Better Days (feat. Aaron Ross)

I learned to expect the worst

As a child, trying to survive

But now it’s time to re-learn

Now that better days have arrived

Girl, you had a tough life, I see you dealing with it

Invisible Adverse Childhood Experiences

A backwards-facing handful of ACEs

Trapped in the basement, slaps instead of embraces

Anticipation, drama begets drama

A biological expectation of trauma

Not karma, just an internal thermostat

That tracks danger, calibrated hotter

Internal working model of what to expect

From the people you should look to for love and respect

Family first, but when it doesn’t protect you

Links begin to form between trust and regret

Invisible girl living in the midst of a swirl

Of difficulties in an unpredictable world

With limited resources

You can’t choose the genes

You were born with

And you can’t choose the scenes

Your first impressions were formed in

External forces

Shrivel the sense of agency in your cortex

Short fuse cut short by a few shortages

Can’t see the future, or how to transform it

I turned my world brighter

Now that better days

Better days have arrived

I turned my world brighter

Now that better days

Better days have arrived

Girl, you got set up, fast life history

Doctors bring in pills to fix chemistry

And talk about mental illnesses and disease

And when they told you that you're sick, what a relief

Diagnosed with multiple anxiety disorders

Depression, personality on the border

Bricks and mortar laid in torrential rain

Landscaping terrain, deprivation and pain

Quick to rage, but that trigger isn’t a choice

Did it come from today or the subconscious void?

Or something from an ancestral humanoid?

Either way, flooded with glucocorticoids

And that’s okay, by design, fight or flight

Evolutionarily adaptive, it’s quite alright

I’m not here to choose what’s wrong from a menu

I’m just here to validate all that you’ve been through

You faced challenges known to do damage

It’s no shame behaving like a wounded mammal

If you are one, and where predators thrive

The paranoid rabbit is the one that survives

And that’s fine, but when predators abate

Hyper-vigilance makes nervous systems degrade

So let’s defuse the bomb with a code

And set the frame for post-traumatic growth

I turned my world brighter

Now that better days

Better days have arrived

I turned my world brighter

Now that better days

Better days have arrived

Girl, you’re so full of epigenetic markers

The sins of the fathers visited on the daughters

Intergenerational trauma perpetuated

Expectation-setting DNA methylated

But the cycle is limited, you get to break it

Every generation, that effect gets abated

Forget the sins of Great Grandmas

It only lasts a couple of generations in mammals

So you can take action, girl you’re so elastic

No concrete statue, you’re neuroplastic

Memory is so dynamic, many benefits

Each new experience amps neurogenesis

I know you got shamed a lot, reviled and hated

And those are the pathways that got myelinated

So rewire it, baby, try to get better

‘Cause neurons that fire together, wire together

From a safe place to chaotic adversity

Generating neuroecological diversity

Adaptive imperatives, wrapped in experience

You can share this with your therapist

Now it’s time to re-learn

Now that better days have arrived

I turned my world brighter

Now that better days

Better days have arrive