I found myself mired in a struggle for self-care, but finally hungry for answers. I wanted to understand if there was something wrong with me. Was I different from everyone before me that had fallen and found their way to get back up? I just got curious. Why did I feel so negative? I stumbled on to the power of curiosity and the answers blew my mind. I WAS normal.

WHY SO NEGATIVE
According to the Cleveland Clinic:

• we have an average of 60,000 thoughts per day
• 95% of the same thoughts are repetitive, so we think them day after day after day…
• 80% of those repetitive thoughts are negative for the average person. This means that every day the average person has 45,000 negative thoughts.

Dr. Daniel Amen, Psychiatrist, calls these automatic negative thoughts (ANTs). It’s in our genes! Optimistic cave men did not survive. The part of their brain that served them as pessimists is part of our brain and works the same way to “protect us”.

It felt like it was still going to be an uphill battle but I felt lighter somehow. Just knowing that I was not causing it all myself was a relief and suddenly, self-compassion poured over me. Stay tuned for more of what I discovered about self-care in my healing journey.