Working On Yourself + Outgrowing Things + Writing For Mental Health with Allison Fallon

Author & Expert Writing Coach, Allison Fallon (@AllyFallon), joins Amy for a conversation about working on yourself (and fighting for what matters) + outgrowing things + writing for your mental health (and the science behind it) + 4 things she is currently thankful for. Ally also shares a powerful writing prompt (for us writing amateurs to use!) and talks about what it’s like working with Donald Miller. 

Ally’s book The Power of Writing It Down HERE!

4 Things Gratitude Journal HERE!

The Artist’s Way HERE!

Indestructible: Leveraging Your Broken Heart to Become a Force of Love & Change in the World HERE!

 

Best places to find more about Amy: RadioAmy.com + @RadioAmy

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Okay, cass up a little food for you. So life.
Oh it's pretty Bay, It's pretty beautiful than that. A

(00:23):
little moth kicking four. Happy Thursday. Amy here, and I'm
sitting across from my friend Alison Fallon a k A
on Instagram at Ali Fallon, Hey, Ali him, she just
showed up at my house and we're so excited to record.

(00:46):
But I think we're mostly excited too because after we record,
we're going to go for a walk and catch up
and know it's been a long time, So this is
our pre walk chat and what we're going to talk
about today. Since Ali is an author and an expert
writing coach, she's also been on the podcast before, so
I mean, if you want to go back a couple
of years, you could listen to that episode. But I
definitely want to follow up with the importance of writing

(01:08):
with you because I know that's just a huge part
of who you are, and you've been such an encouragement
to me and and tapping into writing because you're an
expert writing coach, not just for people that are trying
to author a book, but for people just writing in
general and putting things pen to paper. And so today
we're going to talk about other things than just writing, though.
We're gonna talk about working on ourselves, outgrowing things, and

(01:32):
then we'll tap into the writing thing with like writing
for our mental health because it is, it's therapeutic, it is. Yeah,
And I think when people hear the word writing, a
lot of people think about, you know, writing as a career,
writing a book, writing an article, publishing something, or maybe
the thing that comes to mind is, you know, writing
a paper in school or whatever. We have a lot

(01:53):
of memories and ideas tied to writing that can be
you know, ranging anywhere from kind of dramatic to like
just unpleasant. But uh, writing is such an incredible tool
that literally anybody can use for all kinds of purposes
in their life. You know, you could write a post
on on social media that's gonna inspire other people who
read it. You could write something in a journal that

(02:13):
you know it is just for you and that helps
you process some kind of an event from your life.
You could write a letter to someone that you love
that really expresses how you feel about them and you know,
helps you feel more connected to that person. So there's
all different ways that we can use a tool like
writing and that's really my goal is to help people
move from feeling like, well, I'm not a writer or
I'm not really that good at writing. I hear that

(02:33):
a lot, to helping people embrace this tool that's readily
accessible and absolutely free to anyone who wants to use it. Well,
I'm glad one of the first things you mentioned, and
that was maybe writing something for social media that will
inspire others, because that's the perfect transition into the first
thing that I want to talk about, because I was
inspired by something that you posted on your Instagram page,

(02:54):
and it was about working on yourself and fighting for
what matters. And I'm gonna go ahead and just read
to you. If it's not awkward, I'll read back to
you exactly what you wrote, and then you can speak
to that what you were putting it out there for
and what you're you were hoping to encourage people by
sharing this part of your story you had posted. I

(03:15):
think it was like a video of you and like
your husband and kids to go along with this caption.
But you said, sometimes I look at my life and
think about how barely five years ago I left a
toxic marriage at thirty four years old with a commitment
to work on myself and my patterns, and how I
thought that that meant that I'd never marry again or
have children of my own. Here I am five years

(03:38):
later and happier than I've ever been, in case you
need a reminder that working on yourself and fighting for
what you want matters and works. Here it is whoever
you are and whatever you were fighting for. I believe
in you. Five years flies by. So I got goose
bumps reading that because I know some of your story.
You had your book in destruct a bowl where you

(04:01):
broke a lot of that down, and then you came
on the podcast and you talked about the power of
writing it down, which we'll get into in just a minute.
But for anybody else like just feeling like they're in
the pit there in the bottom of it, there is
no hope for like what is my life? Because like
you were leaving a marriage, you were like, Okay, well

(04:22):
this is it for me. I'm probably never going to
get married again or have kids. And now I'm looking
across from you and I ran into your husband, your
current your new husband, at a juice bar not too
long ago. And then you've got beautiful children and so
what was the reasoning behind you wanting to share that
on social I mean the same reason that I encourage
so many people to share their story, because it's through
the sharing of our stories that we find connection to

(04:45):
other people, that we realize that we're not crazy, that
we see that we're totally okay, that we find the
courage to keep fighting and moving forward to you know,
accomplish whatever it is that we're trying to accomplish in
our lives. And I think for me, the moment that
I'm talking about there on Instagram was really genuine moment
where I was, you know, legitimately looking around my life,
thinking how is it possible that I'm here? And it's

(05:07):
only been five years since the moment that I was
feeling like I was in such a dark place and
I wasn't sure how I was going to fight my
way out of that. And so I wanted other people
who might be in the place that I was in
five years ago to be able to see a visual
image on Instagram of the life that I have now
in the stark contrast, and maybe find the courage or
find the strength or whatever that they needed in order

(05:29):
to keep going and keep fighting on on the healing
journey that they're on. So I'll give a little bit
of context to this. So I have been a writer
professionally for the last twelve or fifteen years or so.
But when I went through this dark time in my
life that I'm talking about in that post, I not
only was going through a really hard time personally, but
because my personal life was so connected to my work

(05:50):
because I write memoirs I read about my life, I
also thought I was never going to be able to
write books again. And what I ended up doing was
taking this very personal experience from my life and using writing,
which I had been you know, um using in my
professional life all the time, as a tool to process
what I had been going through personally. And that the
act of writing that book called indestructible. I didn't know

(06:12):
at the time that I was writing it that I
was going to become a book but the act of
using writing as a tool really helped me to zoom
out from my story, understand the role that I had
played in it, to see myself as the hero of
my own story, to figure out what my path forward
was going to be, to regain a sense of confidence
and find my footing in my in my life moving forward.
And then the most shocking bart to me was that

(06:34):
when I did eventually had the opportunity to share that
story more widely through the book, the ability that I
had to connect to other people who had been through
something similar was so profoundly moving and so healing for me.
The emails that I get from people talking about, you know,
how they read my book in a single sitting and
it gave them the courage that they needed to leave
a toxic relationship. Or you know, I've gotten emails from

