Embracing the Shoulds
I think it was one of my professors in graduate school that said “stop ‘shoulding’ all over yourself.” Hearing this was revolutionary for me, because at that time I hadn’t realized how much and how often I was “shoulding” on myself. It was a lot. Like, pretty much all the time. And often when I’d tell myself I should be doing XYZ, I didn’t end up actually doing the thing I was telling myself that I should do, I just felt guilty or ashamed for not being the way that I thought I should be.