So again, I'm working on it. Just hate the process.
Yes, there are people here rooting for you.
But most the time I kind of look at where I'm at and cringe a bit and want to die.
I feel like any real change I can do now is just catchup. I feel like any progress I could make from this point would be the equivalent of winning the special olympics.
You know what? Today I dealt with 4 - no, maybe 5? - different things I've been avoiding for YEARS because dealing with them reminded me of a very bad period and everything I let slip and all the loss and failure of that time, and the hump of just making the call or getting things together for it felt like more than I could stand (much easier to feel busy with my present and future). ...And the news wasn't great. But it's better than it would be if I continued to avoid it. And stuff is now in motion to deal with things that have been lurking every minute of every day for years, so even if painful, they're going to be off my mental load soon, and I can already taste that elevation.
And make no mistake, I've got 50 million other things that need handling, but these were all in the top 10, and even though there's a bunch of followup and as I mentioned some unpleasant outcome, I feel like I at least loosened a manacle on one hand.
Tl; dr: I love and respect the past, but there are times it's better just to move forward and silence the shouts that you screwed up xyz before.
William Morris had an aesthetic sensibility:
Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.
I think this is a useful sentiment for our day-to-day mental life as well. In other words, harsh self-criticism, beyond digestion and unless it is successfully prodding us to better, is a net negative. Be realistic, be candid with yourself, but for a
purpose. (There's only so much beauty in suffering.

)
I mean, being 100% honest? Actual, but not in a unique or special way. Right now I'm high, and I can tell you I was way too serious and sad when I wrote that, and I don't think it was that serious, in retrospect.
I am horrified.
Bon chance.