(06:58):
from men who read the book who say, like, You're
made me rethink the way that I treat my partner.
So emails that I get like that, or notes that
I get from people who have read the book, really,
you know, it continues the healing process. The process is
the writing the story, and then there's also the sharing
of a story where I get to connect with other
people who have been through something similar. Well, I love
that you shared in that post to that you're like, Hey,

(07:20):
this is what working on yourself and fighting for what
matters looks like, because it's not like what got you
from point A to point B now was just like
la la la, Okay, here we are sure you committed
to working on yourself, because that's what mattered to you.
You weren't going to, you know, curl up in a
ball and and be defeated in a sense. You were

(07:43):
going to take control, and so you gave yourself that
permission to work on yourself, and then this is the
fruit from that. Yeah, exactly. I mean, it would it
be helpful for me to talk a little bit about
what working on myself looked like, because I feel like
we talk, we can talk about like working on ourselves,
and it looks different for every person. So it's not
going to be the same for everyone, But I said

(08:04):
it might be helpful for people to hear, like, here
are the things that I did. And most of what
I did is I just followed my intuition. So when
I found myself in this place where my this relationship
that I thought was going to be, I mean, I
was married, I thought this was going to be a
forever kind of thing. That relationship was falling apart. As
I pulled away from it, I started to see that
a lot of the patterns that were happening between us
were really very toxic, and the relationship itself was just

(08:25):
not a healthy one, and you know, because of that,
it was very connected to my career and my personal life.
So a lot it felt like the rug had been
pulled out from under me and every part of my
life was falling apart. So I had to pause and
first and foremost tune in and pay attention to my
intuition and what what is my intuition telling me to
do next? And one thing I did is I went

(08:45):
to a therapeutic retreat called on Site, which is not
far from us here in Nashville. It's in a place
called Cumberland Furnace in Tennessee. It's basically like a year's
worth of therapy in a week. And I went to
on Site. Um, I just knew that, I knew that,
I knew that I needed to go. And it was
more more money than I could afford at the time,
but I just got my credit card out and paid
for it and got myself to on Site. I started

(09:07):
doing yoga regularly. That was my way. There are a
lot of different ways to do this, but my way
of moving my body so that some of the dramatic
experiences that I had could move through my body and
as I was, you know, doing some of the personal
work that I could kind of like work it out
of my physicality, out of my cells. I started doing
yoga every day. You and I were talking about this.
I don't yoga every day anymore. We used to do

(09:27):
yoga together, Ali and I and we had such wonderful
teachers at the studio we went to. I can think
of so many times where it would show up through,
particularly through one of our teachers, Sarah, like I probably
cried multiple times and in her classes, just you know,
not dramatically, but I just would come out, or I
would get stuck in a particular position and she would

(09:48):
be like, well, okay, what are you holding on too?
And so, yes, a movement in that way is a
very telling. Is a way for your body to communicate
to you what's going on. Yes, exactly. And you know,
so much of our life experiences are held in our bodies.
So you can go sit and talk to a therapist.
And I did a lot of therapy too, so I

(10:08):
talk therapy is really great, but there's only so much
that you can get to from sitting across the room
from someone and talking. You can talk about the experiences,
but you can't really get to the trauma that's held
in your muscles and in your bones and in your
cells and in your body. So it's a really really
great way to get to that kind of stuff too,
or if you find a therapist to that does talk

(10:28):
therapy but also experiential yeah, or M d R. I
did a lot of E M d R. I did
some brain spotting. I mean, what's interesting is I started
with one thing that I knew that I needed to do,
which was go to on site, and from on site,
the rest of it showed itself to me. So you know,
when I was leaving on site, they give you an
aftercare plan and they tell you to you gotta get
a therapist. And so that was the next thing I did,

(10:49):
was get a therapist. And I felt really pulled to yoga,
and so that's why I started doing yoga. And through yoga,
I met a lot of other people who were like,
have you tried body work? Or have you tried this?
Or have you tried that? And I just had a
real openness around, like what could be possible if I
was willing to engage with some of these modalities to
work through my trauma, do identify some of these negative

(11:10):
patterns that I was in to ask myself, like, why
had I made the choices that I had made that
had gotten me to this point, and to take ownership
back in my life and decide that I was gonna
I was gonna do things differently. Well, thank you for
sharing some of the steps that you took, because, yeah,
I think it is important for people to know. Okay, wait,
I do want to work on myself, but you know,
that's what it looks for you. And just a little

(11:31):
funny fact about on site is that my husband had
gone and your husband had gone, and they happened to
be there at the same time, but they didn't really
know each other for sure. For sure, they just they
connected and of course they ended up putting the piece
of the puzzle together. And then your husband gave my
husband a ride home, and you know, because again it's
like this week long retreat and it's a little bit

(11:51):
of a drive, not too bad from Nashville. But all
of a sudden, your husband's like at my house and
I'm like hey, and Vince like yeah, we just spend
together basically at therapy camp, and he gave me right home.
My husband actually tells that story is one of his
most embarrassing moments because he's sitting across from your husband,
who he had met, because we were there at your
We were just barely first dating when we when your
kids came home from Haiti, so we were there at

(12:13):
the party, and that was such an overwhelming There was
tons of people there, so that's yeah, why they probably
didn't know for sure if they had met, so the
two of them had met, had seen each other's faces,
but you know, anyway, but Matt said that he was
sitting across from your husband and asking them, like, you know,
tell me about yourself or whatever, and he's like, well,
we have two kids adopted from Haiti and blah blah
blah my wife and I And Matt said he started

(12:33):
going my wife as a friend who has two kids
talked to and he's like they got like a ways
into the conversation and like Ben was kind of like
like nodding at Matt like yeah, yeah, I think I
know what's happening here, and they put the pieces together.
But well, yeah, but I mean you're also at this
place where you're going and it's like you get vulnerable
and you're opening up and you're like I'm probably not

(12:54):
going to run into anybody that I know. But I
mean the beauty of that is if you're willing to
go and show up and put in the work, like
everybody can respect the fact that to do it, because
you can go and do private type sessions or you
can do group a group setting, so I know, people
travel to on site from all over the world. So
if you haven't heard of it, and this is interesting

(13:15):
to you, and like Ali said, it's not something she
could have really even paid for. At the time, you
knew that it was crucial, and you knew that it
was it was something that you needed to do to
work on yourself. I mean, I think that that's the
best gift that we can give ourselves is making sure
that we ride ourselves that permission slip to do what

(13:36):
we need to do to take care of ourselves, because
then otherwise we're not showing up. Is who we need
to be. If you happen to be a mom, if
you happen to be a partner, a co worker, a friend,
and the work continues, I mean, life is a roller coaster, right,
So it's not like you put up that post on
Instagram and you're like, Okay, the work stops here. Look
at my happy life. Yeah, yeah, I mean that's really true.

