Tag:

anxiety

perspective

dear anxiety…

by Rachel Marie Martin April 6, 2022

written by Rachel Marie Martin

Dear anxiety,

Sometimes you are loud, like a roar, a tornado and I find myself twisted in thoughts and worries.

Sometimes you are silent, stealthy, and I slowly become aware that my heart is racing and my mind worrying.

Sometimes you make me question my strength or the love of others.

Sometimes you create doubts and worries.

But anxiety, you don’t win.

I’m just putting that out there.

Even though I know your tactics and the fallacy of “run through that scenario in your mind again and again” and how you try to rob peace. You see, despite the worries and the doubts I’ve learned I’m strong.

Stronger than you think you I am.

Yes, I stumble at times.

Yes, I feel alone at times.

Yes, I have sleepless nights at times.

Yes, I worry at times.

Yes, I have moments of fear.

But, I also have good.

I also have joy.

I also have hope.

I also have love.

I also have optimism.

I also have clarity.

I also have sleep.

I also have progress.

I am brave.

And brave is no longer allowing you, anxiety, to define worth, capabilities, and potential.

It is brave that I set down the past, despite the cry for you to hyper-analyze it, and love the present and work hard for the future.

You see, I’ve found the antidote.

Grace.

Hope.

Peace.

Persistence.

Kindness.

Authenticity.

Joy.

Bravery.

You are strong, but I am stronger.

-me

*words by Rachel Marie Martin of Finding Joy

April 6, 2022 5 comments

onward brave mother

just so you all know…

by Rachel Marie Martin December 3, 2017

written by Rachel Marie Martin

I’m human. My life is messy. My kids aren’t perfect. My house isn’t always clean. Sometimes I’m late. Sometimes I yell (and I hate that part). I deal with anxiety. I am a single mom. Sometimes I worry about money. Sometimes I wish I had the utopian looking life.

But you might not see that. You might not at all.

You might see me and think that I have it all together.

But just so you all know, I don’t.

My pictures aren’t always the reality of my life.

I know you know that already. I know you deep down get it. But I also know that sometimes it can be hard to look at snippets of lives and then to look at the snippet at your life at the same time. If you’re like me, most time they don’t match up. In fact, most of the time I will look at the utopian picture of someone else, or the update on Facebook, right when it is at utmost chaos in my own house.

Some examples.

Happy family picture on Facebook? My kids will be fighting over who has more space on the couch.

Workout picture? I will see it while I’m eating the ice-cream I scraped out of the container.

School rewards? I’ll see it after I log into the online portal for school only to discover late work.

Organized pantry? My counters, my kitchen will look like they’ve exploded.

Motivated and uplifting post of hope? I’ll read it when I’m overwhelmed and feeling lost.

I could go on and on, but I think you get the picture. Get that? The picture? (That was a pun….)

But here, listen, as this is important – you see, this morning I put this picture up of my living room when it was clean. And I wrote on Instagram (you can find me here) about how that picture is not the truth about me. In fact, you may actually think that my living room always looks that way. You may look at it and wonder why you don’t have it together (because that’s what I do when I see pictures like that) and think poorly of you.

Don’t do that.

You know why?

My living room RARELY looks like this.

I repeat it does not.

It does when my kids are at school. Or at 5:48 in the morning.

But the second they wake, it becomes a house that is lived in.

LIVED IN.

Not perfect, but a house where there is life. Now, don’t get me wrong. I like order and things clean (read just do the dishes for proof) but I have also learned that kids need to be kids. So most of the time it looks like this:

So just so you know, don’t ever judge yourself by a picture or a status update of someone else. Because that picture might be at the very second that they are on the top of the world. And our timelines rarely coincide with regards to things shared on social.

So with that I also would like you to all know that you cannot judge my life (or the life of others) by the pictures. Because most times they aren’t the truth. And get this – you want to know something funny aboutyou that picture? All I see in it, besides the awesome clean moment that I love but my kids don’t care about, is that the paint is chipped away above my fireplace.

Did you see that?

If you did, then we should meet at Lowe’s and discuss paint options.

But, if you didn’t until now, here’s the point — so often we are harder on ourselves and see the things that we think are bad and yet everyone else sees the wonderful stuff. The other day I was standing inside Starbucks (imagine that) waiting for my drink and there was a gal at the drive thru waiting for hers. I was looking at her and she was adjusting what appeared to be three hairs on her head. She kept moving them and I didn’t know what she was doing, because to me she looked great and the same even if they were moved, but she was intent on moving them.

