way. Another is that you become more self aware. I liked that a woman said she stood in the forest why she said this.

She said when we're little that we think the world revolves around ourself. Which I stopped there and I thought, okay, but if we're journaling about ourself only, then you can make the world revolve around you. And I just stopped there. So if you want to be the main character, you could be, if you [00:18:00] journal. I also like that you can express your emotions in a safe place. Someone suggested if you wrote knowing that you're going to destroy that piece of paper, It is incredibly healing and freeing. in my journal, I'm pretty sure I thought it was going to be turned into a book because I was so flowery and ridiculous and wordy.

I was probably sitting there writing like, how will I want the people to read this? But if we write, then we get to reflect on our experiences and Jane Fonda said about this, she said, it's not having experiences that make us wise, it's reflecting on the experiences that we've had that makes us wise, and that helps us to become whole. Brings wisdom so if we spend time reflecting on our experiences, then we can learn from them and hopefully not make the same mistakes over and over and over. I should have started reading my journal when I was 14.

 The ones from when I was 12 and then I could have said to myself, Hey. Stop doing this. Let's learn together. [00:19:00] And of course, in every book I've ever read about healing, writing is always if not the top, one of the top three suggestions. And I've always found that to be interesting and aligns with a belief that I have that no matter what you've gone through, what you've experienced in your life, you can find healing without spending millions of dollars.

And I've always believed that I believe God will provide a way for us to heal. And writing is a way that's free unless you're like me and you buy 9000 journals that sit there in your house and some in your car and some of your husband's car, but you can just simply write out your emotions and you will find that writing is healing. It's a cure. And I found this to be true. With Iana's pregnancy, I was on bed rest and the only thing I could find joy in was Either watching standup comedy, or I wrote a blog that I exaggerated and shared on Facebook. And so I just like would make up what was happening in the day. And I just wrote, I spent the whole day writing and it helped me so much get through that hospital time.

Then after I [00:20:00] had IANA and we were home and I was facing postpartum depression, I decided to write everything out and I spent three weeks, I wrote the whole story, all my feelings. And I do. Attribute my success from getting over that time and not having it weigh me down to just writing it out.

And we tell our children that when you keep feelings and thoughts inside, it is a poison. You have to get it out. And ideally you have someone to talk to, but I love the idea so much of writing something, knowing you will throw it away. And I look back on some of my journals and I can't even imagine What I wrote down that I actually ripped out because there are gaps in all of my journals that I've ripped out And if I thought those were bad, I 

Sher: Do you know what's funny is I have ripped out journal pages too And I'm like what on earth did I write because the rest of it is so horrible.

Exactly. 

Cydni: Like where was the line for me? and so writing things out helps with healing not only deep sadness or [00:21:00] depressions or anxieties, but it also has physical health benefits as well.

Sher: Interestingly enough after my stroke writing was one of the things that was the most difficult for me. I would try to practice every single day and sometimes I would. Just write a little bit, and then I would have to take a break for a good chunk of the day because it was so exhausting it really did help because I could feel my brain working and trying to create those new pathways helping me to get better and that was through writing. 

But going back and looking at all my journal nonsense, I think it got walking down memory lane a bit. And I thought about in high school how I used to love to write. stories, poetry, just write whatever. . And I also got into a poetry phase where I read a lot of poetry. . And One of the things that I found from Emily Dickinson is a quote from her she said, "I know nothing in the world that has as much power as a word. Sometimes I write one and I look at it. Until it begins to shine." And I love [00:22:00] that because words really can shine. I've thought about the times in my life when someone took the time to write me a note or an email or a text and how to me, their words just shined right off the paper, 

while I was teaching, if a student wrote me a really nice note, I kept it in a drawer in my classroom, and I also had a folder I saved of emails that were from parents and teachers and students that were just really kind, and I would save them in my nice email folder, and as a teacher, there are some really rough days, and days you're like, why?

Am I doing this to myself? I could just walk out the door and never come back. And on those days I would go to the drawer and pull out those nice notes or go to my email folder, and I would read them. And it would fill my soul and help me to remember why I was doing this and chose to be a teacher in the first place.

