Latest / Come Back to Love: / Come Back To Love October 29, 2026 Journal Your Way Back to Yourself

Transcript

Come Back To Love October 29, 2026 Journal Your Way Back to Yourself · Come Back to Love:

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Welcome to Come Back to Love with your host, Robin Vogel.
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Each week at this same time, Come Back to Love
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: covers an endless array of topics related to relationships, love,
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: and intimacy, along with all the reasons you may be
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: keeping love at a distance. Can a shattered heart be
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: your doorway to your greatest love story? Robin will give
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: you practical tools that can be used to heal the
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: past and help you to safely love again. And now,
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: today's Come Back to Love.
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: In a world that often feels disconnected, uncertain, and overwhelming,
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: there has never been a more important time to come
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: back to love. I'm Robin Vogel, intimacy coach, psychotherapist, and
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: author of Come Back to Love, A Path to Healing.
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: For over 20 years, I've been sitting with people in
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: their most tender, courageous moments, the heartbreaks, the longing, the
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: walls they've built around their hearts, and the quiet hope
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: that real love is still possible. This show is a sanctuary,
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: a place to heal the past, reconnect with yourself, heal
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: your heart, fall in love with your life again, fall
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: in love with others, if that's what you are wanting
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: to do, and most importantly, falling in love with yourself.
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: So welcome, everybody. Welcome back to the show. This is
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: Come Back to Love. We are on KMET, your ABC
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: News radio affiliate, 1490 AM, 98.1 FM. We are here
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: every Thursday at 1.30 PM Pacific, 4.30 PM Eastern. And
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: I am so happy to share with you Another guest
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: from my divorce networking group. That's called Fresh Starts, freshstartsregistry.com.
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: Definitely something you should check out online. And today we
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: have Catherine Seifer. She is a Boston-based poet, author, and
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: journaling guide who helps women return to themselves through the
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: power of the written word. Her debut poetry memoir, Barely
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: a Whisper, a number one new release in religious and
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: spiritual poetry. is a tender invitation to listen inward and
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: rediscover the strength, clarity and courage that live within. After
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: years of silencing her own voice, Catherine found her way
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: back to herself one page at a time. Now she
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: holds space for others to do the same. Through intimate
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: journaling circles, yoga classes, intuitive movement classes and soulful storytelling,
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: she invites women to reconnect to their inner voice and hero.
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: And you can find more on Catherine, Catherine with a
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: C at Catherine Seifer dot com. And, you know, that's
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: a lot to remember for those that are listening in.
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: So just check the show notes. You will find the
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: link to get more information, find out more about Catherine's work.
• 2:40
  Speaker 3: Wow.
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: I'm so happy to have you here. Thank you so
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: much for having me. Yeah, you're welcome. Your work is
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: near and dear to my heart as a newly published
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: author myself. My book just came out in February. 2026. And, um, and,
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: and wow, I can't wait to hear how you landed
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: in this work because I just want to share right
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: off the top, like my childhood upbringing and the chaos
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: and the trauma that happened, like quieted my voice to
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: like almost nothing. And that's what I learned at a
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: really young age. And so I had a very rich
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: and very articulate inner dialogue going and but those words
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: that were in my head never came out of my
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: mouth for like so many years. And so journaling was
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: eventually in the beginning, I really didn't, I mean, I
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: did a lot of like diary keeping as like a
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: 10 year old, you know, but later on, you know,
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: the journaling is really what got things moving. And, and
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: still to this day, it's like one of my favorite pieces,
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: favorite art, favorite personal growth activities. So Tell, tell. How
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: did you get here?
• 3:53
  Speaker 4: Yeah, so I had a good childhood, but.
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: Can we stop right there? Wait a minute. Sound the alarm.
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: Sound the bells. Everybody listen in. Catherine had a good childhood.
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: That is amazing. Thank you so much for saying that.
• 4:10
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I don't ever want to do it, right?
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: So great. I did.
• 4:14
  Speaker 3: And I was raised in evangelical Christianity, where.
• 4:19
  Speaker 4: The silencing of the voice happens.
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: Yes.
• 4:21
  Speaker 3: Because I'm told what to think, how to think. You're
• 4:24
  Speaker 3: not necessarily allowed to ask questions. I mean, you can,
• 4:26
  Speaker 3: but they have to, you still have to land on
• 4:28
  Speaker 3: the right answers. And there's this always this internal debate
• 4:32
  Speaker 3: about listening to God's voice, still quiet voice.
• 4:35
  Speaker 4: Versus Satan's voice.