Then I thought to myself about all the times I do the same thing.

I see the things I don’t like, versus just enjoying life.

So just so you know, there is a chance that your pictures might not be perfect in your eyes, but to everyone else they are wonderful. Isn’t that the irony of today’s world? We judge ourselves too harshly in our own pictures and yet others look at our pictures and compare. What if, instead, instead we just all learned to breathe deep and love the stories.

Like I love that sometimes I eat ice-cream out of the container after the kids go to bed. It means I’m a mom. I have freedom. And sometimes I love the clean living room and then there are other times where I’ll look around and realize the years go fast. Sometimes I run and other days I don’t.

I can love your story, your pictures without having to judge myself.

And that’s where the freedom comes in for all of us.

There is freedom, sweet sister, when you exhale the expectations and inhale the beauty of your own story.

Just so you know…

Your story, your pictures, your journey – it’s beautiful.

~Rachel

December 3, 2017 3 comments

Overwhelmed

to the mom with anxiety

by Rachel Marie Martin February 7, 2017

written by Rachel Marie Martin

I just want to let you know that you’re not alone.

I know it feels like one of those places in life where you want to hide—where you want to pull the hood up over your head but you’re in the carpool line and you need to pull forward and you just want to simply try to ignore the fact that you have this thing called anxiety. After all, anxiety, it’s just not cool. It’s not trendy. It’s not like shouting hey I love Starbucks (which I do). It’s not fun to admit.

So I’ll admit it.

I have anxiety.

I wish I didn’t. It’s sneaky. Sometimes I’ll go weeks without anything and then one thing will trigger me and I’m stuck in this cycle of fretting about something (typically from the past) and it will cloud my outlook for the future. It takes me so much work to break out of it. I’ve tried a bunch of things – lattes, running, wine, crying, cleaning – and sometimes it just sits there.

And then, sometimes, sometimes if you’re just like me you’ll wonder is this really anxiety or am I just making a big deal out of nothing? And I’ll get mad at myself for being, what I love to call it, weak or a bother because I am crying over the fact that I burnt the pizza. But it wasn’t the pizza, it was just the final straw.

Well, let me tell you, when you struggle with stuff or you have those moments of self doubt YOU ARE NOT MAKING A BIG DEAL OUT OF NOTHING.

It’s you. It’s your life. It’s your emotion.

It’s your heart.

Don’t bury your heart under layers of stuff that you think you should be doing or aren’t doing. And don’t let your value ever be defined by anxiety. Because you are priceless.

Now I know how life and other people can tell you it’s just in your head or suck it up or pull up your bootstraps. It’s so hard. Because who wants to sit there with tears in your eyes when someone asks you how you’re doing and you can’t even answer because if you do you won’t stop crying and you cannot risk puffy eyes again?

It can sometimes just feel like WAY TOO MUCH.

And that is why I want to tell you a couple things.

First, I don’t want you to have shame. NO SHAME. Because when we carry around a bag of shame it just keeps us from doing what we need to do. It’s too big a burden to add to our load because when you have kids who call you mom and need you and you’re just keeping up with life carrying around shame is just too heavy. You know what I mean? If you’ve cried behind the bathroom door because you think you’re alone or this is too much or that you’re worried you’re ruining your kids the last thing you need is a kick in the gut dose of shame.

So when you feel shame I want you to deny that feeling and replace it with I am strong and valuable. Every single time.

Second, you are doing a good job. I know, I know. That’s hard to hear. Especially if you are sitting there in a life of crazy. But you are – even if you have those moments of anxiousness. Trust me, life and emotions can paint a picture of everything you’re not doing and you just hear all of this negativity – you messed up on homework or were late or you’re screwing up the kids and they’ll never pass second grade because of you – which makes you forget the power in you showing up. Especially when you struggle.

So even if you’re struggling with that deep pit of I’m just not enough or I don’t know what I’m doing I want you to start telling yourself – the woman sitting in the car driving those kids around, the woman splashing water on her face in the morning, the woman writing notes for her kids – that you are showing up over and over and over.

SHOWING UP IS POWERFUL.

And that matters more.

Even if you feel that you’re not.

Finally, life and motherhood do not have to be perfect to matter.

