S1 E10: ✍🏽 THE journal prompt for healing - Dear Money, what would you have me know?
Do you have deep emotions around money? Like, no matter how hard you try to be more aware and organized, it feels like there's a force working against you? In this episode, Rachel Duncan, Financial Therapist and Art Therapist guides you in a powerful writing prompt called 'Dear Money, What Would You Have Me Know?' as an adaptation of Liz Gilbert’s daily prompt. I share my own writing, and invite listeners to write their own, offering a chance to hear money’s voice and reshape their relationship with it.
🖐️Leave us a voicemail: Read me part of your letter from money! Long or short, doesn't matter. I'm making a collaborative episode with lots of our letters! Click on the big orange button on our site right from your phone or browser and let me know https://www.moneyhealingclub.com/podcast
00:00 Introduction to Money as a Relationship
00:21 The 'Dear Money' Activity
00:47 A Personal Letter from Money
03:31 Guidance for Writing Your Own Letter
05:33 Sharing and Reflecting on Your Letters
07:08 Conclusion and Final Thoughts
Dear money, what would you have me know?
© Rachel Duncan, Jan 29 2025
Girl, I got you.
I will grow, I will impact,
I will support you
when you are resourced with me.
This work is not a hobby.
It is a vocation.
You are speaking the word of something bigger
That makes me feel good and sparkly.
I know I have a bad reputation.
But I've just been in the room when crappy things happen.
Remind yourself that I’m a tool.
And I want to work.
But I’m nothing without you.
But hold me close.
Spend me carefully.
I love caring for you, and for people, and for causes.
Plug up the holes
so that I can support you and others completely.
Delight in my growth.
I love it when you get out the spreadsheet
and when you hold the tension
of sadness and excitement.
I wish you would charge more.
Equal me with your time.
Let me make this business with you!
I hold the pent-up dreams of your parents,
we've been tinkering, and making-do…
and now I want to ramp up with you.
Open doors for me
to surround you with safety.
I love it when we play.
I've always loved being close with you.
Growing as you have.
Learning as you have.
I don't have easy answers,
just more gates for more of me
to support more of you
and your work.
You make me happy.
We have so much in common,
we can both be patient and mindful,
we can sit and cultivate and grow,
and can act with brilliance,
and occasional abandon.
Let's work, let's reach, let's communicate.
Our power is in strong piercing clarity,
yet things sometimes feel cluttered.
I know it can be clear.
Let's take care of that today girl!
Would you schedule a time block
for the big stuff?
I want many good channels
and many places to land
that feel safe and secure
for me to rest and work and play
and just feel safe.
Help me feel safe.
Big hugs,
Money
Reference: Liz Gilbert's Letters from Love
🎧 Your next listen: S1 E2: How can I rewire my brain to see money as abundant?
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Full transcript can be found here: https://www.moneyhealingclub.com/podcast
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00:00:00]
[00:00:03] Welcome to the Money Healing Club podcast. I'm your host, Rachel Duncan. I'm a financial therapist and art therapist, and you've come to the softest place to land in personal finance. This podcast is for education and entertainment purposes only. For help with your particular situation, please seek help from a licensed professional in mental health, taxes, and finance.
[00:00:28] Here, we talk about all the things we don't usually say when we talk about money. Let's begin.
[00:00:34]
[00:00:38] Today, I want to share with you one of my favorite prompts to really look at our relationship with money as a literal relationship, like we have with another person. And. I'm going to share with you this activity that I have done with groups and individually, and it's quite powerful.
[00:00:56] It's called dear money. What would you have me know? And this is an adaptation of, The writer, Liz Gilbert's daily prompt to herself, which is called Dear Love or Dear God, what would you have me know? And I heard her talk about this in an interview, and I wanted to do a money version and it has developed into one of these core practices that I do personally.
[00:01:19] And I love leading people through. I want to share with you a recent response that money wrote back to me when I sat down with a journal.
[00:01:29] Dear money, what would you have me know? Girl, I got you. I will grow. I will impact. I will support you when you are resourced with me.
[00:01:43] This work is not a hobby. It's a vocation. You are speaking the word of something bigger that makes me feel good and sparkly. I know I have a bad reputation, but I've just been in the room when crappy things happen. Remind yourself that I am a tool and I want to work, but I'm nothing without you. But hold me close.
