Summer Anxiety

Hi there!

Holly here. I wanted to reach out on the subject of anxiety. Over this summer, I have been busy. Like all of you. I have spent my summer working 3 jobs, managing at vet school, full time at a veterinary clinic, and pet sitting constantly (on top of working on making EmBark a better foundation for survivors and other things as well). In the same amount of time, I've spent a significant amount of time working on understanding self care and why it's important. My anxiety is a part of my daily life, and it's always been difficult for me. But this summer, I dedicated myself to take the time to care for myself an hour or couple of hours at a time. I wanted to share some details with this with all of you, in case some of you struggle with this self care thing the way that I do.

My anxiety attacks have worsened to be more intense and frequent in the months before/during this summer. So I have spent some time getting back to things I put on the back burner to my responsibilities and chores, just a little bit at a time. I still can't pretend I'm doing my skincare regime any favors or that I'm at my best self, but I've started going to the gym and running like I used to, I've started reading books again whenever I can, I've let myself go to bed as early as I want, even when I feel like an old lady for sleeping at 8:30pm, and many other little things that truly add up to so much.

Your self care "little things" can be totally different. It could be the exact opposite in fact. But anything you do, that you put effort into just to take care of yourself, it's worth it. And when you do, you should be so proud of yourself.

We're proud of you.

Send us what you are proud of yourself for doing in the name of taking care of yourself at hmuth@wisc.edu