• 4:37
  Speaker 3: And then where does your voice fit in there? And
• 4:39
  Speaker 3: is your voice Satan's or God's and how do you know? And,
• 4:42
  Speaker 3: you know, a lot of scripture memory and suppressing of
• 4:45
  Speaker 3: my own thoughts and feelings and intuition to make everything
• 4:48
  Speaker 3: line up with scripture.
• 4:50
  Speaker 4: So that's actually how my silencing I think happened.
• 4:55
  Speaker 3: And so it, it all kind of came to a
• 4:59
  Speaker 3: head for me all at the same time.
• 5:01
  Speaker 4: Um, I was a stay at home homeschooling mom of six.
• 5:04
  Speaker 4: My youngest was like four months old.
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: Oh my God. That's another place to pause. Stay at
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: home mom homeschooling for six kids. Wow. Yeah.
• 5:14
  Speaker 3: My youngest was like three or four months old and
• 5:18
  Speaker 3: it all kind of, there were a lot of other circumstances,
• 5:20
  Speaker 3: you know, that involved, but basically, um, Short story is
• 5:24
  Speaker 3: realized that both my faith and my marriage separate from
• 5:27
  Speaker 3: each other were not working, had never really.
• 5:31
  Speaker 4: Worked for me.
• 5:33
  Speaker 3: Um, and the, the chasm, so to say, in both
• 5:36
  Speaker 3: of those relationships with me and my ex-husband and me
• 5:39
  Speaker 3: and my faith just all kind of got revealed at
• 5:41
  Speaker 3: the same time. And that left me spinning and not
• 5:46
  Speaker 3: sure where to land. And it was through journaling that
• 5:49
  Speaker 3: really helped me find my voice.
• 5:51
  Speaker 4: And I, unlike you, don't think I.
• 5:53
  Speaker 3: Had much of an internal dialogue or not one that
• 5:56
  Speaker 3: I could say like you did, like was super articulate
• 5:59
  Speaker 3: up there.
• 6:00
  Speaker 4: I'm sure I was thinking, we do.
• 6:04
  Speaker 3: However, I think so much of it was spent hating myself,
• 6:09
  Speaker 3: criticizing myself or forcing myself into another set of ideologies
• 6:13
  Speaker 3: or beliefs that there really wasn't too much left of
• 6:18
  Speaker 3: whoever I really was yeah and a couple months into
• 6:22
  Speaker 3: that spiraling and tears and um messaging with friends and
• 6:28
  Speaker 3: talking to people you know someone's like maybe you should
• 6:30
  Speaker 3: start journaling they were you know they were probably like
• 6:33
  Speaker 3: yeah just like can you like back off but I
• 6:37
  Speaker 3: think it was said in love and that was really
• 6:40
  Speaker 3: the beginning for me to find who I was and
• 6:45
  Speaker 3: for there was a series a a long time there.
• 6:48
  Speaker 3: I don't know how long I could not, I don't
• 6:52
  Speaker 3: feel like I could access my thoughts unless they were
• 6:54
  Speaker 3: coming out on the page. It was almost as if
• 6:56
  Speaker 3: I could only think if there was ink connecting to
• 6:59
  Speaker 3: the paper. And so I wrote like nonstop and that
• 7:05
  Speaker 3: is the way that I.
• 7:06
  Speaker 4: Created the life that I have now.
• 7:07
  Speaker 3: It's how I realized that the life I had was
• 7:09
  Speaker 3: not working and I realized how I was going to
• 7:12
  Speaker 3: create this whole new life. So I'm kind of similar,
• 7:15
  Speaker 3: As you, journaling was absolutely one of the biggest tools
• 7:20
  Speaker 3: to my free becoming.
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: Wow. Okay. So only think if there's ink, if you
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: haven't written that down or that's not in your language,
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: that's a great, Title for a book, maybe you're already
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: using it. I'm not, but that's good. I don't write
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: that down. And that's right. All of our listeners don't
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: steal it, but that's for you, Catherine Seifer. You said
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: it right here on the radio. And when you publish
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: your book, you'll be like, oh yeah, that time when
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: I was on the show with Robin, come back to love.
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: Cause that's a great line. There's a little free business
• 7:54
  Speaker 2: and coaching advice.
• 7:57
  Speaker 4: I'm looking for my one-liners.
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: Yes. Back to your story and just, yeah, so powerful to,
• 8:06
  Speaker 2: I mean, it's interesting what you said about, you know,
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: you didn't have articulate thoughts going on because in an
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: environment like that, it's like your thoughts are the ones
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: that are being manipulated, right? I mean, so yeah, you'd
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: like the excavation. That's my word that I like to use,
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: like the excavation it takes to actually find your authentic voice.
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: That takes a lot when you've been in a situation
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: that you were in, that you lived with and lived through.