[00:02:08] Spend me carefully. I love caring for you and for people and for causes. So plug up the holes so that I can support you and others completely. Delight in my growth. I love it when you get out the spreadsheet and when you hold the tension of sadness and excitement.
[00:02:30] I wish you would charge more. Equal me with your time. Let me make this business with you. I hold the pent up dreams of your parents, and we've been tinkering and making do, and now I want to ramp up with you. Open doors for me to surround you with safety.
[00:02:52] I love it when we play.
[00:02:54] I've always loved being close with you.
[00:02:57] Growing as you have, learning as you have, and I don't have easy answers. Just more gates for more of me to support more of you and your work. You make me happy. We have so much in common. We can both be patient and mindful. We can sit and cultivate and grow and can act with brilliance and occasional abandon.
[00:03:23] Let's work. Let's reach. Let's communicate. Our power is in the strong, piercing clarity. Yet things sometimes feel cluttered.
[00:03:35] But I know it can be clear. Let's take care of that today. Would you schedule a time block for the big stuff? I want lots of good channels and many places to land that feel safe and secure for me to rest and work and play and just feel safe. Help me feel safe.
[00:03:59] Big hugs, money.
[00:04:01]
[00:04:05] I want to hear what money has to say to you. I want you to find yourself a quiet place where you feel safe. where it's a time to reflect maybe first thing in the morning when the day hasn't gotten going and you can be more open. I wrote this in the morning, and I do think I was more receptive for this, like, download.
[00:04:29] So I do encourage you to do that, but you can do it any time of day. Just start at the top. Dear money, what would you have me know? And I encourage you to start the letter with something affectionate.
[00:04:43] Something like honey. Sweetie. In this poem, it was, Girl, I got you.
[00:04:52] Let the character of money come through, and let its dimensionality come through. What's the character of money in your letter? For me, what, what strikes me about, This piece of writing is the cooperative nature of money, the playfulness, as well as the seriousness and talking about the bigger picture.
[00:05:17] Often when folks do this exercise with me, we're surprised with how collaborative money wants to be, how forgiving, as well as boundaried. Like money won't put up with your shit, but it just wants to, it just wants to be closer. It wants to grow. It wants to be respected. Um, and sometimes different themes come through.
[00:05:41] Absolutely. Uh, but these are ones that I hear quite a bit they often come through when I opened myself up to hear from money.
[00:05:49] If your response from money feels maybe unclear, or you can't quite tap into it, you could start with your letter to money, dear money, here's what I got to tell you, you could start that way. And then get a response from money. So it's a little bit back and forth. ,
[00:06:07] So what I would love for an upcoming episode is to have snippets of your letters from money. If you go to money healing club.
[00:06:17] com slash podcast, there's an easy way to record a voicemail. I would love to hear your voice reading your letter back from money. You can also email it to me. If it's okay, if I read it, um, out loud on a future podcast, maybe we can snip this together and wouldn't it be cool to develop like a collective personality for money that is healing, that, that wants to be seen and respected and kept and played with, and it just wants you to be safe.
[00:06:50] Money wants you to be safe. It's a very good tool for that, even though it may have been used in ways that were not very safe for you. Quite often we find that was not money's fault, it was just the tool that was used. So if you have some blocks around money, some strong negative feelings towards money, I want to really honor that and normalize it.
[00:07:15] An exercise like this could be quite emotional. It can also help untangle What is money's fault and what was that situation's fault or that person's fault or that employer's fault? Often money was just in the room because it has its fingers in everything. Kind of like an innocent bystander, I guess.
[00:07:40] It's there and it's a very powerful tool. I want to hear what money has to say to you and And how was it to receive these words?
[00:07:51] It may feel poetic. It may feel like a real letter.
[00:07:56] All right, dear money, what would you have me know? Let me know and I will see you in the podcast and hopefully in the money healing club.
[00:08:06]
[00:08:10] Thanks for listening to the Money Healing Club podcast. You can find resources and links from this episode in the show notes at moneyhealingclub.com/podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, you'd probably really love my free email course on curbing impulse spending with compassion and mindfulness.
[00:08:26] Check it out at moneyhealingclub.com/challenge.
[00:08:30]