Date: April 5, 2025
Author: Elena Morrell
I don’t trust anything my brain tells me after 9pm anymore. It took me a while to figure that out, but it’s probably the best rule I’ve ever made for myself.
See, after a long day—when everything finally slows down and it’s just me, the quiet, and the ceiling—I start spiraling. That’s when the doubts come in like clockwork. Every missed text feels like rejection. Every awkward conversation from weeks ago plays on repeat. Every goal I haven’t reached suddenly feels like proof I never will.
And somehow, in that hour, my mind becomes this cruel narrator that’s way too convincing. “You’re falling behind.” “You’re not enough.” “Everyone else is fine, why can’t you be?” The scary thing is, it all feels so real.
But it’s not. It’s just exhaustion pretending to be truth.
The next morning, I wake up, drink some coffee, take a shower, and suddenly everything I felt the night before seems dramatic or exaggerated or just… false. Not always, but enough to know I shouldn’t let night-thoughts make big decisions.
So now I have this rule: No deep thoughts after 9. No heavy self-reflection. No questioning my worth. I write it down and look at it in the daylight.
Because the version of me that shows up after dark? That’s not the one who gets to run the show.
—Elena Morrell
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