Those words of kindness. Kept me going and I'm so grateful for those people that wrote those words down that to me just shined and filled my soul with [00:23:00] so much gratitude and love. 

Cydni: That's such a good idea. I'm going to start making my kids write nice things for me and on bad days, especially going into the summer, I'm going to read them.

Sher: That's a good plan. 

Cydni: Thank you. I love that you had the written notes, I think we underestimate the power of our words and the power of showing forth effort to somebody else, that if you just write a note, what that illustrates means that you were thinking of them, that it was important enough to write something down and you did it.

I think that is a huge statement to make to somebody, even though it feels like a small gesture. And I'm learning that more and more as a parent, actually, or even a wife, because I will write Ben ridiculous notes, leave them like in post its. And I've noticed that he keeps them, but I also noticed I've kept many of his too.

So clearly they matter. And recently when my daughter ran away again, she doesn't really away. She just packs a bag. She's been doing it since she was. It's like three. So wish me luck when she's a teen. That's what I was just thinking. She just packs up a bag when she gets sad. She's like, Oh, [00:24:00] we don't have lucky charms, huh?

Well, well, well, and then she packs up her bags and she takes stuff and no lucky charms, but just like whatever we have and she hits the road, but she doesn't really hit the road. She just pretends recently, Iyana was very sad that I went to soccer practice.

She wanted to go sit in the freezing cold weather with me, she thought. And I said she needed to stay with her dad and it would be a better time for her. But then I had to leave. I did not know that she packed up a bag to run away. Luckily it was cold enough outside that she didn't. But the way I found out was I was helping her tidy up her room And one of her backpacks was completely stuffed.

And I said, What is in this backpack? And she's like, Oh, that's just from when I was going to run away the other day. And I was like, Okay, I have a few of those bags, too. But here we both are still at home. Good for us. And so I said, Well, why don't I help you unpack it? And I'm glad you stayed. we were unpacking it. And there was 100 pairs of clothes, obviously, and several pairs of shoes, just in case. But there folded [00:25:00] up was a note that I wrote her. And I was really surprised that she packed it, and I said, Iona, you kept this note for your runaway adventure? And she ripped it out of my hands, and she's like, yes, yes, I did. And then she goes and she put it in her drawer. So I was grateful that she wanted to keep it because I spent a lot of time doodling on it. So that meant a lot to me, I thought we do carry people's words with us. So, hopefully We could be more aware and intentional with the kind of words we're letting other people carry that we've said or written to them and With that I learned I need to be more intentional with how I write and what I write One of the youtubers he suggested the best thought process for this because he said, you know When you get a really big stomachache and you feel horrible and you vomit cod Yes, recently I tried to eat healthy and it went poorly.

No more whitefish for me. I never feel sick after Taco Bell ever. I do sometimes actually now that I think about it, but I don't throw up. I just feel sick and then I [00:26:00] have to lie to my trainer and it's a whole cycle. Anyway, moving on. This guy said that you know how you vomit and you feel better.

You're like, Oh, I really needed that. He said, we have to consider that with our journaling. Sometimes we just need to word vomit. And we will feel better. so he came up with vomit to help you be more intentional with your writing. So he said the V stands for vent. That it's okay if you're venting.

Sometimes you just need to and it's a good place to do it. The O is obligations. To write down the things you need to do. I found this very helpful because I have a packed week and I've been writing down all the things I needed to do and I realized it's actually manageable. I can do it when it's in your head.

It just feels chaotic. But if you prioritize and organize it the best of your ability, I say that for myself, then it is more manageable. So he said, write down your obligations, the things you need to do, organize it, prioritize it. Another reason to journal is for your mindset. 

And this is another thing they found is people who [00:27:00] journal are more grateful because they're more aware of the reasons to be grateful. So this will help with your mindset. The I is for ideas. So this could be something as simple as trying to figure out what to do with your kids all summer, what to do with yourself all summer, or just ideas of how to fix whatever needs to be fixed. And then the last one is for vomit is trajectory. So to look at your, direction from your big goals. Are you on track or just as simple as your day to day direction of the things that you need to do? And I thought that was pretty helpful to think of it as vomiting because sometimes you just need to and you will feel better.

