Be Gentle With Yourself

Though I am someone that majorly enjoys spending time outside alone, I also was haunted by some really irrational anxieties and fears. Solo camping: something I wanted to be able to do for years, and once I started doing it I would just torture my brain with images of Hills Have Eyes.. you know this one...  I was sure they were hiding in the woods around me waiting to rape and murder me. Also hiking: Wikipedia tells me that 20 people have died in North America due to mountain lions in the past 121 years and I've been CONVINCED over the past 3 years that I would be that 21st person. I was paralyzed by this fear. This was beyond frustrating to my stubborn soul. There were multiple hikes that resulted in me exiting the mountain early before getting to my goal due to the intense (made-up) fear circling through my body. Don't get me wrong, mountain lions are very real, and attacks are 100% possible. But I am a firm believer that fear shouldn't hold you back from doing what m

This semester has already proved to be INTENSE. I go back and forth from wanting to cry, scream, physically injure, or just crumble into a pile on my floor. There's been a lot of moments that I feel overwhelmed with what I'm doing, confused and questioning if  driving boxes of posters around, asking people for donations, and sitting on my bedroom floor for 8 hours stuffing packets is doing anything good for the World. Wondering if I am fulfilling my Social Work Masters role. Then, I watched the documentary "13th".. a documentary made by Ava DuVernay that explores the history of racial inequality in the United States, and especially focuses on the fact that the nation's prisons are disproportionately filled with African Americans .   While I watched this I had been on bedroom floor for 6 hours already filling 200 packets for my internship (I've now done 400+). My back hurt, my fingers were getting blisters, and I was having moments of frustration because th