It doesn’t have to perfect projects and sparkly status updates and envious relationships – what matters, sweet mom, is that you take a moment and breathe and allow yourself the grace to love you for you. Even when you have anxiety moments. I really believe that our imperfect moments – where the grape juice spills and we sleep on the floor and we cry tears of overwhelm – are the moments that we will someday look back and see an amazing woman, an amazing mother who didn’t give up.

That matters.

So from me to you – this is my heart. I’ve struggled. I’ve had those moments where I simply cannot shake the anxiousness and I want a moment of freedom. I want you to know that you can also break free from this – you will breathe again and you will find those moments of joy.

Here’s the bottom line.

The more you and I talk about anxiety the more we break the cycle of shame. It’s a risky thing to tell someone you have anxiety, but a brave thing because you are now an agent of freedom and change for others. And that’s why I wrote this. And that’s why I want to challenge you to share this with one friend. Even if you don’t have anxiety, but because you can help others speak up and feel loved and not judged.

Break free. Live free.

You are enough.

Love.

~Rachel

February 7, 2017 27 comments

Find yourself

what I need to say about anxiety

by Rachel Marie Martin March 28, 2016

written by Rachel Marie Martin

I have moments of anxiety.

It’s not an all the time thing, but when it’s there – it’s there.

You all know it if you read deep enough or if you’ve read my previous posts about anxiety. I don’t particularly like talking about it because it makes me feel inside a bit weak and then in the weakness I’m really hard on myself. I’ll replace the feelings of weakness with words about why I don’t seem to have it all together or that I just need to let things go or with words about what is wrong with you and all of that lovely positive self-talk.

I think sometimes I live and parent and am that friend that never fully puts a foot in the other court for such fear that the rug will be ripped out from underneath her.

Oh yeah, you know, that feeling of fearing being blind-sided or burned.

So I kind of live hesitant.

Or, I guess, anxious.

You probably wouldn’t know it from the outside.

I think that’s what people with anxiety can be really really really good at doing – hiding. And we don’t hide, at least I don’t hide because I don’t know what to say – oftentimes I hide because I feel shame and embarrassment. You know, go back to that list of statements that I’ll tell myself often when I’m in one of those anxiety induced moments and that would explain that way too hard on myself fear.

The funny, or perhaps not so funny, thing about it in my life is that it can sneak up on me in the most unexpected places or at the most inopportune times. I can go months and months great and then it’s like I’m struck by lightening and the thoughts that go through my head baffle even me. It’s not like I’m sitting in my house thinking about what can I worry about today? – it’s more like I hear a word or feel an emotion or go to sleep – and then all of a sudden I’m dealing in this spiral of worry. Honestly, I think my mind just wants to go over everything, and I mean everything, one hundred million times and look at it from eight million angles and is afraid to rest and move on.

I just don’t want to get hurt, I think.

But the anxiety? The hyper-analyzing of things? The critical nature at which I look at myself?

Well, that’s not right either.

I suppose I could blame it on so much. On being bullied in school. Or having dealt with real emotional scars. Or that it’s super hard for me to trust anyone. And that one – holy moly – I wish I could just jump off the cliff and free fall and move and simply trust- but I cannot. Or at least it is super hard because truthfully most people, and people that I love deeply, have let me down. That brain of mine has turned a bit skeptical, I think.

I used to despise that part of me – the skeptic – the detail part of me that analyzes every single thing. In fact, a good portion of me still does. But I’ve also realized that the detailed part of me is also the part of me that can get in touch with the emotions that we all feel tucked under surfaces of I’m fine and it doesn’t matter and so forth. And I’ve learned some truths. The more I try to fix me the more anxiety creeps into my heart. Do you know why?

It’s because, honestly, this is me.

A deep emotional creature that really wants to live finding joy but has had moments in life that hurt deeply but still wakes up every day looking for the good.

I’ve been really hard on myself. Maybe you have too.

I’ll criticize myself so quickly for having a day where the anxiety trickles in and I’ll forget all the times where I reminded myself of truth and about worth and value and was able to find joy. I’ll discount the tenacity and fight that I have and I’ll remember with great details the times where I let tears fall. I’ll look in my mirror and be critical instead of remembering how the real me – the feeling me – has tears that fall every time she passes an ambulance simply because of her empathy.

I think maybe, just maybe, I need to forgive myself.

Yes, that.