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: And wow, so you came through a lot. And it
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: sounds like you had the kids when you were, obviously
• 8:47
  Speaker 2: you were still married and you hadn't quite had that awakening,
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: I'm going to call it, moment where you realized the
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: marriage isn't working, the faith isn't working. And who am
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: I anyway in all of this? Like with six kids?
• 9:01
  Speaker 3: Gosh. Wow.
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: Wow. Yeah. Yeah.
• 9:05
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 9:05
  Speaker 4: My mind was always a battlefield.
• 9:08
  Speaker 3: You know, in a faith that says that having a
• 9:12
  Speaker 3: hateful thought towards someone is the same as murder.
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: Oh, goodness.
• 9:16
  Speaker 3: Like that brings everything. Everything comes down to a thought
• 9:22
  Speaker 3: life situation. So I thought I was sinning. 24 seven.
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: Oh my gosh.
• 9:29
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 9:29
  Speaker 4: I could have been, I mean, now I kind of
• 9:33
  Speaker 4: look back and I'm.
• 9:34
  Speaker 3: Like, oh, those are, you know, natural, reasonable emotions and
• 9:37
  Speaker 3: feelings to have given whatever.
• 9:40
  Speaker 4: The situation was. But yeah, my mind was, was a
• 9:43
  Speaker 4: battlefield for sure.
• 9:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 9:45
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 9:45
  Speaker 2: I can imagine because you were grew up, even though
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: you said you had a good childhood, you grew up
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: in an environment where there was very, as I understand
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: it as a Jewish woman. And so I only understand
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: a little bit to be honest, but Sounds very much
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: like right, wrong, good, bad, totally. black and white thinking
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: around that everything's categorized and so if you're not doing
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: all the good things dictated by you know above then
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: you were you know a bad person sitting all the
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: time and of course you're just beating yourself up all
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: the time because first of all we do that it
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: as humans, you know, and as teenagers, especially when you
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: just do it as humans and then sort of, you know,
• 10:26
  Speaker 2: on steroids, given what you, what you were living with. Yeah. Wow. Okay.
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: So we've got this great tool that everybody knows about,
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: but only some people choose to do. So how do
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: you bring it to, what would, what would you invite
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: somebody to do if they were I don't know, just
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: like stuck, maybe just stuck in, in judgment, stuck in self-judgment,
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: like how, what, which a lot of people are just
• 10:58
  Speaker 2: judging how they look and how they feel and things
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: about their personality, about their lives.
• 11:04
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 11:06
  Speaker 3: I think again, I mean, I'm, I'm a huge advocate
• 11:08
  Speaker 3: for journaling, which is why I do a lot of
• 11:10
  Speaker 3: what I do, but I do think that journaling can
• 11:11
  Speaker 3: be helpful in all those situations. And we can definitely spiral.
• 11:17
  Speaker 3: I'll say that journaling isn't always like, woohoo, I've got
• 11:20
  Speaker 3: some really positive thoughts to put down. And so if
• 11:22
  Speaker 3: we're in that place of self-criticism, it's probably going to
• 11:25
  Speaker 3: pour out on the page and we're going to see it.
• 11:28
  Speaker 3: And I don't know that that's always, that's not necessarily
• 11:32
  Speaker 3: a bad thing because sometimes if we read back over
• 11:34
  Speaker 3: our journals and think about like, oh, would I say
• 11:36
  Speaker 3: that to a friend? Would I want a friend saying
• 11:38
  Speaker 3: that to me? And yet that's my internal life. I
• 11:41
  Speaker 3: think there's something about seeing it in black and white
• 11:43
  Speaker 3: that makes it more tangible and than if it's just
• 11:46
  Speaker 3: constantly flowing in our heads.
• 11:49
  Speaker 4: But I also don't think that as we journal, we
• 11:51
  Speaker 4: have to sugarcoat everything.
• 11:53
  Speaker 3: I think that should be the place where we can
• 11:56
  Speaker 3: be truly authentic with ourselves and put it on the
• 11:59
  Speaker 3: page unedited. So if we're really frustrated about something about ourselves,
• 12:04
  Speaker 3: like we can put it there without judgment, but then
• 12:07
  Speaker 3: perhaps get curious about it.
• 12:09
  Speaker 4: Why do I think this? Where did I first think this?
• 12:12
  Speaker 4: Whose voice is telling me that? Is that really me?