(13:59):
And I think that's part of why I posted when
I did, is because I told you when I first
got here. You were like, how have you been? Because
we haven't seen each other since before the pandemic, and
I was saying, the last two years have been really
tough for us as a family, and which is a
lot has happened. It's been all really good stuff, but
sometimes when you're drinking from the fire hose of life,
it can feel a little overwhelming, even when it's stuff

(14:19):
that you wanted to happen. And so it was a
good moment for me to look around my life and
be like, oh, this is why I did all of
that work so that I could be here. And also,
don't forget about the dreams that you have moving forward
and what you want your life to look like, and
don't forget that you know, change continues to happen, and
so it's important to keep working on yourself. Which change

(14:50):
leads me to the next thing I want to talk about,
and that's outgrowing things. And this is something else that
you posted where I was like, I love well pretty
much everything you put up. So does my friend Lisa
I love she's obsessed with you. I'm obsessed with her too.
Every time I listen to her podcast, my husband's like,
this is that girl you love? Yes? It is yes.

(15:11):
So I see her comments like I love this. You
are the best, Like you know all the things. But
you had posted about outgrowing things, and I just wanted
you to speak to something that you put up because
I love your words and I feel like again, sometimes
we need that permission to hear from someone else that
it's okay if you're no longer you know yours was inspired.

(15:36):
It meant a lot of different things. But you previously
put up We'll I'll let you tell the story. I'm
going to read it, and then you tell the origin. Okay,
what you meant? Okay, here's what you put up. Sometimes
we outgrow things. Sometimes we bust through the seams, not
because we are too big, but because the old life
thing or way was too small. And by the way,

(15:56):
what is so wrong with being big? Anyway? I can't
believe you wrote that, So passing the torch to you,
it's better explained about you. Well, this is cool. So
the place that this came from is I had a
baby four months ago my son is just barely four
months old, and you know, your body goes through a
lot of changes in pregnancy, and one of the things

(16:18):
that I've learned, I've had two kids in two years
since the pandemic started. I've had my daughter my son
um so my body has gone through a lot, and
you know, to bring these two children here, it's been
a journey for me. But one of the cool things
that has come out of it is it's really shaped
my own relationship to my body. One of the commitments
that I made to myself is that I wasn't going
to try to get my body to do a certain

(16:40):
thing or look a certain way or be a certain way,
which is something I've tried to do for most of
my life, but that I was really going to just
honor my body and nourish her and cherish her and
let her do whatever it is that she's going to do.
So I wasn't like on the train of trying to
get back into a certain sized jeans after my babies
came or anything like that. I was just nourishing my
body in the way that it needed to be nourished
and letting her decide what size she wanted to be.

(17:03):
But right around the time that my son turned four months,
I thought I'd pull out my old clothes just to
see if I could fit into my old jeans or
if I needed to buy some new ones. And I
was like really excited to find that I fit into
my old Denham, not because of wanting to be a
certain size, but just because I meant I didn't have
to go buy any peer jeans. And so I get
these jeans on I'm feeling really good about myself and
I'm like, oh, look my jeans fit, and I've got

(17:24):
them all buttoned up, and I'm hanging out for the
day and like two hours into my day, I bent
over to pick something up and the jeans just completely
split down the back. And it was like this familiar
wash of the feeling was really shame or embarrassment that
that my jeans had ripped, and all the old stories
about like, oh, you're too big for these jeans or
whatever it is. So I sat down to write about it,

(17:45):
because this is my go to tool that I use
whenever I'm having big feelings about something. And you know,
I had like three minutes between two things that I
needed to do, and so I just kind of wrote
what I was feeling and what's going on with me?
And that post that I put on Instagram came out
of that three minutes of writing. So it was a
couple of things for me. A it was like the
wisdom that I could give to myself in that moment

(18:07):
that you're feeling shame that these pants don't fit you,
but their pants, who cares, It doesn't matter. Don't forget
this commitment that you made to yourself that you're not
going to try to force yourself back into places that
don't fit you. So it was this wisdom that I
needed to hear. It was like my wiser, higher self
talking to me. But then it was also a cool
moment of realizing that this tool that I love and

(18:29):
use and that I teach other people how to use,
the tool of writing, is a way that we can
get back to that wise part of ourselves when we
get out of alignment. So you have this moment where like,
you know in the truest part of yourself that the
size of your pants don't matter, but there's still this
smaller part of you that feels like, well, of course

(18:49):
the size of my pants matters, you know. And I
could sit down and in three minutes literally use the
tool of writing to access that higher, wiser part of myself,
give the wisdom to myself that I needed. And then,
you know, as the happy benefit the cherry on the
cake is I got to share that on Instagram and
here from people who are really also inspired by that
piece of wisdom. So it's just interesting. People will say

(19:11):
to me, like, you're so wise. How did you become
so wise? And I'm like, I don't think I'm any
wiser than anyone else. I think I just use writing
as a tool to access that wisdom and then share
with other people. Yeah, and I'm so glad that you
you do that, because some people needed to hear it
for that exact reason today, the pants reason, the bounce
back culture, this idea that society has planted in women's

(19:33):
head that you know, you gotta bounce back after having
a baby, and so that's a story that's in heads everywhere.
Even right now, someone might be literally struggling with that
exact thoughts. So you know you posted it for those people.
But also when you did the follow up post about
you know, sometimes we outgrow things. And while it was

(19:54):
originally inspired by the pants, it can mean so much more.
We might be outgrowing relationships, we might be outgrowing a job,
we might be outgrowing I don't know, Like it could
be a way of doing things, you know. I mean.
Another thing I've been talking a lot about on Instagram
lately is like learning to regulate my own nervous system,

(20:14):
which has been a lesson I've been led into by
watching my children and seeing what happens to them when
they're nervous systems are disregulated. I'm like, oh, I recognize
that behavior. That that makes me make a lot more
sense to myself, and so I've been working on regulating
my nervous system. But what I'm realizing is that an
old way of doing things was to live in nervous

(20:34):
system disregulation and call it normal, like I would say
things like I'm an anxious person, where I would say
things like I just have a ton of energy. I'm
just busy all the time. I love to be busy.
And I'm realizing that that was a way of life
that served me for a certain period of time for
whatever reason, and now that I am in the season
of life that I'm in now, I'm realizing it doesn't
serve me anymore. And I've just outgrown it and it's

