I thought after 3 hard years, we had all earned at least 3 years of ease.   But, no.  The collective experience of enduring and existing in incredibly challenging times seems to have shifted from a universal experience to an individual experience. 3 years ago we were all in it together. Today, we are all enduring alone. Significant workplace challenges, supporting our struggling children, losing loved ones, many of us cascading into our own mental health and/or addiction crises, and the list goes on… There is a lot of hard sh*t happening all around me - and mostly behind closed doors. It seems almost everyone I know is suffering in some sort of monumental way - and very privately.  I’m generally a glass-half-full person. I would say I’m pretty resilient. But I do have a threshold under which I cry uncle for sure.   As I’ve hit that threshold a few times recently, I’ve tried to pay close attention to the questions I can ask myself that help me STAY. In the past I sat in hard moments and tried to push through, to move forward. But sometimes moving forward feels too hard. Too heavy of a lift. What are the questions that allow us to just STAY HERE, not necessarily the ones that force us to take on the world?   I know some women who have opted out - permanently - in recent months. The pain too great. Too overwhelming.   Sometimes, it’s ok to just STAY HERE and not necessarily need to take on the gargantuan task of actually moving forward.   In this episode, I talk you through 5 questions to ask yourself when you are in a hard moment - when you are committed to staying here but need to think through how to manage the moment.   IMPORTANT NOTE: If you are struggling to stay here, please reach out to help. Call your primary care doctor and ask for help. Call your therapist or psychiatrist if you have one. If you are in WA or OR, you can reach out to Mindful Therapy at https://www.mindfultherapygroup.com, as I recently did. I was able to get an appointment within a week. If you do not have a medical professional you can reach out to, please dial 988 and they will help you find someone. The world needs you to stay here.  Link mentioned: Suicide Hotline: Dial 988 or go to 988lifeline.org We love the sponsors that make this show possible! You can always find all the special deals and codes for all our current sponsors on our website: https://shamelessmom.com/sponsor Interested in becoming a sponsor of the Shameless Mom Academy? Email our sales team at sales@adalystmedia.com  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices