On each breath out, I release old negative thought patterns

Old patterns tend to arrive in somebody else's voice. Listen closely to the harshest thing you said to yourself this week and there is often a recognisable cadence in it — a teacher, a parent on a bad night, someone from a job you left in 2014.

That isn't an excuse and it isn't a diagnosis. It is useful evidence that the thing is imported rather than native, and imported goods can be examined at the door.

Nothing gets released in one exhale. But a pattern identified as second-hand loses some of its authority, and authority was most of what gave it force.