(20:57):
time to move on. And it can be challenging to
move on and to let something go because it's the
only way you've known to do your life. It's the
only coping mechanism that you learned that worked for you
for so long, and so to let that go can
feel scary because you're like, well, how else will I survive?
How else will I hope? But that's you know, one
of the many ways that I think you could apply
this message to your life is is there a pattern

(21:19):
that you've used for a long time that you're done with,
You've outgrown it, You've busted through the seams, it's not
working for you anymore. You're ready to move on. Is
there a relationship that served you for a long time,
maybe that you know brought you a lot of joy
and purpose and peace and whatever, and now it doesn't
do that for you anymore, and now it's time to
move on. Is there a role in your life that
you used to play. Maybe you used to be the

(21:40):
helper and you'd always go save all your friends from
all their problems or whatever else, And now that's not
working for you anymore, and you're tired and you need
to help yourself and it's time to move on. You've
outgrown it. Is there uh location, you know, like a church,
community or a city. I think of limited thoughts sometimes

(22:00):
that we have of like oh or maybe a dream
or like where it's limiting. I know that kind of
seems like right now, it sounds like I'm saying the
opposite of outgrowing. But you're outgrowing the fact that you're
limiting what you can do. So like, if you want
you've always wanted to go live somewhere, don't limit that
being like oh I could never go do that or

(22:22):
how would I ever get there? So you know, quiet
that and grow into well that is a possibility. I'm
glad you shared all those examples. And I was actually
having a conversation with my sister recently. She's a big
fan of yours. By the way, we were having a
conversation about something and it was so healthy and mature.
And I say that for both of us, and I'm

(22:44):
not bragging. It just was really refreshing to have a
very honest, vulnerable conversation where nobody got defensive, nobody I
was pointing fingers. People owned what they needed to own.
There was how can we move forward? What's the solution?

(23:05):
There was a problem solving together, There was you know,
like what's the next step? And it wasn't anything super
dramatic by any means, but it was a really good
example and I could almost I was very self aware
of my growth in that moment. I'm not I'm trying
to just also offer hope that like, I don't know
if me a year ago would have handled that that way,

(23:28):
I honestly think it would have affected me in a
way that would have I would have come off completely unhealthy,
probably made her feel a certain way, and then it
just would have been toxic. And instead, because we're both
in a good place and we were able to just
show up honestly and have a healthy dialogue, it was

(23:48):
so I want to say simple, but I also, now
that I'm thinking back on it, saying it back to you,
it was pretty beautiful because isn't that what we all
wish relationships could look? Like every relationship is going to
unpack that way, And that's the hard part is like, Okay,
well maybe that's not I can't explain why some don't
work out that way. It doesn't mean anybody's a bad person. Yeah,

(24:10):
but I'm just thankful at least with my sister that
I can have that and it's so safe and I'm
safe with her and she's safe with me. That's beautiful.
I think it's beautiful. You know you were like worried
that you were ragging or you know whatever. I think
it's so important to say things like that, first of all,
to mark the moment for yourself when something like that happens.

(24:32):
It's exactly like what I was doing with Instagram post
about my husband and my kids. It's not like I'm
saying like I'm so amazing because I you know, changed
my life. It's like I'm marking the moment for myself
to just remind myself, look at how far I've come.
And then I think the second reason it's important to
say those things, and especially in a venue like this
where other people are going to hear you say it,

(24:52):
is because there's someone out there who's listening, who wants
to know if it's possible to have a relationship like
that with their sister or their partner or they're best
friends or whatever. And maybe they're kind of like, you know, uh,
they're wondering, like they have relationships that are not quite
that healthy or don't always feel that good to them,
and they're like, is it even possible to have relationships
that are satisfying and full and where I feel like

(25:15):
I can be safe and vulnerable And for them to
hear you say that is a reminder that yes, it's
absolutely possible. Keep fighting for what you're doing, keep you know,
keep going to therapy, keep going to yoga, keep going
on side, whatever it is that you're doing to get
where you're trying to go. You can be like a
beacon of light for someone in that regard just by
telling a story like that. Yeah, well, thank you for
encouraging me to to say more things like that, because

(25:37):
it does feel weird to just say it out loud,
like I'm look at how I handled that, But I'm
also admitting that is not how I would have handled
it a year now. But it's taken the I committed
to working on myself and I'm trying to fight for
what matters. I mean to kind of put a bowl
on everything that we've talked about so far, is working
on yourself, fighting for what matters, outgrowing things. And you

(26:01):
know in both of those different posts that you put
up on Instagram. Obviously they came from your writing, and
writing is therapeutic, and you are a huge advocate of
writing for mental health, So why don't you guide us
through what that looks like because writing can be very
intimidating for people. I know you have an infinity prompt,

(26:22):
So if you just want to speak to the science
behind how writing is therapeutic, and then the prompt Okay,
I'm gonna like do a very high level explanation of
the science because a because I go over in much
more depth in the Power of Writing It Down. So
if you're like me and you geek out over this
kind of stuff, you can go get a copy of
the Power of Writing It Down and you can read

(26:44):
all about what happens in the brain when you're writing
and all that stuff. But essentially, the reason why writing
is such a powerful tool for mental health is because
it changes the way that your brain engages in information.
It actually moves you from operating in one part of
your brain and when you pick up a pen and
put the pen to paper, you begin operating with more
of your brain. So what it can do is kind

(27:04):
of pull up from an unconscious part of your brain
memories that may not be like you know, top of
mind or in your working memory, and it can help
you process through those things and make a lot more
sense of them. So what you experience when you're doing
it is almost like a zooming out, like a thirty
foot view of an experience in your life, so that
rather than experiencing it with really intense charged emotions, you'll

(27:26):
be able to experience it with a little bit more clarity.
So what this looks like in practicality is just a
regular practice of journaling. And what I teach is that

(27:47):
you can do this in a really simple way. It
doesn't have to be complicated. Writing can be incredibly intimidating
for people. But let me just like lift the veil
and say that all you have to do is what
I did the other day when I wrote that Instagram post,
which is your having a big feeling in a moment.
You pause, You sit down with a piece of paper
and a pen. Doesn't have to be a fancy journal
but can be, and you take three to five minutes

(28:08):
to write down what's going on with you. I'll teach you,
I prompt that will will help you to do that.
But before I get to that, cultivating a regular practice
of writing in your life where you write for five
between five and forty minutes every single day. Forty minutes
on a day when you feel like you've got the
time for it, you have a lot to say, you
want to process something, you're really enjoying your time five
minutes on a day, or even three minutes on a

