Welcome to the Therapy for Black Girls Podcast, a weekly conversation about mental health,

personal development, and all the small decisions we can make to become the best possible

versions of ourselves.

I'm your host, Dr. Joy Harden Bradford, a licensed psychologist in Atlanta, Georgia.

To get more information, visit the website at therapyforblackgirls.com.

And while I hope you love listening to and learning from the podcast, it is not meant

to be a substitute for a relationship with a licensed mental health professional.

Hey y'all, thanks so much for joining me for a session 82 of the Therapy for Black Girls

Podcast.

I wanted to chat with you a little bit this week about how the words we speak can be

a reflection of how we feel about ourselves and some of the mental processes that are

going on in the background.

One of the big culprits is should.

You know what I'm talking about.

I should really work out more.

Or I should be further along in my career by now.

You know what I'm talking about?

Does that sound familiar?

The thing with should is that they really are not setting us up for success.

Shoulds already make us feel like we're starting at a deficit and that we're not doing

enough.

And of course, when we go too far with this thinking, we either overcompensate and move toward

...