I was gentler with myself than usual

Dear Delyara, I made a mistake today and didn’t spend the next five hours punishing myself for it. That is not small for me. Usually I replay, criticize, exaggerate, forecast, and turn one awkward moment into evidence that I am fundamentally flawed. Today I felt the old impulse start and somehow did not feed it. I just admitted the mistake. Corrected what I could. Moved on. That felt like emotional adulthood in a form I don’t respect enough when it happens.