Because I have learned over these past years where anxiety has creeped into my life to dislike that part of me and apologize for it. I don’t need to apologize for being me. Oh I will work to resolve it and to find joy but I will also resolve to look at myself in the mirror and resolve to see the good I bring to this world versus those stumbling, and very human, moments. I may have moments where I stumble and trip and allow past worries taint the present but I have never ever even once sat in them for days. Every time I stand up, brush myself off, and try again.

Try again.

There’s so much power and beauty and awesome in trying again. Risking. Being open. Loving.

So to all of you who have dealt with anxiety I just want to tell you a couple things.

One, you’re not alone. Two, don’t feel shame. Three, you will get through. Four, you are valuable and important and loved. Five, your emotions matter. Six, you are worth way more than I’m fine. Seven, you are a really great person. Eight, anxiety doesn’t define you. Nine, fear and worry are liars. Ten, you have this moment – it’s never too late to fight.

Do you know what I did tonight? I stood up, brushed myself off, looked in the mirror and replaced all the anxiety and worries and fears with truth.

I am valuable. Beautiful. Worth it.

And so are you.

~Rachel

March 28, 2016 26 comments

why being a mom is enough

sometimes we have to talk about anxiety

by Rachel Marie Martin April 9, 2015

written by Rachel Marie Martin

For two years I hid behind the guise of words hoping that the day where I actually wrote words about dealing with anxiety would simply dissipate into the wind and just be a fading memory.

I would secretly hope that I would never have to share with you that there have been moments where tears have filled my eyes and I have worried and stood in the shower with the water falling all around and me wondering what in the world I was doing with my life? playing over and over in my head.

Until today.

Today is the day where I write about my struggles with anxiety.

I believe talking about anxiety is critical. I think the real reason lies in my first sentence. I didn’t want anyone to know. So I hid it. I was super good at hiding it – or at least I thought. But you see, talking about the fact that anxiety was something I struggled with would mean admitting that I didn’t have everything always together. And as women and mothers who really wants to sit down across the table and say something that they don’t really like to the other mom? Aren’t we at that place in life where we are supposed to have life all figured out and together?

So think of this as me sitting across from the table from you telling you that I have had my struggles. I’ve had them and they have felt like at times like they were going to beat me up. I’ve had moments of anxiety and fear and sadness. But listen, sweet friend, they didn’t win. Those struggles didn’t break me or bring me down.

They made me me.

I think sometimes it’s hard to see even that – how those things that we hide and tuck away actually in someway define who we are now. I still don’t really like talking about the fact that I had doubts about worth, but if I didn’t then I wouldn’t be able to hold the sign on my Facebook page that you see that states I am Enough. I just wouldn’t – because I never would have gotten to the place where I had the deep deep realization that being enough isn’t dependent on externals but is rather in realizing that we are enough simply because we are who we are.

And I believe that for you too. Which is why now, now I’m sharing more – being real, I guess – in the hopes that deep down one person is reading these words typed out on a Thursday night in a Starbucks in Minnesota would have a moment of hope.

So you see in the past two years I’ve also been on this quest to find that deep peace, that joy and that happiness that life seemed intent on snuffing out. Until I realized that life doesn’t have the choice to snuff out happiness – that lies within me.

And so that means telling you all that I’ve dealt with anxiety and that I am not ashamed.

Because when we live under the cloak for any circumstance – anxiety, fear, shame – then we live with a burden – a brick, a weight, a pressure on who we are that does not define in anyway who you are inside.

Shame and worry and anxiety and that feeling of not ever measuring up or feeling like one is failing can suffocate space for joy in our lives. And this is a place of freedom of seeing that all those little things that we do every day – no matter how we dismiss them or justify them or rationalize them away – those things make a difference in our worlds and the worlds of our families.

I read comment after comment about worry and fear and angst and anxiety and hoping that you are doing this parenting thing right. I know. I know because, I too, have dealt with my own set of worries that seems to be part of the motherhood journey. Listen, I want to be an awesome mom for my kids. I want more than anything for them to some day tell me thank you mom for all you did. But the truth is this – they might not ever get to that place. And it is not my responsibility to make them all of a sudden realize one day when they are adults how awesome I was or how hard I tried or how much I love them.

It’s our responsibility right now to be there for them.

