Per @spoonstrek
When I was 15 I was very negative. Of course I was, I was 15.
But I noticed I was negative. And I didn't like it. I didn't like the way it felt inside to be me, and to live like me, with all those negative thoughts all the time.
I had read somewhere that you could train yourself to be happier. That you needed to force yourself to think positive thoughts, until it became a habit.
I remember those few months of high school where I used to catch myself mentally complaining about something, and then forcing myself to find something positive to think about the person or situation. Again, and again, and again.
And it worked.
It became easier. And I became lighter. It was just nicer to be me, to live my life, to navigate through my days. I still remember the moment I noticed my life had become brighter.
And decades later, it still works. The muscle is still there. Now I know the word is neuroplasticity.
But at the time, it was just a 15 years old girl who was tired to be in the dark all the time, so she made light in her own brain.