• 12:14
  Speaker 3: Is there something here really to be examined that I
• 12:17
  Speaker 3: want to improve in my life legitimately? Because not all
• 12:22
  Speaker 3: self-criticism is necessarily a bad thing. Maybe we're on a
• 12:25
  Speaker 3: personal growth journey and we want to do better at, say,
• 12:29
  Speaker 3: not interrupting others while we talk. You can use your
• 12:32
  Speaker 3: journal as a way to track that, notice what's happening. Yeah,
• 12:37
  Speaker 3: so it can be a place that you can explore
• 12:39
  Speaker 3: all of that, but really primarily be a witness to yourself.
• 12:44
  Speaker 3: I know that sometimes my journaling entries were really depressing
• 12:49
  Speaker 3: and sad and there's no hope. What am I going
• 12:51
  Speaker 3: to do? Nobody's going to love me. Nobody, you know,
• 12:55
  Speaker 3: just like all that negative self-talk. And eventually I just
• 12:58
  Speaker 3: got tired of writing it.
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: I got bored with it. Right.
• 13:01
  Speaker 4: It was like, okay, I've said this before. What else
• 13:04
  Speaker 4: can I say?
• 13:05
  Speaker 3: But then sometimes there's a, there was a mix of, okay,
• 13:08
  Speaker 3: what is an affirmation? What's something positive I can write
• 13:10
  Speaker 3: about myself? What are 10 things I can say that
• 13:12
  Speaker 3: I like about myself? What are things that I'm seeing
• 13:15
  Speaker 3: positive in my life right now. Who are the people
• 13:17
  Speaker 3: that are showing up in my life? So journaling can
• 13:21
  Speaker 3: be used in so many different ways to examine any
• 13:24
  Speaker 3: particular situation.
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: I love that. And just making the distinction between like
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: a brain dump is probably what I would call that,
• 13:33
  Speaker 2: where you're just like every morning, just like pouring it out,
• 13:37
  Speaker 2: whatever's there without any judgment, unfiltered. nobody's ever going to
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: look at it. You know, I know that I often
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: need to tell myself, like, I can get as messy
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: as possible because nobody's going to see this. And, um,
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: and that distinction and that there's really valuable, like you said,
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: and then the distinction between some, some prompts that you
• 14:03
  Speaker 2: give yourself, you probably give your clients and students, but
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: just to, um, to highlight something in your life. Like
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: you said, you know, what are 10 things you feel
• 14:15
  Speaker 2: really good about right now when you're feeling crappy or
• 14:19
  Speaker 2: what are, who are the five people that show up,
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: you know, for you in your life and you know,
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: you can depend on them when you're feeling like, who
• 14:25
  Speaker 2: can I depend on? I don't know, you know, who
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: my people are, you know, so to counter those experiences
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: or those thoughts or the sort of feelings of, you know,
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: hopeless and helpless when they show up. Like I have
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: this feeling now, like, the journal as your best friend,
• 14:42
  Speaker 2: you know? Yes.
• 14:44
  Speaker 3: And I often used it that way or have in,
• 14:48
  Speaker 3: I've been journaling now almost seven years. And, um, so
• 14:51
  Speaker 3: definitely not, I'm newer on the scene than some people
• 14:53
  Speaker 3: that have been doing it, you know, decades, but, um,
• 14:56
  Speaker 3: there are times I, I, I write to myself as
• 14:59
  Speaker 3: if like, I'm the best friend writing to me, like
• 15:03
  Speaker 3: what words of encouragement do I need to hear what,
• 15:06
  Speaker 3: or I write to myself as a love letter, like
• 15:09
  Speaker 3: as if I'm my own partner, right? Like, what is
• 15:11
  Speaker 3: it that I would want to hear from them at
• 15:14
  Speaker 3: the end of a busy day? Um, and that can
• 15:17
  Speaker 3: be really sweet journaling too, because ideally those people are
• 15:22
  Speaker 3: not going to be speaking bad stuff to you. They're
• 15:25
  Speaker 3: going to be giving you the hope, the encouragement, the
• 15:27
  Speaker 3: out of girls, like you got this, like, I'm so
• 15:29
  Speaker 3: proud of you.
• 15:30
  Speaker 4: Look what you did kind of.
• 15:32
  Speaker 3: Writing.
• 15:33
  Speaker 4: Um, I also write to different parts of myself. Um,
• 15:37
  Speaker 4: I'm definitely not a therapist.
• 15:39
  Speaker 3: I just barely know about family and internal family systems,
• 15:41
  Speaker 3: know enough to like play with it on my own.
• 15:43
  Speaker 3: But I definitely talk to parts of myself sometimes and
• 15:46
  Speaker 3: they're like, yo, I see you're angry, angry part, what's
• 15:48
  Speaker 3: going on, right?
• 15:50
  Speaker 4: Or sad part or whatever.
• 15:52
  Speaker 3: So I have conversations with myself through my journal too.
