‘Sour cream’, the mind says casually.

Ah yes, almost forgot about that, cool!

Amazing how it stores all this stuff on an endless invisible shopping & wish list and helps us to remember shit.

We don’t even ask for it!

‘Now let’s think about your bleak future without clients that will make you suffer forever, shall we?’, comes up a bit later.

Oh fuck.

Another reminder.

Another item on the endless list that contains not just groceries, but everything that has to change, all the promises you made to yourself, all your (random) future plans, and whatever can go wrong in a million lifetimes and did go wrong in the past.

It’s a big fucking list.

And this time it’s about something you don’t really need to hear all the time, mostly because it’s imaginary and it fills you with fear you don’t need to function in a healthy way.

The mind doesn’t care.

Reminder is reminder.

Sharing items on the list (in no particular, sensible order) is its job.

Blowing thought bubbles is what it does.

Because it can.

Because it must.

And it will always find a thought that sticks and start the anxiety fire.

It goes on and on and on, just to keep the intimate relationship going, to keep you on your toes.

Whether the things it comes up with are helpful and practical and useful, or just plain scary and insulting and unnecessary: the mind simply keeps cranking out stuff from the Invisible List of What’s Missing and Wrong.

‘What if you didn’t prepare well enough, huh?’

‘Didn’t we agree on not eating ice cream so much, and what did you just do?’

‘Yes, you wrote five blogs, but where are the likes?’

‘Maybe the person on LinkedIn was right when they said you’re an absolute fraud.’

‘You’re actually very incomplete and you’re also wasting precious time right now, so it’s probably a perfect moment to go and find success and appreciation before you end up under a bridge.’

‘Why DO you think you’re still single? Well?’

‘Sure, you’ve paid your bills for now, but how about next month? And 2026?’

‘Torture, death, FOMO, bankruptcy, dagger through the heart, loneliness, depression, poverty, social anxiety, SHAME!’

It hardly ever stops.

But here’s the thing:

The list is not yours.

There’s no obligation to follow it.

It’s not even personal (although believing it will give it that quality).

And it will NOT bring you to a better place, one day.

The list is what keeps the rather fragile mind alive in your awareness, what keeps your attention hooked, and what keeps this rather passive-aggressive relationship going.

The list feels like survival (and it’s designed to feel that way).

But it’s not.

You can do without sour cream.

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(Photo by @qmikola, for Unsplash)