You can feel it clanging in your head

that uncomfortable, light-headed, perplexing noise of

‘something is not right.’ Two or more voices vying

at once for attention in your brain. It might be anger

and ‘I should forgive,’ or grief when ‘I should

be positive.’ Whatever it is, it’s not helping

you to avoid how you really feel and the ringing

in your mind will harm you in the end

~~~~

When dissonance arrives, the constructive thing

is to throw that ‘should’ into the wind and allow

whatever you think and feel be what it really is

‘I am tired of the anger, but today it needs to breathe

–and that is still okay.’ ‘Good vibes only’ sounds

delightful, but will ultimately scramble your brain

~~~~

You can calm the sound by being honest

even if your values or beliefs are not at ease

with where you are at today

Speaking the truth to self now is not easy

but is far healthier in the end and will allow

the alarm bells to stop ringing and paves

the way for peace

~~~~

-long term cognitive dissonance can damage us physically and unattended holds us back from processing our thoughts and feelings making them increasingly heavy to carry in the end 

©Heather Pound 2022