And sometimes that means that you get really frustrated when milk spills onto the floor or they won’t pick out a shirt and they didn’t finish their homework again or they sass back. Sometimes it means driving in the car with tears in your eyes thinking that you’re failing at this whole motherhood thing. Sometimes it means having moments of doubt and worry.

But those aren’t the things that make you mom.

Those don’t define you just like dealing with anxiety doesn’t define me.

Those things are part of the journey. Part of our stories.

Do you know what I realized? Until I just deal with something and give myself grace to have moments where I stumble – well I cannot be free to fill that space with joy and happy.

For you see – our happiness is not ever defined by having a perfect house, perfect meals, perfect health, a perfect body, perfect children, and so on. It is not defined by another person telling you that you are awesome or any of that. It is you.

Listen.

It is you.

It is you deciding that you are absolutely worth fighting for. It is in you giving yourself grace. It is in you being proud of you – when you look in the mirror at night and not being so hard on yourself. Yes, that. We are just so unbelievably terribly hard on ourselves.

We must stop not seeing our beauty and worth and value.

So back to that anxiety thing – you might be wondering how in the world it relates to motherhood and all of this? Well, I told you that I struggled with anxiety because I realize that there is nothing in that for me to hide. I think that is a pretty normal thing for a person going through marital issues and separation and all of that to deal with. I’m not ashamed of it. In fact, I hope that me being a bit honest about that opens up some breathing space in your heart and a sigh of relief.

Why?

Because at the core we all are moving forward trying to do our best and oftentimes doing our best means stumbling, catching our breath and starting again. And sometimes, sometimes it is so much easier to brush off the dust and start again when you look across the horizon or across the table at Starbucks or read words on a computer screen where you realize that you are not alone in this journey.

I so believe in you.

Like really really believe in you.

Sometimes when I sit down to write I just get so grateful for the opportunity to write my heart and hope so deeply that it resonates with you. I hope that my being real and talking about my struggles – including that bout of anxiety – gives you hope and a bit of peace and encouragement. Not in a cliche, artificial, bubble gum way – but rather in that deep way where you stand up and look at you and you feel yourself smile.

A smile for you being you. A smile because you are awesome.

Not because I told you that.

But because you are seeing and believing it.

You are seeing you and the beauty and the life and the awesome that you bring to the world.

Because, my friend, you truly do.

~Rachel

April 9, 2015 26 comments

motherhood

enough chocolate cake anxiety

by Rachel Marie Martin January 29, 2015

written by Rachel Marie Martin

The other day for dinner we had chocolate cake.

Dinner time came and we were late and honestly, I simply didn’t feel like making something in the rush, so I told my boys to have a piece of the gluten free chocolate cake made with a mix by Bob’s Red Mill and to put some whipped cream on it and then to hurry up so we wouldn’t have to race to choir.

Chocolate cake for real, mom?

That’s what I was met with.

I wish I could tell you that I gave them the chocolate cake because I thought I was the cool and fun mom in the moment but truthfully, my mom confession is that I was simply tired, worn out, and trying to avoid that kitchen and cooking. Plus I really knew that I could not handle one more thing so I gave myself grace to offer them chocolate cake for dinner and the grace to kick out all the reasons why that was me not being a good mom.

That night after I dropped my boys off at choir I heard my phone ding again. Another message. Another thing to do. Another expectation that chances are, in that moment, I had dropped. Which brings me back to that cake, honestly. I suppose it could be a dropping of expectations of motherhood – not giving the nutritious balanced meal, not being creative, not taking the time, and on and on. But truthfully, in that moment, I did what I needed to do.

Enough.

You know, I’ve read a couple articles about how being enough is like an endorsement for a messy house or not doing more or just sitting around. Well, I’m begging to differ. Enough, to me, is truly doing your best, giving yourself grace, knowing that sometimes you’re scared by this great big world of mothering, that there are times where tears tumble, and that there are other times where you just decided that’s it – it’s chocolate cake for dinner. It’s not about deciding that it is what it is and not rising up or trying. It’s this posture of knowing that so many of us in that moment do our best and that so often we minimize and grade our enough with expectations that supermom herself couldn’t achieve.

Even with all the digital connections it can simply feel absolutely lonely. In fact, sometimes I think the digital world can add this extra layer of motherhood to-do nowness that can create the most intense filter of success that 99.9% of the time is unattainable. After all, there will always always be one more thing to do or someone who does it better or somewhere we should be going or the next newest thing for our kids or and or and you fill in the blanks.