• 15:57
  Speaker 4: And it's all super helpful.
• 16:00
  Speaker 3: Sometimes I recommend looking back and rereading your journals. Sometimes
• 16:04
  Speaker 3: that day, sometimes- Later, you know, you can always find
• 16:08
  Speaker 3: things in there, catch patterns, maybe catch words or phrases
• 16:12
  Speaker 3: or to-do lists or a word.
• 16:14
  Speaker 4: And you're like, whoa, where did that come from?
• 16:16
  Speaker 3: I wonder what I mean by, you can create your
• 16:18
  Speaker 3: next journaling prompts based on what you read, you wrote,
• 16:22
  Speaker 3: but I don't think you always have to go back
• 16:24
  Speaker 3: and read it either.
• 16:24
  Speaker 4: It's such a free form. There's no rules. There's no rules.
• 16:31
  Speaker 3: You don't have to do it every day. You don't
• 16:33
  Speaker 3: have to do it in a certain way. You don't
• 16:35
  Speaker 3: have to do it at a certain time. There's so
• 16:38
  Speaker 3: many options for you to use it.
• 16:40
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I love that. There's no rules. As somebody who
• 16:46
  Speaker 2: doesn't really like rules myself, I love that there's no rules.
• 16:51
  Speaker 2: You're reminding me that a handful of years ago, maybe
• 16:56
  Speaker 2: around sort of the COVID times here in the US,
• 17:01
  Speaker 2: I took all my journals from... not my real, not
• 17:05
  Speaker 2: the ones I wrote, like my diaries when I was like,
• 17:08
  Speaker 2: you know, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10, but the
• 17:11
  Speaker 2: ones that I was writing in my twenties, especially late
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: teens into my thirties, really grappling with the same thing
• 17:19
  Speaker 2: over and over again, I took them and I threw
• 17:22
  Speaker 2: them away. And it was just a really big thing
• 17:28
  Speaker 2: to do. Yeah. Our listeners can't see us, but Catherine
• 17:33
  Speaker 2: is like shaking her head, like enthusiastically. And everybody I
• 17:38
  Speaker 2: know is like, oh my God, why did you do that?
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: Don't you want records of us? Like, no, I don't
• 17:46
  Speaker 2: want to look at the things that I was just
• 17:49
  Speaker 2: struggling with over and over and over again. And, you know,
• 17:52
  Speaker 2: I'm 60 now, maybe I was 55 when I threw
• 17:56
  Speaker 2: these away. I still was thinking like, What if something
• 18:00
  Speaker 2: happens to me and my children find all of these journals? Like,
• 18:04
  Speaker 2: I don't want them to read any word of these journals.
• 18:10
  Speaker 2: So they went into the trash and yeah.
• 18:14
  Speaker 4: So such a big, like, how did that feel for you?
• 18:16
  Speaker 2: Was it free? No, really, really good. Really good.
• 18:20
  Speaker 4: Really good.
• 18:22
  Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean, looking at, honestly, the, the, the content
• 18:26
  Speaker 2: over and over and over again was all self-judgment. You
• 18:29
  Speaker 2: should be better. You should look better. You should do that.
• 18:32
  Speaker 2: Like all shoulds, all judgments, all, why can't I just
• 18:37
  Speaker 2: get to this place that I think I should be?
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: It's like, oh my goodness, you know, 25 years of
• 18:43
  Speaker 2: writing variations, of course, you know, lots of things have changed,
• 18:46
  Speaker 2: but I thought, no. And just like you said, I
• 18:49
  Speaker 2: was kind of like, I'm sick and tired of it.
• 18:51
  Speaker 2: And I've never written any of that stuff again in
• 18:54
  Speaker 2: a journal. Like it's gone.
• 18:55
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 18:56
  Speaker 2: I think there's a point. I don't know.
• 18:58
  Speaker 4: I'm not a therapist, but I think there's a.
• 19:01
  Speaker 3: Point if you say it to yourself enough and you
• 19:02
  Speaker 3: keep putting in the journal, you're like, yeah, I'm done
• 19:04
  Speaker 3: with this.
• 19:04
  Speaker 4: And then that's then when the action changes like that.
• 19:07
  Speaker 4: I'm going to take I'm.
• 19:08
  Speaker 3: Going to take some steps to change my life.
• 19:10
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I don't want to keep thinking like this. This
• 19:12
  Speaker 4: is not good.
• 19:13
  Speaker 3: I'm seeing how bad it is. What what steps do
• 19:16
  Speaker 3: I need to take? What thoughts can I start thinking instead?
• 19:19
  Speaker 3: Remember the first time I tried affirmations, I was like,
• 19:22
  Speaker 3: what a joke.