(28:29):
day when you're racing from meeting to meeting, or you've
got to go pick up your kids, or you're sitting
in you know the pickup line or something like that
with your your journal that you pull out of your
glove box. So three minutes on a day like that,
just to stop for a second, to zoom out from
your life, to think about what's going on with you.
And I call it metabolizing your life. So it's like
when you put food into your mouth, it goes into

(28:51):
your body and your body has to metabolize, It has
to break it down. It has to decide what are
the nutrients and what it wants to keep and use
for good. And I asked to decide what's the waste
and flush out the waist. So writing about your life
does that, metabolizes your life. So I'll teach a prompt.
That is a really easy prompt that you can use
over and over and over again. You'll never ever run
out of things to write about. Because this is a

(29:12):
big complaint that I hear from people, that they will say,
I got a journal. I you know, I read what
you wrote, and I'm so excited, and I got this journal,
and I really want to create a habit of journaling
in my life, but I have no idea where to start.
I have nothing to write about. Nothing exciting ever happens
to me in my life is not that interesting. So
this is the prompt that I teach. It's called the
infinity prompt, and it will help to ensure that you

(29:35):
never run out of things to write about. So essentially,
the first thing that you do is choose a situation
from your life that feels charged. And by charged, I
just mean that has some electricity to it. So this
could be something that's present day, or it could be
something that happened many many years ago. It could be
something really small, or it could be something much bigger.
It could be like, for example, you know, um, I

(29:57):
lost a parent when I was very young, and I've
ever really worked through the trauma of that. I have
a lot of grief around it, and I've never really
you know, every time I think about it, I tears
well up in my eyes and I feel kind of
tingly all over, and I feel really vulnerable. And that
could be the thing that you choose to write about,
or it could be something really simple, like I was
driving to work today and someone cut me off, and

(30:18):
I found myself feeling really furious. My heart was racing
or I was scared. Maybe my heart was racing, my
hands were sweaty, and what was that about. So choose
something that has some electricity around it, and then the
prompt itself as three parts. You start by writing the
facts of the situation, so you can just literally create
a bullet pointed list, if that's the easiest way to

(30:38):
do it, where you write down maybe what time of
day it was, right down where you were, the location.
You could write down the parties who were involved. So
let's say you're writing about a phone conversation. You can
just say, you know, I was on the phone with
my sister or my brother or whatever. Write down the
things that people said. Do the best of your memory,

(30:59):
and it's to be challenging to remember exactly what was said.
You'll probably most likely remember the things that were said
through the lens of how you interpreted them. So see
if you can catch yourself doing that where you might say, like,
he told me I was an idiot or something like that,
and pause and say like, is that really what he said?
Or did he say something that made me feel like

(31:21):
that's what he thought about me? And see if you
can detail the conversation word for word or as best
as you can. And then I spend some time just
flushing out the facts of the situation. Pretend you're a
journalist and you have to record these facts exactly as
they took place. So that's the first part of the prompt.
Second part of the prompt is recording your your thoughts

(31:41):
about the situation. And the best lead in that I
can give to help people unpack their thoughts in this
prompt is the story I'm telling myself is, so if
you got caught off in traffic and you were feeling
really worked up, the story I'm telling myself is you know,
no one ever I'm invisible, no one ever sees me me,
or the story I'm telling myself is I don't know. Well,

(32:03):
I can just say I don't want to give the
specifics of the conversation I had with my sister, but
I used that in our conversation that I was just
sharing that it was that was very healthy dialogue, and
I knew that she would understand that language. So that's
also awesome when the other person knows what you're trying
to say when you say, hey, just heads up, like

(32:25):
right now, the story I'm telling myself is and then
that kind of allows my sister her guard is now
down because it's not like I'm saying, this is what
you did to me and did I'm saying the story
that I'm telling myself is this, and I'm aware enough
to know that that's not true. So help walk me

(32:46):
through what happened. Yeah, yeah, can you explain to me
what was going on in your head? Because when I
see that action, the way I interpret it is whatever
it is. Yeah, and I knew that I was like,
I felt tit in my throat, and that's another thing.
My therapist is very like, I feel a lot of
things in my throat. Other people feel it somewhere else.

(33:08):
I have anxiety in my chest that I've now identified,
not always there, not always, but it is circumstantial and
now I know. First I thought I was having like
heart robs and or I was taking a ton of toms.
I'm like, okay, I need I need to buy, like
go to Costco and get a thing of toms. I
was eating so many but because I thought, is this heartburn?
But now I've pinpointed it. But like in my throat

(33:31):
when I was talking to my sister, I could like
physically feel at my throat, and so I also used
a tool from therapy, and while I'm talking to my sister,
I put my hand over my throat and then I
put my hand on my heart and then I just
breathe while I'm talking. And it's like she knows I'm
doing that on the other ship the line. But I'm
trying to make sure I stay Like you were talking
about regulating your nervous system and trying to be more

(33:51):
in control of that and knowing that I don't have
to spiral. Yes, So anyway, I'm so trying to derail
where you are when you're not at all. You're giving
like really practical examples of it. The prompt work. But yeah,
like going through the facts is helpful. And then yeah,
like you're saying like the thought or like what you
thought happened journaling that. I can see how that's very powerful.

(34:13):
It's not an accident that the Infinity prompt parallels a
lot of the work that you would do in traditional
talk therapy because it's based on the cognitive behavioral model,
which I teach all of this and the power of
writing it down as well. There's not time to go
through it, you know, in depth here, but essentially, the
cognitive behavioral model is it says that that there are
events in your life that leads you to think a
certain thought, and that thought leads you to feel a

(34:35):
certain way, and that feeling that you have leads you
to act in a certain way, and that action gets
you a result, and the result usually is similar to
related to, connected to takes you all the way back
to the beginning the event that took place in your life.
So let's use this, the conversation with your sister as
an example, maybe for your whole life. I'm making this up,
so I don't know your relationship with your sister, but

(34:56):
your whole life, you and your sister getting kind of
the same argument over and over and over again, and
every time you get in this argument, you think the
thought in your head, the story I'm telling myself is
my sister doesn't respect me. And every time you think that, though,
you feel that tension in your throat and you feel
like you know you you can't speak up. And so
then your action is I don't speak up. I don't
tell her how I'm feeling, I don't tell her what
I'm thinking about. And then that action causes your sister

(35:19):
to behave in a way that usually comes across to
you as disrespects. So it's sick. It's sick, sick. Clickal,
it's sick, sick, clickal. So this is the cognitive behavioral model.
It's been around for a really long time. I didn't
invent this, but it's most of traditional talk therapy is
borne out of that model, which is why writing can
be such a helpful tool. And especially this prompt is

