Welcome to the Black Girl Burnout podcast.

Kelly here.

And today I want to talk to you about running from yourself, the pain that comes from escapism.

One of my favorite songs is by Solange Knowles, and the song is called Cranes in the Sky. And when it came out, and I think about 2017,

it was just a hit throughout the black community and particularly amongst black women.

Because I feel like so many people resonated with the lyrics of that song.

It's a song about self-doubt and self-pity and trying to run away from the inevitable, which is yourself.

And when it came out, I listened to that song on a loop.

You could not get me to stop listening to it,

mostly because I could completely identify with the song and the lyrics

and the different feelings that Solange was giving us. And honestly, I think she's one of our

best musicians of our generation. Like she just speaks for so many. But that song in particular was

beautiful because when I think about it in the context of black women, so much of us are trying

to live our best lives, to be happy and healthy. And we do all the things

that the song mentions. We go from things that maybe are a little destructive. She starts the song,

I try to drink it away, all the way to I tried to read it away. I tried to be single.

I tried to be with someone. And ultimately, the song is about how we escape from ourselves.

We run away from a weight and a truth that always catches up to us no matter where we are. And so today I want to talk about that.

How do we avoid building cranes in the sky as the song talks about how we can run and run

and run and run and we still end up with ourselves? I want to talk about three ways for you to kind of deal with the pain of self-doubt

or deal with chronic escapism, which I think is an epidemic in our culture,

and how to stand within yourself and how to take care of yourself and face yourself

...