• 19:23
  Speaker 4: These are lies. Like I can't say this stuff, you know?
• 19:26
  Speaker 2: Yes.
• 19:26
  Speaker 3: And I'm like, oh my gosh, I actually believe this stuff.
• 19:29
  Speaker 4: Now because you know, it's true.
• 19:31
  Speaker 2: It's not a lie.
• 19:32
  Speaker 4: But working on that, I had a similar experience. I
• 19:34
  Speaker 4: also threw away old journals. I guess you can call
• 19:36
  Speaker 4: them journals. I used to pray by writing.
• 19:39
  Speaker 3: So all my journal entries were prayers to God, worshiping
• 19:43
  Speaker 3: how great he was, listing all of my sins and
• 19:47
  Speaker 3: begging for him to help change me and fix me.
• 19:49
  Speaker 4: So same idea.
• 19:50
  Speaker 2: Yeah, same idea. Yep.
• 19:52
  Speaker 4: And when I left.
• 19:54
  Speaker 3: The faith and was going through this process and needing
• 19:57
  Speaker 3: to move some things around my house, I realized I
• 19:59
  Speaker 3: had journals and journals and journals of that stuff. I
• 20:02
  Speaker 3: flipped through a few of them, you know, read a
• 20:03
  Speaker 3: few of them just to get the idea of like
• 20:05
  Speaker 3: what was in here, you know? Yeah. No, I... There
• 20:10
  Speaker 3: was absolutely no need for me to keep them and
• 20:12
  Speaker 3: I got rid of them. And it was like getting
• 20:14
  Speaker 3: rid of a part of myself that I no longer
• 20:16
  Speaker 3: wanted to identify with or be with.
• 20:18
  Speaker 4: And that was super freeing.
• 20:19
  Speaker 3: I don't need to hold on to that document to
• 20:23
  Speaker 3: remember who she was.
• 20:25
  Speaker 4: I could write those prayers out right now if I
• 20:27
  Speaker 4: needed to, right?
• 20:28
  Speaker 2: Like I was so practiced in them.
• 20:31
  Speaker 4: I don't need to hold record of that.
• 20:33
  Speaker 3: I'm creating a new life now where I get to
• 20:36
  Speaker 3: write my own dreams and my own future. And so
• 20:38
  Speaker 3: that is what I try to breathe into my journals now.
• 20:42
  Speaker 4: In fact, I just looked back at it two days yesterday, actually.
• 20:44
  Speaker 4: What was my first journal entry when I first started journaling?
• 20:48
  Speaker 4: I must have gotten the prompt from somewhere.
• 20:49
  Speaker 3: But the first journal entry was where do you want
• 20:52
  Speaker 3: your life to be in one year? Like, who do
• 20:54
  Speaker 3: you want to be in a year?
• 20:56
  Speaker 4: Like, that was a good place to start.
• 20:57
  Speaker 3: I don't know.
• 20:58
  Speaker 2: I tripped on that one. That's so beautiful, Catherine. And
• 21:02
  Speaker 2: I was just thinking to myself, where would people start?
• 21:06
  Speaker 2: And that's a great prompt to start with. Do you
• 21:09
  Speaker 2: have any others that you would suggest? Like, brand new
• 21:12
  Speaker 2: to journaling, always wanted to, but didn't really know what
• 21:15
  Speaker 2: to even, how to begin.
• 21:17
  Speaker 4: Yeah, my favorite is just today, I.
• 21:23
  Speaker 3: Ah, today I, you know, beginning of a sentence that
• 21:26
  Speaker 3: doesn't have an ending instead of a question mark.
• 21:29
  Speaker 4: Um, even though my first one was a question mark.
• 21:32
  Speaker 3: Prompt, um, today, cause it can be today.
• 21:34
  Speaker 4: I felt today. I did today was today. You can
• 21:38
  Speaker 4: just list out what today I will today is going
• 21:41
  Speaker 4: to be, um, today. I hope it could go in
• 21:44
  Speaker 4: any direction.
• 21:45
  Speaker 3: Um, but just getting something on the page with the
• 21:47
  Speaker 3: today I can get you started. Because journaling can start
• 21:51
  Speaker 3: as just a record of your day. It can be
• 21:53
  Speaker 3: a record of your conversations. It can be a record
• 21:55
  Speaker 3: of your.
• 21:55
  Speaker 4: Feelings and your emotions.
• 21:57
  Speaker 3: That's one that I still go to and turn to.
• 22:01
  Speaker 3: I think another place to start if you don't really
• 22:04
  Speaker 3: know who you are and you still struggle, you.