(35:42):
created to to marry really nicely with a therapeutic process.
So if you're already in therapy seeing a therapist, let's
say once a week, every Tuesday, you go see your therapist,
and then from Tuesday to Tuesday, most of us are
just kind of like, well, I guess I'll wait until
I see my therapist again. But you could theoretically use
the Infinity prompt to process this the things that are
happening to you from Tuesday to Tuesday, so that when

(36:03):
you go back and see your therapist on Tuesday, you're like, Hey,
guess what happened to me this week? And here's what
I learned about myself. I learned about myself that I'm
always telling myself the story. People are disrespecting me. Where
does that come from? And you can start to get
curious and unpacked from there. So what you do is,
you know, I say, with all, with so much respect
to all the therapists, many therapists who helped me in

(36:24):
my life, that you become your own therapist, and your
therapist starts to live inside of your brain and almost
like take them with you throughout the week and ask
yourself the questions that they would ask you and unpack
all of that through the act of writing, and you know,
make twice as much progress as you would without that tool.
So I know you mentioned the facts and then the

(36:44):
thoughts again and the feelings and feelings is next. But
the three steps, yes, three steps. So you you name
the facts of the situation, then you name your thoughts
that you're having and then you write about your feelings
and you hit the nail on the head. One of
the best ways to think about how you're feeling is
to ask yourself where you feel it in your body.
And this is for some people not a natural thing

(37:07):
to do, but it's pretty simple. If you can take
a minute and take a deep breath, think about the
situation that you're writing about, and just ask yourself where
in my body and my feeling a sensation. So think
about how when you feel scared, your heart might race
or your palms might get sweaty. That's a sensation that
you're having in your body that's letting you know that

(37:28):
you're having a feeling. And so if you can identify
I feel tensioned in my throat, I feel a tightness
in my chest. I feel like my heart is racing.
I feel like my palms are getting sweaty. I feel
it like in my my big toe or something like that.
You know, wherever it is that you feel it in
your body, it can be helpful to you to identify
that so that you can understand what you're feeling. Yeah,

(37:49):
and I mean awareness. I don't think a year ago
I would have been aware that I it's stuff shows
up in my throat, so it's almost like, oh, well,
there it is, Okay, this means something. Pause. And you know,
for me, for years, my eating disorder was my what
I used to numb and so that's something I outgrew,
thank thank goodness. But I know a lot of people

(38:10):
use food and body image things disordered patterns to numb
out and not be aware of things, and so that's
another thing that we get to outgrow. And I just also,
you know, try to offer that and that that hope
that I never thought that that was possible for me.
I just thought I'm just going to have to live

(38:30):
this way the rest of my life. And thankfully I
didn't have to. That's something I outgrew. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
I love that. So I'm and I'm very thankful for that.
And I had originally booked you to come on the
podcast after Donald Miller because his latest book, Here on
a Mission. My sister's obsessed with that, by the way, too,

(38:53):
and she's the one that told me about it, so
we read it together and then I was like, oh
my gosh, I want to get him on the podcast.
And then he shouts you out in the book, and
I'm like, oh, and then I shade Alian as a
follow up to talk about the writing, because well, first
of all, you just to read here on the mission,
and I'll save a lot about what that book is
about for when Donald is on. I had to reschedule
him though to June. I had to cancel, and I

(39:14):
canceled you Tube had to move you to today because
I was going to randomly a movie, which is crazy,
which is kind of ironic too, because his book is
all about characters in a movie, and but really the
characters we play in our life, Like are you showing
up as the hero, the villain, the guide or the victim?

(39:35):
And so I was just thinking about my te new
tiny movie role, like I have a scene in a
bathroom that is my time to shine therathroom. But I
just realized I hadn't thought about it, Like I knew
I was an encourager, but now in Donald terms, in
terms you would use to when it comes to like
writing your story, and like, how what is it looking

(39:56):
like in that tiny bathroom moment? I'm a guide? I
love that. Yeah, everybody needs to read here on a Mission.
It's such a profound book. Don's work over the years
on story and storytelling and how that connects to our
lives and how we can use that tool to create
more agency in our lives is completely life changing. I
would not be here if it weren't for him. So yeah, well,

(40:16):
and then talk about what the work y'all are doing together. Okay,
I mean I listened to the book. I didn't physically
read it. My sister did both, and she had the
book out with a highlighter and a pencil and she
likes take notes in the margin, so I just listened.
But when he said your name, I rewrote it. I'm like,
that's my friend, that's my moment me book. I love

(40:40):
it so much. No, we've teamed up because Donal's done
all this work with story and storytelling over the years,
and I've learned so much from him. He's been a
huge champion in my career and I've just you know,
learned from following along what he does. And I have
worked with authors, helping them write mostly memoirs, but nonfiction
books of all kinds. And we just put our powers together,

(41:00):
I guess, and started thinking about what it would look
like to help everyday people, not necessarily people who want
to write books. Although if you want to write a book,
more power to you to help everyday people share their
stories through writing so that they could share it with
other people, but mostly so that they can process their
own life. So we created this workshop called Write Your Story.

(41:22):
It's a two day workshop. In the course of two days,
we help you choose a story from your life, understand
how to tell that story in a really compelling way,
and to write it in three to five pages. So
then you have a story from your life written in
three to five pages that you can share with other
people to inspire them. You can share it with your
kids just to help them understanding better, or your family

(41:42):
members or whatever. You can keep it for yourself. You
don't have to share it with anyone. You can do
whatever you want with it. You could turn it into
a ted talk, you can turn it into a book,
whatever you want to do. And it's been really cool
to see how people put this tool to work because
there are just so many different ways that you can
use it. But you don't have to want to do
anything with it. You can just come to the workshop
and write a story from your life and discover how

(42:03):
interesting you are and discover that you have a lot
to say when you maybe didn't think that you had
a lot to say. Understand the role that you play
in your life, like you're talking about you know, don
talks about the hero, the villain, the victim, or the guide,
and you know, all of us are heroes and our
own personal stories. But I think we reach a new
level when we realize we're not only the hero of
our own stories, but that we can also step into

(42:25):
someone else's story and become a guide. And I'm a
firm believer that we only really do that when we
understand the role that we're playing in our own stories.
So that's the purpose of the workshop is to help
people understand the role that they're playing in their own story.
And we do it in two days together here in Nashville, Tennessee,
and it's been a lot of fun. Well when is
the next one? Because I think I want to I mean,
if I can come, I want to come. Oh my gosh, Yeah,

(42:45):
don't worry, we'll save you a seat. Wait, okay, so
when is it? The next workshop is October one, and
we actually have an early bird discount that will open
this Saturday. May write your story dot com if you
go to write story dot com and register for the
October workshop. You'll get ten percent off of your ticket price.
Oh my gosh, this is perfect timing, perfect time. He's

(43:07):
not planned at all. That's why I asked him when
we started. I'm like, when will this go live? So well? Perfect? Okay,
so this is airing on Thursday. But people listen to
podcasts basically whenever they want, so Hello, if you're listening
to this when it actually comes out, then in a
couple of days, just go to write your story dot
com and then do they have to do anything to
get the ten percent? The tem percent will be available.