Sher: I really liked that. And I'm glad you brought that up because it does make me feel better about what I was reading before we did this episode. 

Cydni: Yeah. Cause it made us nauseous. we're on track. Exactly. We're in the right direction. So there are reasons to write that will help you physically, emotionally, spiritually, and could be something very special.

That you leave behind for your future generation, or they'll just feel better about themselves for having read it. And then they'll say, [00:28:00] you know, at least I'm not great grandma, because what was that? 

Sher: this brings us to our final thoughts. President Kimball said every person should keep a journal. And every person can keep a journal. Some of us are really good at this. And some of us like me and Cydni have some work to do. The point is to create a record for you to help you remember the times the Savior has comforted, helped, guided, and provided a way for you. This will help you when faith gets really hard. words can shine when you're having a bad day. Your words can shine for your family and friends to pick them up when things aren't so great and aren't going so well. Our Heavenly Father wants us to keep a journal. He wants us to remember the good times and the bad. And as I have unfortunately learned, He also wants us to remember the cringy times.

But it helps us realize that we have grown and we have improved and we can do hard things with the help of our Lord and our Savior. 

Cydni: Our challenge this week is to write something down. This could be [00:29:00] writing an entry to your journal that's been hiding in a shelf somewhere in your house. Pull it out, write an entry, or it could be writing someone a letter, or it could be a text.

We challenge you to write something down with intention and love this week. or Pull out some of the deep darkness and grief in your life, write it down rip it up and let it go. This is our prayer from Cydni and Cher. 

Have a good week. And then I have another one of Titus. That's my favorite. But that side note, this was published. In the Oprah magazine. Are you kidding? Cool, right? 

Sher: I stand with greatness. 

Cydni: Thanks to journaling on Twitter. The best they do say is hand to paper. Well, pen, pen to paper, use your [00:30:00] hand. you will write about what's important to you and that's good because it's good. Was that good? Yeah. Okay. That was really deep. You 

Sher: This is why we're big time. We bring the solid advice.

Cydni: Don't use that word. It's not popular at CULA for Riz. Skippity toilet. authenticity, authenticity, authenticity, I'll say it one more time. Okay. Okay. Don't look at me. Oh no, I've got the case of the giggles. Okay. Okay. I can do it. Okay. Oh, you did it. I've ridden Jane Fonda's horse before. You have? Yeah. 

Sher: How did you ride Jane Fonda's horse? 

Cydni: Well, I rode it because my aunt ran their TED talk. What's the name? Who is she married to?

Ted Turner? Yeah. I was going to say Ted Bundy 

Sher: and I knew that wasn't right. 

Cydni: I thought of Ted Bundy as well. Ted Turner, my aunt ran Ted Turner's Buffalo Ranch in New Mexico. So they had Ted Turner's and Jane Fonda's horse. So I got to ride her horse. 

Sher: again. I stand with greatness. 

Cydni: I [00:31:00] know. Read it in my diary. I wrote about my greatness. I decided to write everything out and I spent three weeks, I wrote the whole story, all my feelings. And after that, I was fine. I mean, I was fine with like medication and therapy and hot yoga and Taco Bell by 10 a. m. But other than that, the writing really was the magic sauce. 

Sher: You're really selling this journaling stuff, Cydni. Way to sell it, girl. And one of my favorite poets was Emily Dickinson. so I looked up some poetry because I hadn't read it in such a long time, like years. 

Cydni: She's in my family line. Can I just say, yeah, like 15th cousin, 900 times removed or something like that. So I think that's where my, , no, I was going to say something positive, but I'll say the truth. I think she's looking down on me in shame. 

Sher: I've learned so much about you today though, Jane Fonda's horse, Oprah, Emily Dickinson. Yes. there's more. I'll tell you later. I can't wait to find out 

Cydni: Have a good week

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