1. cerebral lullabies
I often wonder what separates us - one from the other. What makes me think one way, and you another. I know they say our minds matter but it feels like mental wellness is dictated by mental capabilities. And at the top of the list is the capacity to treat yourself kindly. Not only with actions. But thoughts too, because the way you think about yourself is the needle that threads together the perception of your reality.
After dinner with friends - what do you say to yourself?
After sending that email - what do you say to yourself?
We think so long and hard about what we say out loud but how much are we thinking about what we’re saying inside?
How loud are the voices in your head?
How many are there?
Are the voices familiar?
Or do they feel like foreigners trespassing?
What goes on in your mind when it’s only you?
Who slips through the cracks of your daydreams?
Who reads your cerebral lullabies before bed?
Who washes the contaminated parts?
Who scrubs the rust off the corners?
Who adds the lavender bubbles?
Or do you just not think about what the inside of your mind looks like, and feels like.
Do you remember where you stored your favorite memories?
How you’ve organized the pain by alphabetical order?
The mind should be the upstairs of our bodies, like attics at dawn, filled with the books that tell the stories of our lives.
But most people let their minds rot to the bottom. They’re the basements with broken tv’s and water damage. They’re the holding space for the shit we don’t want anyone else to know about.
How could you live like that?
Darkness left alone grows poisonous plants. Killing the one who lifts and loves them.
And so I ask.
What tales do you tell yourself?
What dreams can you foresee?
What devils have you enlisted?
What genre have you selected?
In the story of you, what are you thinking of?