• 22:07
  Speaker 4: Know, something I enjoyed today was a taste of peppermint tea.
• 22:13
  Speaker 3: Like I remember the first time that I had like
• 22:15
  Speaker 3: a really good cup of peppermint tea and I was like, oh.
• 22:18
  Speaker 4: I like this flavor.
• 22:19
  Speaker 3: It was like the first time I'd ever drank anything and,
• 22:22
  Speaker 3: and even noticed the sensations in my mouth and the flavors.
• 22:25
  Speaker 4: And I was like, Oh, okay, cool.
• 22:28
  Speaker 3: Cause I don't think for, for so long, I didn't
• 22:30
  Speaker 3: even know what I liked to eat, what I like
• 22:32
  Speaker 3: to drink, what my favorite dessert was.
• 22:34
  Speaker 4: Don't ask me that question. I don't know. Like that,
• 22:36
  Speaker 4: that's a mean question. What's your favorite movie? What's your
• 22:38
  Speaker 4: favorite color?
• 22:38
  Speaker 3: I don't know.
• 22:39
  Speaker 2: I'm so overwhelmed.
• 22:40
  Speaker 3: And so learning how to work through those kinds of
• 22:43
  Speaker 3: basic things was, was a journal prompt.
• 22:47
  Speaker 4: It was an experience.
• 22:47
  Speaker 3: And like, well, I don't, if you, if you don't
• 22:49
  Speaker 3: know what you do like, well, what don't you like?
• 22:52
  Speaker 3: That's always a really great tip too. If you're journaling
• 22:55
  Speaker 3: and you're using prompts and the prompt doesn't resonate and
• 22:58
  Speaker 3: you feel like you don't know how anything to say
• 22:59
  Speaker 3: on it, right on the opposite. This prompt does not
• 23:02
  Speaker 3: resonate with me because.
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: Yes.
• 23:06
  Speaker 2: Yes. Wow. You're making me think of some younger, like
• 23:11
  Speaker 2: young adults past the teens that, you know, still haven't
• 23:15
  Speaker 2: really landed on themselves. Of course, don't really know themselves yet.
• 23:19
  Speaker 2: And this process of, yeah, trying it out. Like these
• 23:25
  Speaker 2: are the things I love. Okay. I can't really think
• 23:27
  Speaker 2: of many things. Okay. What are the things you don't love?
• 23:30
  Speaker 2: What are the things you really dislike? That's easier. That
• 23:36
  Speaker 2: would be easier.
• 23:36
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 23:39
  Speaker 2: And, um, And the other piece that I want to add,
• 23:42
  Speaker 2: which I'm sure you would also just agree with is
• 23:45
  Speaker 2: even if you can't answer any of those questions, like
• 23:48
  Speaker 2: just write, just write.
• 23:50
  Speaker 4: That's right.
• 23:50
  Speaker 2: It doesn't matter.
• 23:52
  Speaker 4: You can start with, I don't know what to write.
• 23:54
  Speaker 4: This seems silly. I don't know what to write. I
• 23:56
  Speaker 4: don't know what to write.
• 23:57
  Speaker 3: I don't. I mean, you could write that five, seven,
• 23:59
  Speaker 3: 10 times, I guarantee. But by the time you'll say,
• 24:02
  Speaker 3: I don't know what to write, but blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
• 24:04
  Speaker 3: And then something will start coming out.
• 24:06
  Speaker 4: It's really just that activity of getting yourself started.
• 24:09
  Speaker 2: Right. Yeah, you're really rewiring your brain, which is work
• 24:13
  Speaker 2: that I do in different ways to heal limited thinking
• 24:18
  Speaker 2: patterns is like what my work is focused on. But
• 24:22
  Speaker 2: what you just said, you're rewiring your brain to be
• 24:26
  Speaker 2: able to think and write. And there's so much value,
• 24:29
  Speaker 2: like you said, in putting it on paper and then
• 24:32
  Speaker 2: getting curious about it later as one possibility. And also
• 24:36
  Speaker 2: as a way to get to know yourself, because when
• 24:38
  Speaker 2: you look over time, you're likely to see themes, right. And,
• 24:41
  Speaker 2: and different aspects. So you're rewiring, but the other piece
• 24:45
  Speaker 2: I wanted to highlight around rewiring is, um, is the future, uh,
• 24:52
  Speaker 2: prompts that you were writing because in the work that
• 24:55
  Speaker 2: I do, we're rewiring, I call it future memory. So we're,
• 25:00
  Speaker 2: you know, we're putting out into the universe, into our
• 25:04
  Speaker 2: bodies and beings, into the energy field, what we want
• 25:07
  Speaker 2: to live into. And so, writing it and writing it
• 25:12
  Speaker 2: and writing it over and over and over again, because
• 25:14
  Speaker 2: the brain rewires with frequency is part of the manifestation
• 25:18
  Speaker 2: and creation process. So beautiful.
