Mental round-about
Self-esteem see-saw
Innocent web search
‘Change core beliefs from childhood’
Google tells me it’s child’s play

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Welcome to the rest of your life
The best of your life, your best of your life
You are the author of your story
Around the metaphorical turn,
along the symbolic path, up the figurative stairs,
you open your catachrestic mute eyes and deaf heart
You are smarter, stronger, sightlier
Socially appropriate, admissible, acceptable
You have worth, hold worth, make worth

Choose something new to believe in
Start today, heart today
Chart your way, heart your way
Treat your limiting beliefs like thoughts
Write your belief-thoughts down
Be honest - no cheating
You can’t fool your brain, so retool your brain
Today’s lies make tomorrow’s whys
Use your neuroplastic, elastic, synaptic
retroactive, augmentative, cross-cognitive,  
meta-thinking for better thinking

Renew reckoned resilience
Never say ‘no’ to anything again
Bent grass that always bounces back
Elephants, drought, and weeds
Fugacious clouds in your sky
Master of no-limit living

You can cope with anything, everything,
all things, unlimited
(uncurbed, unchecked, unreasonable)
You can do it, all up to you
(Your responsibility, burden, fault)
Coping, thriving, ruling
(Your “no-one-should-have-to-live-like-this” life)

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Romanticised view
Of self-thought-work road
Not slides and swing sets
But stepping slowly daily
A journey in compassion

Clear, kindly limits
Held for shared welfare
Outside-trap living
Not shiny, crafty life-drain
Growing into wiser eyes

Through pain and hardship, strength is grown,
Where courage blooms from seeds unknown.
It’s easy to forget the fight,
That forged their hearts within the night.

The strongest souls bear hidden scars,
Their battles waged in silent wars.
Yet walls are built, and hearts made true,
With every storm they battled through.

Now confidence, like stone, remains,
A quiet fire, fed by pains.
From broken ground, they rise and stand—
The toughest hearts, the gentlest hands.

Don’t worry yourself, purrs Negative Voice
I'm telling you this to protect you
No lead in your pencil
So pointless in fact
No person of worth would respect you

    Dear Negative Voice,
       I see what you mean
       But just a brief point for reflection
       I’m not sure I’m really an absolute waste
       Consider some minor correction?

It’s better for you, coos Negative Voice
To know that you’re practically useless
No rain in your storm cloud
So juiceless in fact
You’re toothless, inept, and excuseless

    Dear Negative Voice,
       A stirring reply
       Is this in totality truthful?
       I’m sure my ineptitude has measured bounds
       And even just sometimes, I’m useful

The beauty of living this version of truth
Is, you are at maximum harm
Nothing they’re possibly saying to you
Will add to your sense of alarm

Providing agreement to monster-y ones
Might also afford added aid
Appeasing and easing an excessive ego
May downgrade a wailing cascade

    Dear Negative Voice,
       Deep thanks for your thoughts
       A note of some gentle resistance
           I notice I’m having the thought that I’m worthless
           Historically helpful, but now with no purpose
       Distinct in my voice, yours holds limited purchase    
       So now I can give you some distance
           I humbly suggest
           This grateful request
       For inner, more peaceful existence

Come, dearest love, let us speak tenderly to one another.
Sit here, up close, where you can hear the trembling of my breath.
See for yourself, I’m defenceless too.

Come, let us create a new and lasting peace between us,
end this tug-of-war, this battle of wits and wills that has beaten us both,
and agree never to trample or harm each other again in any way.

Come, let us forgive every trespass, mistake, betrayal and abandonment,
every unfair expectation, ignorant presumption and misunderstanding,
every accusation, true and false.

Come, let us rediscover the deep love we’ve always had for one another,
the love we lost sight of without realising,
the friendship we drifted out of without ever meaning to.

And from now on let’s tell a brighter story about ourselves,
a story that holds a light to our gold, celebrates our goodness
and dismisses our failings with nonchalant, cheerful compassion.

Come, my dearest love, let us speak tenderly to one another.
Sit here, up close, where you can feel the soft warmth of my skin.
Rest in this closeness, and let’s be the best of friends once again.

Amen.

Travel free my inner scapegoat
You’re liberated, off this hook
No more shame-horned
Guilt-stomached dread,
       scarce enough to wrong-bare
Not startle-sneezed or tremble-shook

I excise redundant remnants
Bad wattle glands where crime hangs large
Not Billie-blame,
Nanny-regret
       or just a wrongless kid
No fair-trial felon, biased charge

Imagine dropping heavy torts
The solid clunk as fault hits floor
Past carried light
Kind compassion
       wide enough to weight-bare
Rich mixed plant pasture evermore
An end to serveless inner war

I woke up and I said "**** it
Enough of "it is what it is."
Today I am not feeling it
May life be what I make of it."

_M.

Love is not an act or feeling
Love must be a way of being
Within yourself, not someone else
Or it won't survive distress
Cause life is pretty much a mess
No matter what you do regardless
So if you want to love, caress
All the depths and purposes
That are lying in yourself
Everyone has their bear to tame
And you did it, so can they
It is not part of the game
To play for others or to frame
Things as to be needed, cause as above
Stated, that ain't love

Life is pretty much a mess,
So live for yourself, anyways
You won't miss what's meant for you
So there's nothing else to do
Really in the outside world,
In the end,
Love's inside work.

_M.