Here’s a bit of realness.

Sometimes I deal with anxiety.

I don’t like to talk about it really, but sometimes there are some things that need to be talked about. In fact, tucked away in my Evernote is a post that I wrote almost two years ago about dealing with anxiety at times. What was crazy to me was the amount of shame that I once heaped on myself – you can’t keep it together, what is wrong with you, you’re not a good mom – about having anxiety moments. And then as the years have worn away and I’ve learned to become stronger and found freedom in articulating my heart I’ve realized that the greatest thing that hinders growth, love, and community is the need to hide and live under the facade of perfection.

Well, truth, there are some nights where I get anxious. Could I tell you why? Probably not. Oh yes, I could trace much down to social media and expectations and constantly seeing everything that I could be doing. I could tell you that it’s because there are times where I’m sitting in the car at a stop light and all of a sudden I’ll have thoughts of how in the world is this my life? that will make me wonder how in the world this was my life. Or I’ll deal with kids that don’t want to change clothes, lose homework, and don’t like dinner (other than chocolate cake). Or I’ll just be simply overwhelmed with 10,874 things to do in 24 hours and a to-do list with 1982 things on it and 2 lost pieces of homework and 74 socks to fold and what feels like 9 minutes of sleep a day and not nearly enough caffeine to sustain.

I know that you get that. After all there’s a reason my mom confession (link) post was crazy popular. Was it because I was the only one letting my kids eat fruit snacks? Or that my socks live in a mismatched sock basket of crazy? Or that we don’t always eat organic apples?

No.

I think it was popular because it was this release of all the expectations that can contribute to angst, anxiety, and that pesky feeling like we’re never doing enough.

Which again, brings me back to that chocolate cake.

In that moment.

That was absolutely enough.

It wasn’t dropping the ball or doing less or not caring about nutrition for my kids. It was being enough. Their lunches the next morning were balanced. They came home and ate an apple.

But that night at 5:10 pm they had chocolate cake for dinner.

It was food. Dinner. A meal. There are those that don’t have that – a meal – and sometimes I think we need to even see that in our framework of motherhood. We need to remember that when we look at expectations and how we should look or our house should be or all of that.

And I was absolutely okay with it.

In my life those anxiety moments creep up subtly and then all of a sudden I’m left wondering why I’m feeling so worried that I’m dropping the ball. Maybe part of motherhood is recognizing that there are these crazy things like mommy wars (watch that video) and social media expectations and a never ending to-do list but that when we say I am enough that we are allowing this bit of buffer in our lives.

I need buffer space.

You need buffer space.

You need space to learn to embrace you and love what you offer your family. Your uniqueness, your creativity, your love, your you. Sometimes it means chocolate cake for dinner or calling a friend or telling someone that you’ve dealt with anxiety and that there is no shame (and always seek out help too if you need it) or that you love that your living room is clean always or on and on and on. Because you know what? Just like some of us have messy homes and are okay with just a bit of clutter there are others of us that love love love having a clean home and don’t want to have to apologize that it’s clean or chuckle at our own idiosyncrasies. You see – the beauty of knowing that we are each enough is that the comparison angst can dissipate.

It is no longer about what you are doing versus what she is doing versus what this blogger says to do versus what this magazine says to do. It is then about simply knowing that your own motherhood journey isn’t defined by someone else’s ideal of motherhood.

I used to think motherhood was simply about raising kids. Motherhood really is about discovering self, nurturing those kids, learning to let them go, and deciding that the only grading system for motherhood isn’t based on expectations but on doing your best.

So where-ever you are today stop for a second.

One second, one moment, right now.

And breathe.

Breathe in the truth about you.

You are awesome. Wonderful. Trying.

Enough.

Tears come from my eyes whenever I do this. I think they do because I race through life without inhaling enough and seeing all the moments that matter. That is what I want you to see. For everything that causes you angst or anxiety or where you think you’ve dropped the ball I want you to instead see the wonderful that you also did.

That chocolate cake night?

The boys are still talking about it.

That was the best night ever mom.

Perspective,

Carry on brave I am enough mother.

Chocolate cake, anyone?

~Rachel

ps….if you know of anyone who has ever dealt with anxiety would you share this with them? Do you know why? I think the toughest struggle in that moment is feeling alone and honestly the more we are real and share and talk and love each other the less alone we all feel. Thank you so so much.

January 29, 2015 9 comments