• 25:22
  Speaker 4: Absolutely.
• 25:23
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 25:24
  Speaker 3: Beautiful.
• 25:24
  Speaker 2: I love that you said, like started with, what do
• 25:27
  Speaker 2: I want to be experiencing in a year from now?
• 25:31
  Speaker 2: You know? Yeah. Yeah. So great. Um, we're just close
• 25:35
  Speaker 2: to the end of the time. I can't believe it.
• 25:37
  Speaker 2: It went so fast.
• 25:39
  Speaker 4: I can talk about this all day.
• 25:40
  Speaker 2: Yes. Yeah. I'm sure we didn't even touch on, you know,
• 25:43
  Speaker 2: your poetry.
• 25:44
  Speaker 3: Yeah. The real quick story there is it came out
• 25:48
  Speaker 3: of my journals. I had no idea that I was
• 25:50
  Speaker 3: a poet or a writer, but, um, I was responding
• 25:53
  Speaker 3: to journaling prompts with poetry and, um, gotten to a
• 25:57
  Speaker 3: writing group. I knew I wanted to use my writing
• 25:59
  Speaker 3: for good and, um, collected all the poems that had
• 26:04
  Speaker 3: really been truly journal entries, never meant for anybody in
• 26:06
  Speaker 3: the world to read and see.
• 26:08
  Speaker 4: And it became a book that I published. So it's
• 26:11
  Speaker 4: a poetry.
• 26:12
  Speaker 3: Memoir of the inner workings of a woman rebecoming, going
• 26:17
  Speaker 3: from where she can barely hear her voice to finding
• 26:21
  Speaker 3: clarity and agency and turning the whisper into a roar.
• 26:24
  Speaker 4: So it's all journals that that's how I got there.
• 26:28
  Speaker 2: I have the chills in this last moment of our
• 26:31
  Speaker 2: show today. What's the title of the book and where
• 26:33
  Speaker 2: can we get it?
• 26:34
  Speaker 4: Barely a Whisper, Poems from the Heart of a Woman Rebecoming.
• 26:38
  Speaker 4: And you can find it on Amazon. You can also
• 26:40
  Speaker 4: find it on my website.
• 26:41
  Speaker 3: And I just published a companion journaling guide to go
• 26:44
  Speaker 3: along with it that takes every poem from the poetry memoir,
• 26:47
  Speaker 3: gives you a little insights behind the scene, what was
• 26:49
  Speaker 3: going on in my life when I wrote the poem
• 26:51
  Speaker 3: and gives you journaling prompts for each poem.
• 26:53
  Speaker 4: So you can journal along with the poetry as well.
• 26:56
  Speaker 2: Oh my goodness. Okay. Beautiful. Shout out looking up Catherine Seifer,
• 27:00
  Speaker 2: Catherine with a C S I P H E R
• 27:03
  Speaker 2: on amazon.com. Say the title like one more time. Just
• 27:06
  Speaker 2: the first part.
• 27:07
  Speaker 4: Barely a whisper.
• 27:08
  Speaker 2: Barely a whisper. Find that in all the places that
• 27:12
  Speaker 2: you buy your books online. Catherine, thank you so much
• 27:15
  Speaker 2: for being here. What a treat to get to know you.
• 27:18
  Speaker 2: You too.
• 27:18
  Speaker 4: Thank you for this conversation.
• 27:19
  Speaker 2: Have a great day, everybody. Hi, this is Robin Vogel,
• 27:23
  Speaker 2: host of Come Back to Love. If you are ready
• 27:26
  Speaker 2: to heal the past and open your heart to love again,
• 27:28
  Speaker 2: I want to talk with you. Book a free 30-minute
• 27:31
  Speaker 2: private conversation with me at ComeBackToLove.com. I'll meet you where
• 27:35
  Speaker 2: you are and give you real tools you can use
• 27:37
  Speaker 2: right now. Because love isn't just possible for you. It's
• 27:40
  Speaker 2: waiting for you. Go to ComeBackToLove.com and book your free
• 27:44
  Speaker 2: 30 minutes today.
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: You've been listening to Come Back to Love with Robin Vogel,
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: a transformative program that covers an endless array of topics
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: related to relationships, love, and intimacy, along with all the
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: reasons you may be keeping love at a distance. Tune
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: in each week as Robin gives you practical tools that
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: can be used to heal the past and help you
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: to safely love again. Join Robin again next week at
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: the same time for Come Back to Love.