More Dammit ... It IS Menopause!

Some days I wake up and my self-talk is brutal. If my body were a radio, my brain would be tuned to KFCK, all bad … all the time. There are several techniques I use to change that channel to KJOY. One of my favorites is to be accountable about my NST to another safe person. Once I say my actual thoughts aloud to another person, it is embarrassing at first because the things my brain tells me are outlandish. Like that my son will soon have dropped out of college, become addicted to drugs, and end up in prison—all because he likes how he looks in a beard. Inevitably it is comical as my whole thought process is revealed. Sometimes when I call my friend Cordelia, she will add to my wild future-tripping, demonstrating she gets me because she does the same thing, and we laugh hysterically. We have a good laugh and just like that, the crazy talk has vanished, and I can keep listening to KJOY for hours to come.

Some people diet endlessly, forever searching in vain for that magic formula to bring them lasting peace, joy, and contentment. Rather than career dieting and banning foods, why not ban negative self-talk by committing to telling another within 24 hours of noticing it?