(43:27):
It's available from the fourteen to twenty one May, so
Saturday to Saturday for seven days, and then after that
it'll go back to regular price until up until October one.
So if you're listening to this like a month from now, sorry,
sorry the early bird the early Bird special. But I
I'm adding this to my calendar because that is something

(43:50):
I think that I would thoroughly enjoy. I think a
year ago or two years ago, I probably been like,
can we talk about how two years ago it's been
two years since I've seen you in person, which is
crazy to think about. But when we recorded before, which
was like what early February, I think, right before shutdown.
I was like, Amy, you need to write a book

(44:11):
and you were like, no, no, never gonna happen. By Ali,
I'm like, no, seriously, you have so much to say,
you need to write a book. And you were like, yeah,
that's not ever gonna happen. Well, and let me tell you,
I've experienced more in the last two years than I
probably have in my entire life. So now I probably
really have stuff to write, but I still don't know that.

(44:31):
I don't know that that's my lane. But I might
write something for myself sure, And now I see the
value in that. And I think I sent you a
voice memo the other day and I was like, guess
who writes for three minutes every morning. It's it's one
of the first things I do. So like things that
are new to me. And when I say new, I
mean in the last few years, I no longer snooze.

(44:53):
And I say this as someone that's forty one. So
these are things I did for a very long time.
I was always a snoozer, and I defined myself as
a snoozer, and I was proud of it. And there
was no way you're gonna give me to not snooze.
I purposefully set my alarm earlier than I needed to
wake up so that I could snooze, and like, I
was proud of that, even though it makes zerous sense.
So but if you happen to do that, I feel
you there's no judgment whatsoever. Like it does feel good.

(45:16):
But now I outgrew that and I'm no longer a snoozer.
I am now and make my bed person. I used
to never make my bed, and I was like, that's
just something my sister does. She makes her bettery morning.
She's perfect, she's this, She's I don't need to make
my bed. And now I make my bed every day
and I love making my bed. And if I if I,

(45:37):
for whatever reason, don't have time in the morning when
I get home from work, I'm like, shoot, I gotta
go make my bed and it sort of resets me
so a big bedmaker. And then I was like, I'm
not really a writer. I don't like to write. Mary
and I had come up with our Four Things Gratitude
journal a few years ago to be simple and like, hey,
we've included stickers because we were like, you know, some

(45:59):
days you just don't have words, so just throw a
sticker there. Because we didn't want it to be overwhelming
for anybody that was trying to introduce gratitude. As we
were we were trying, we were like, this is what
we need, so here, hello, put it out into the world.
So now I can write. And I saw that too
as I did more gratitude, but still was structured into

(46:20):
four things. And I would just kind of some stuff.
I would just write my coffee today, you know, which
is great. I'm acknowledging something. I'm writing it down, it's
pinned to paper. But what I'm doing now, in addition
to gratitude is this is like I roll out of bed. Okay,
I didn't press news. I make my bed and I
grabbed my journal. I have a timer on my phone.
I haven't advanced past three minutes, and that's okay, that's right.

(46:41):
It's because I don't agree. Again, I don't want to
get overwhelmed. So I set my three minute timer and
I'm like, ready, I spent at the date, and when
I hit the start on my phone, my pen is
already touching the paper, and then I flow. I try
not to overthink it, even if I'm like, I don't
even know what to write, and I write. I don't
even know what to write until something comes to me

(47:04):
to write. And it's been very interesting the things that
flow out of me. And of course you've always told
me for years that writing is so important. And then
my therapist had me read which I didn't complete the book,
but I did start it the artist's way because I
work in. I'm a creative I work in. I have

(47:26):
a creative job. I remember saying to my therapist like,
I feel like, ever since my mom died in two
thousand fourteen, like I'm not as creative, and then other
life events have happened, and it seems it's silly to
say now because it's like, Okay, our our job is
sort of just not that important if you think about it.
I mean, it's like things I was doing. It's not
like there's this profound stuff that was like changing people's

(47:49):
lives by any means. But I could just see in
my work that I produced for the Bobby Bones Show,
and the type of employee that I showed up as
was more CreI and I'm still working on trying to
tap back into who that was. I see different projects
that I took on again, not life changing stuff, but

(48:10):
I would spearhead little silly things, but that we're still
contributing to the whole show and what we were doing.
I mean't even think. Like in two thousand and eleven,
Bobby did something where he did a tally mark for
every time someone did something awesome or creative on the show,
and he tallied it for a year, and he at

(48:31):
the end of the year said, whoever has the most
tally marks gets a thousand dollars and he gave my
mom the thousand dollars actually to hold in her bank
accounts so that way it was there and she could
hand it out to whomever got it. And at the
end of that year, obviously my mom, I'm still living.
So this is when creative aby And at the end

(48:51):
of that year, I had the most tally marks. And
I don't know, it's weird to think back on that,
but I feel like the last you years, if he
were to have that competition, it almost scares me that
he might do something like that again, because I'm like,
I wouldn't win, or that's how I feel. I'm like,
I wouldn't the things I was coming up with and

(49:13):
creating and topics and videos and leading in a way
I don't even know. I look at some of that
stuff and I'm like, that didn't come for me. How
did I even think of that? That's so weird and
off the wall and bizarre and but also cool, like
amazing too. I can acknowledge that, at least for what
it is. I don't know why I keep having to

(49:33):
say it's not life changing stuff. Maybe it's because I'm
watching the Burnet Brown Special and HBO Max Atlas of
the Art, and I'm like, that's life changing work, you know.
But you know, to put out a silent film titled
Bacon where I'm pregnant and I give birth to a
baby pig and then I protest bacon at the grocery
store because my my child is a pig. It's weird stuff.

