Write

Thoughts in your head aren’t yours. Someone else’s attitudes. Your parents’ fears. Catchphrases from childhood. Your exes’ voices.

Parasite thoughts always move from outside in. Real ones — from inside out. And to tell one from the other, you first have to catch them.

Until you write your own story, others write it for you. Parents. Society. Anyone who feels like it.

Open a note, title it “What I’m thinking” and start writing.

Garbage comes out first. “Why am I doing this.” “This is dumb.” “What do I even write.” That’s the top layer, the foam. Just keep diving. The mind goes quiet and you slip into flow.

Once I sat down and poured out everything that had been rattling around in my head for months. A couple of lines remained. They were about what I actually want.

The little that remains after all the foam — that’s you.