(49:53):
I'd like to say. I have to correct you, though,
because what you all are doing, you and Bobby and
the whole team are doing is really profound. I have
been a listener to the show on and off. I
moved to California for a period of time and the
time zone was off, so I didn't always listen to
it then. But when I lived here, in Nashville, and
I traveled a lot for the work. For work, I
would listen to the show almost every single morning no
matter where I was. And um, not only are you

(50:16):
bringing joy and happiness to people's lives through just like
being yourselves on the radio, but also the stories that
you're sharing are you're connecting and exactly the way that
I'm talking about the way that we do through the
written word, the authors that I work with. You're sharing
personal stories from your life, You're sharing them in a
way that's connective to other people, and you're making other

(50:37):
people feel like they're less alone. So even though I'm
I'm a friend of yours and you know some of
the stories and stories maybe that I would hear even
if I wasn't listening to the show, I still was
really motivated to tune into the show every morning because
it makes me feel like I'm not crazy, I'm not alone,
gives me a reason to laugh at something in the morning,
And I mean, the little things are the big things.
I think that more and more the older that I

(50:58):
get in might seem little to make someone laugh in
the morning, but if you can change the way that
someone feels about themselves at the beginning of the day.
I mean, you guys are doing profound and life changing work.
You're very sweet. Definitely, what I just wanted to preface that,
I just know that there's so many amazing creatives out
there doing like really impactful stuff. I just feel like
some of the things I was doing that we're creative,

(51:22):
we're silly, but you know silly is we need good.
We need I just haven't been able to tap into
who that is. And my fear is now like I'm
trying to prepare for like if another challenge were to
come up, would I have a year's worth of content
that would get me the tally marks? And not that
it's about winning either, but you know, it just was.
It was a testament to where I was then and

(51:44):
then how life evolves and we change, and how different
traumatic events affect our brain and what we're able to
tap into. But my goal with the writing, as you
have taught me and my therapist and artist's way, is
like I was able to get there at one point,
so it's still there and I can tap back into that.
But kind of to circle back to the beginning, I

(52:06):
have to put the work in and I'm it matters
to me, I want to be good at my job,
like I want to be creative. It's being good at
your job, but it's also bringing the best and truest
of yourself to the world, which is the part of
you that we all feel so connected to and inspired by,
you know. I think that's really the beauty of the

(52:27):
show is that you altogether have created an environment where
you can be yourselves. You can be authentic, you can
share parts of yourselves, you can be creative, you can
be silly, you can be funny, and we're all kind
of like listening going you sound like my friends, you
know what I mean. The reason I say that is
that for anybody who's listening, whether you work at a hospital,
or you work on the radio, or you want to
be an author, or you work a boring desk job

(52:48):
somewhere or whatever, or you're working at Starbucks and you're
making coffees or whatever, you're doing this work. The both
the personal work that we do, the mental health journey
that you're on, the writing that you do, of the
sharing of your story, it's really all about the same thing,
which is about bringing the trust and best of yourself
to the world so that every person you come into
contact with, whether that's a hundred and fifty people you're

(53:09):
making coffee for on a on a Tuesday morning, or
whether it's you know, millions of listeners on the radio,
so that when they come into contact with you, they
feel like, oh, I see you and you see me,
and we're the same. And I feel valued, and I
feel loved and I feel, you know, like I can
have a laugh. So it's all it's all the same work. Well,
thank you for being a guide for us in that,

(53:31):
because that's what you are to me in this narrative.
You're definitely a guide. And I would say the role
of the hero too, and I mean, we all that's
what I love about Donald's thing too. And I'm sure
you'll go over it at the workshop too, but we
it's it's interesting when you recognize the time where you
were a victim or I was a victim. I was
playing the victim, yeah, like I really was. But if

(53:52):
you stay in it, that's when that it's a problem.
Which when your first marriage ended, you could have stayed
stuck in victim role, but you didn't. And I am
I am so thankful for that. Thanks Amy, I'm so
thankful for you and for your friendship. I guess we'll
wrap with some gratitude then, yeah, and if you want
to share four things right now that you are currently

(54:13):
thankful for, that would be awesome. First on my mind
as I'm grateful for this conversation. Thank you so much
for having me on the show, and I love listening
to your show and just feel really honored and grateful
that you invited me to be on. I'm also really
grateful for my family. I have two sweet, crazy children.
I have two kids under two, so it feels a
little crazy most of the time, but it's really really

(54:34):
sweet and fun. You get these like moments where you're
just like, how do I have two kids? You? You're
so precious. So I'm grateful for my family, including my husband,
who is a very supportive partner with me and all things,
and we have a great relationship, so that's a gift.
Grateful for that. I'm grateful for the weather that has

(54:55):
changed in Nashville. We're finally getting warm weather. I'm not
a winter kind of a gal, love the summer. I'm
really excited for all the summer memories that will create,
going to ice cream and swimming and all that stuff.
This summer. So I'm grateful for that, and I'm grateful
for I'm grateful for the work that I get to do.
This is just like it's the work that I always

(55:16):
dreamed that I would get to do. Working with authors
has been a huge stream of mine. But more than that,
transitioning to working with everyday people who want to share
their story. You know, it feels like a joy that
that's what I get to go to work and do
every day. So well, I can't wait to show up
October two and day go workshop. I hope I get
to do that. Um again, I want to say that

(55:37):
website one more time in case you're listening right now
and now at first you heard her say it and
you're like, I don't know if I could do that,
And then now you're like, oh, I want to do that.
So write your story dot com again starting this Saturday.
For seven days you can get the early Bird special,
so ten percent off, and um, I'm gonna link Ali's

(55:57):
book The Power of Writing It Down in the show
own notes and also Indestructible but that great in the
show notes as well. If people want to know more
of your backstory in that and then our four Things
Gratitude journal I'll also link as well. I don't know
that we have that many of those left in the
full even be making more, but they support Project Meta

(56:20):
Share in Haiti, and I'll also link The Artist's Way.
That's the book that also has encouraged me to help
tap into some of my creativity. Get those juices flowing.
These four Things Gratitude journals are gold. I'm so glad
you created these. It's it really makes the concept of
journaling accessible for people. So I love that you created them.
If you don't have one already, should go get one.

(56:42):
Thanks Ali, sell Amy out so she's got to make more. Okay, Well, um, Ali,
thank you so much. People can find you on Instagram
at Ali Fallon and that's a l L y F
a l l o N and you're ready to walk.
I'm ready. We're going to go enjoy this beautiful Nashville weather.

(57:02):
I hope y'all are having an amazing day. And if
you want to reach out to me personally Four Things
with Amy Brown at gmail dot com and on Instagram
at Radio Amy. Bye.